The 58th Winter Meeting of the British Phycological Society was hosted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).The meeting started with an informal reception on the evening of the 6th in Oban. The formal sessions of the meeting were held at SAMS (Dunbeg) on the 7th & 8th. The meeting ended with the conference dinner and ceilidh on the evening of Fri 8th Jan. Most delegates travelled home on the 9th.

There were two special sessions during the meeting: “Productivity and photophysiology” organised by Dr Rupert Perkins (Cardiff). Speakers included: Prof John Raven (Dundee), Prof Dieter Hanelt (Hamburg), Prof Johann Lavaud (Konstanz), Prof Graham Underwood (Essex) and Jacco Kromkamp NIOO, (Yerseke). The second special session: “Host pathogen interactions” organised by Dr Claire Gachon (SAMS). Speakers included: Prof Gwang Hoon Kim (Chungnam, Korea), Dr William Wilson (Bigelow), Dr Aurelie Chambouvet (Marseille) and Prof Telesphore Sime-Ngando (Clermont Ferrand).

The Overseas Vice President, Prof Patrizia Albertano (Rome) gave the vice-presidential address.

The final programme is available to download here.

In addition, there was the usual Manton prize presentations and a student workshop “How to get a job in Phycology?”. The planned special student lecture on multivariate statistics by Dr Tom Wilding (SAMS), was cancelled due to illness.

Travel update: 14 January 2010

The West of Scotland was subject to an unusually prolonged period of constant sub-zero temperatures, however, all the main roads were clear and well-gritted,  and trains and buses were running to schedule. Despite the adverse weather only 8 delegates were prevented from attending due to the weather.