Future ISTA Meetings
ISTA-11
ISTA 11 will take place in Niagara Falls, Canada in 2025. Stay tuned!
Past Meetings
ISTA-10
ISTA 10 took place at the Real Jardín Botánico, in Madrid, Spain 2-6.10.2023. Organizer: Enrique Lara, Carmen Soler, Nura El Khouri, Rubén González Miguéns, Fernando Useros, Ángel García & Carlos de Mier, Real Jardín Botánico (RJB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain. More info on X (twitter)
ISTA-9 3/4
ISTA 9 3/4 took place online Oct 18-20 2021. Organizer: Edward Mitchell & team from the Soil Biodiversity Lab at the University of Neuchâtel. We thank ISOP for supporting the meeting with the Zoom license! As an extra twist (and considering that virtual meetings are something of a magical feat) it was noticed that the previous meeting was ISTA 9 and the next planned was ISTA 10. ISTA 10 was initially planned for 2020, in line with our habit of holding these meetings every 2 years and alternating between Europe and the rest of the world. Due to the COVID pandemic, ISTA 10 had to be postponed first to 2021 and then to 2022. Thus instead of having to wait 2 year between ISTA 9 and 10 it seemed that we would have a 4 year gap. Hence if we decided keep the name ISTA10 for the one originally planned in Niagara in 2022, it logically followed that this 2021 online meeting would have to be ISTA 9 ¾! For sure this was a magical meeting! Book of abstracts
ISTA-9
ISTA 9 took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 10-14 September 2018. Many thanks to Helen Roe & team for organising such a nice meeting. More info here.
ISTA-8
ISTA8 was held in Ilhabela, São Paulo, Brazil. It was organized by Dan Lahr and members of his lab aided by Enrique Lara. The meeting took place September 12-14, with 37 participants and for the first time implementing the ISOP funded Young Testate Amoebae Researcher Award. The meeting program can be downloaded here.
ISTA-7
ISTA7 was held in Poznan, Poland and was organised by Mariusz Lamentowicz and members of his lab. The meeting took September 8-12 2014, and was a resounding success, with the largest amoount of participants so far, including amateur microscopists. Website. A meeting abstract was published in the journal Protist.
Planocarina carinata - photomicrograph Ferry Siemensma
Two day protistology meeting in Neuchâtel
Fundamental and applied protistology - April 15-16 2014. This meeting was organised as part of the doctoral program but was open to anyone interested. The meeting included keynote presentations (by Frederick W. Speigel, University of Arkansas, USA, Daniel Lahr, University of São Paulo, Brazil, Jan Pawlowski, University of Geneva, Thomas Posch, University of Zurich, Florian Altermatt, EAWAG & Enrique Lara, University of Neuchâtel), contributed talks and posters and a practical session devoted to observation and identification of free-living protists.
The 33rd meeting of the German Society of Protistology
This meeting was held in Essen, Germany from February 12-15, 2014. As in 2013 all talks were in English and this will continue from now on. There were quite a number of contributions on testate amoebae covering a broad range of topics including ecology, taxonomy, biogeography. About 100 people attended the meeting.
The 32nd meeting of the German Society of Protistology
This meeting was held in Switzerland from February 27th to March 2nd, 2013. All talks were in English. The meeting ended with a much-appreciated fondue party to which all participants survived (but some better than others - no names will be given!).
ISTA-6
The 6th International Symposium on Testate Amoeba took place in October 15-18th, 2012 in Xiamen, China. It was jointly organised by Jun Yang and Satoshi Shimano. The meeting was attended by ca. 40 people and was a great success with high quality presentation and highly stimulating discussions. More info here
ISTA-5
The meeting was held 14-17 September in Montbéliard, France. It was organized and hosted by Daniel Gilbert and Edward Mitchell. The meeting was a success with over 60 researchers from all over the world attending. Several decisions were made, including the foundation of the International Society of Testate Amoeba Researcher.
Conference summary: Research on testate amoebae has been increasing exponentially in recent years. This is due largely to the fact that the analysis of testate amoebae is now a common tool in palaeoecological studies where they provide information on past changes in hydrology and other environmental conditions.Recent research has also shown that testate amoebae also play a very important role in the cycling of elements in terrestrial ecosystems and potentially interact closely with vascular plants in the rhizophere. Molecular methods are finally becoming available to study the phylogeny and taxonomy of testate amoebae, and help resolve long-standing debates on their diversity and biogeography.
Mitchell EAD, Gilbert D. 2010. Meeting Report: 5th International Symposium on Testate Amoebae (ISTA-5), Montbéliard, France 14-17 September 2009 - Present status of testate amoeba research, knowledge gaps and research priorities. Protist 161: 337–341. doi: 10.1016/j.protis.2010.03.002
ISTA 5 Meeting Report
ISTA 5 Abstracts
ISTA-4
The meeting was held 12 - 14 September in Antwerpen, Belgium. It was organised and hosted by Louis Beyens, with the collaboration of Pieter Ledeganck and Sofie Vincke. No less than 44 scientists from 16 countries attended the conference. It had been 23 years since the last testate amoebae workshop occurred in Aachen, Germany and 30 years since the first testate amoebae workshop before it was organized in 1976 in Sofia, Bulgaria. More than 50 oral and poster presentations were given during the 3-day meeting. Topics included morphology, taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, ecology and paleoecology of testate amoebae. Further info
Warner, Barry and Beyens, Louis. 2007. Progress and Prioritizing Needs for Future Research on Testate Amoebae: A meeting report on the International Symposium on Testate Amoebae, Antwerp, Belgium, September 12 – 14, 2006. Protist 158(3): 255 – 257.