Conference Announcement

Dear Colleagues, The 25th IWGO Conference will take place in:

Chicago, USA

April 2014

 

I am delighted to inform you that Tom Sappington, Wang Zhengying and I are making good progress in preparing the next 25th IWGO Conference, which will be held in Chicago, U.S.A., in the beginning of April 2014. Exact dates need to be confirmed but please reserve the following dates in your agenda for 2014: Sunday 6 to Wednesday 9 April plus Thursday 10 April 2014 or Sunday 13 April to Wednesday 16 April plus Thursday 17 April. Time period will be chosen according to hotel costs depending on dates.

The suggested schedule: Sunday evening through late Wednesday afternoon will be the IWGO Conference, with the usual reception on Sunday evening, and scientific programme Monday through Wednesday. We presume it could be the usual 12 sessions (with 2 or 3 sessions for the 4th International Conference on Diabrotica Genetics), and posters. Thursday would be a joint meeting of the North Central Corn Entomologist Technical Committees (NCCC46 and NC205) and the IWGO Conference, which anyone attending IWGO would be welcome to attend. The topics for discussion or presentation on Thursday may be more fluid, with decisions made at the committee meetings in late January 2014.This is an unique opportunity as it will combine for the first time into a single conference, U.S. corn expert entomologists with international scientists working on insect pests of maize of reciprocal concern to U.S. and Europe and potentially Asia. No doubt that the joint meeting facilitates opportunities fostering of new collaborative projects between scientists who have sometimes used different approaches to tackle similar problems.

If there is interest, we could arrange for tours of delegates before or after the IWGO meeting to visit laboratories of American colleagues within driving distance of Chicago, which probably could include visits to industry facilities as well (e.g. Pioneer in Iowa, Dow in Indianapolis, Monsanto in St. Louis; or outlying research stations like Syngenta in Iowa). These would involve driving, probably in one or two vans, and probably 2-4 overnight stays because of the distances involved, and depending on the itinerary. Wade French at Brookings, South Dakota, has indicated he would welcome visitors to the large rootworm rearing facility he manages there. However, please note that there are extra costs involved and that these activities are only associated to the IWGO Conference.

In addition we can report that Tom Sappington has submitted a Conference Grant proposal for submission to the USDA-AFRI (Agriculture and Food Research Initiative), Foundational Program to try and obtain funding to help underfunded colleagues with their travel to attend the IWGO meeting in Chicago. A travel grant will be also requested from IOBC-Global, however the grant is restricted to underfunded younger scientists (< 35 years old) holding an IOBC membership.

We will keep you updated on the process determining the date of the 25th IWGO Conference!

With kind regards,

Ulli Kuhlmann Convenor IWGO CABI Delémont, Switzerland u.kuhlmann@cabi.org

Tom Sappington Co-Convenor IWGO USDA-ARS, CICGRU and Iowa State University Ames, IA 50014; Iowa tom.sappington@ars.usda.gov

Prof. Wang Zhenying Co-Convenor IWGO Institute of Plant Protection Beijing, China zywang@ippcaas.cn