EUROPEAN MYCOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Welcome

This web page provides news of current and future activities of the EMA and related topics. The navigation panel on the right gives access to the site contents.

new The XIX Congress of European Mycologists is due to take place in Perugia, Italy, on September 4^th to 8^th, 2023, jointly organized by the EMA, the Italian Botanical Society and the University of Perugia. A fascinating programme is being devised, featuring areas such as ♲fungi in changing ecosystems, ♲fungal diversity and conservation, ♲fungal omics, ♲medicinal fungi, ♲cultivation of fungi, ♲mycosylviculture, ♲fungi in the bioeconomy and the circular economy, ♲emerging pathogenic fungi, and ♲a special session by young scientists. The congress will also set the stage for workshop on data management, and is bracketed by two meetings, one on September 3^rd on Redlisting of Mediterranean fungal species, and the other on the 9^th on cooperation with mycological groups and societies. The congress website is developing rapidly and flashes an amazing display of fungal beauty in their natural settings. Stay watchful of the news on this exciting venture!

new Notice of the meeting of the General Assembly of the European Mycological Association The General Assembly of the European Mycological Association will take place during its XIX Congress of European Mycologists. Time. Thursday September 7^th, starting at 5pm. Location. The Congress Hall of the Hotel Giò, Perugia. Powers. The General Assembly has the right to elect EMA Governing Committee Officers, Council Delegates and Honorary Members, to approve other new Members and Associates, advise the Council regarding rules, policy and developmental strategies, make and change Rules, ratify changes of Rules made by Council, and amend the Constitution. Composition. The General Assembly of the EMA consists of all its Members. Only EMA Members will be eligible to vote at this meeting. Members are reminded that Membership automatically ceases after two years of non-payment of subscriptions. Agenda. We invite EMA Members to contact the Secretary if they have any matter they wish to raise. The agenda will then be circulated to Members. Please refer to the Constitution for full details.

new Call for EMA Awards nominations At the Congresses of European Mycologists, EMA grants its honours and awards: Honorary Membership The highest honour in recognition of lifetime contributions to mycology, the community of mycologists, and the European Mycological Association; Congress Medal In recognition of lifetime contributions to mycology and its development in the country of the current Congress; Founders' Award A special award granted for outstanding contributions to mycology and implementation of the goals consistent with the objectives of the EMA expressed in its Constitution; Certificates of Excellence In recognition of outstanding work in any field of mycology, e.g., Fungal Ecology, Fungal Conservation, Field Mycology, Fungal Diversity, Fungal Taxonomy, Applied Mycology, Mycological Innovation, etc.
Procedure: members should send nominations for the EMA Awards before the end of June 2023 to the Secretary. Persons nominated do not need to be EMA Members. Each nomination should be made by two people (a proposer and a seconder), who must both be EMA Members. Each nomination should indicate the name of the nominee, the reasoning for nomination, and the names and addresses of the proposer and seconder.
Nominations of the Honorary Members will be presented to the General Assembly of the EMA at the XIX CEM, and voted on. Nominations for the other Awards will be proceeded by the EMA Award Committee and presented to the General Assembly for acceptance.

new Call for EMA Officers nominations. The Governing Committee Officers are elected by the General Assembly at Congresses of European Mycologists. Nominations are sought for the following posts: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Meetings Secretary, Publicity & Social Media Officer, Executive Editor/Webmaster, and Conservation Officer.
Procedure. Persons nominated must be EMA Members and willing to stand for office. Each nomination should be made by two people (a proposer and a seconder), who must both be EMA Members. Indicate the name and address of the person nominated, the proposed function, and the names and addresses of the proposer and seconder. Please, send nominations to the Secretary. The Secretary will then contact each nominee to verify that they are willing to stand for election. The list of current EMA Officers is available in the Contact page of this website.

new Call for invitations to host the XX Congress of European Mycologists According to the Constitution, invitations to host the XX CEM must be submitted to the Secretary June 6^th 2023 (i.e., 90 days before the start of the XIX CEM). Each Congress must be in a country different from the preceding Congress. With two exceptions (Italy and Poland), every Congress has been in a country which has never previously hosted a Congress. Also, there is a tradition that the locations of successive Congresses alternate between eastern and western, southern and northern Europe. We invite Members to consider hosting the XX CEM, which will take place in 2027. Invitations from Members in countries which have not previously hosted a Congress will be particularly welcome (this page has full list of previous congresses). Please, submit invitations in the form of a letter (or e-mail) to the Secretary.
The invitation should contain the following information:

• name of the country
• name(s) and address(es) of person(s) making the invitation
• provisional proposed location of Congress within the country
• provisional proposed month of Congress
• brief description of actual and potential resources available for organizing the Congress
• brief description of possible plans for accommodation for the Congress
• other relevant factors

Out now, Vincent Zonca's Lichens — Toward a Minimal Resistance, marked by its originality in «blending cultures and disciplines, drawing on biology, ecology, philosophy, literature, poetry, even graphic art». Prefaced by Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia (EHESS, Paris). A 20% discount on the paperback price is available to EMA members until March 31, 2023, please contact the Secretary for details.

The XX International Botanical Congress is accepting Symposium proposals until December 30, 2022. This congress has been transferred and postponed to July 2024 in Madrid, Spain, features 31 topics including Mycology and Lichenology, Ecophysiology, Conservation Biology, Ecology and Communities, Restoration Ecology, Global Change Ecology, Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics, and Comparative Genomics/Transcriptomics. Also of note is the Nomenclature Section preceding the congress, that will work on the revision of the Nomenclature Code (currently the Shenzhen Code, 2018) based on proposals that appear in Taxon until March 31, 2023.

Recently departed
– Francesco Bellù, Italian taxonomist and educator, July 26^th 2022. – Alexander Kovalenko, Russian mycologist and leading figure, December 10^th 2021.

The EMA supports FaunaFloraFunga. It is a proposal to perceive fungi, animals and plants with equal status in legal frameworks for agriculture and conservation. The FFF website has the full statement and a form to sign up in support.

We are unthinkable without fungi, yet seldom do we think about them. It is an ignorance we can't afford to sustain.

XVIII Congress of European Mycologists in Poland, what an event! The XVIII Congress of European Mycologists was held in Warsaw and Białowieża from 16-21 September 2019. This was the first time this Congress returned to a country which had already hosted an earlier Congress in the series, this second visit to Poland being 53 years after the first. In 1966, the Congress was held entirely in Warsaw. This time, there was an additional location giving participants a wonderful opportunity to visit and reflect on the unique Białowieża National Park.

How it looked like

This eighteenth Congress may well have been the largest in the series to date, with almost 300 participants and accompanying persons, with 273 actually presenting their work. Participants came from 52 countries (Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Macedonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, United States), easily exceeding the XV St Petersburg Congress’ previous high of 40. Prof. Magdalena Frąc, President of the Polish Mycological Society, welcomed the congress participants. Dr Marta Wrzosek was Chair of the Organizing Committee, and the Congress was presided over by EMA President Dr David Minter.
Participants started to register at the Warsaw venue on Sunday the 15th, and on the 16th the proceedings started with an opening ceremony where the Congress was formally dedicated to the memory of Prof. Alina Skirgiełło, the great Polish mycologist and first Honorary Member of the EMA . After that, the main programme started, comprising invited keynote lectures and two and a half days of lectures and presentations in a mixture of plenary and parallel sessions, and poster sessions.
On the Monday evening, there was a Congress welcoming reception at Warsaw’s Botanic Garden, where a garden bench bearing a commemorative inscription honouring Prof. Skirgiełło was unveiled. The General Assembly of the EMA was convened on the Tuesday afternoon, and this was followed in the evening by a highlight of the Congress: the public lecture on forensic mycology given by Dr Patricia E.J. Wiltshire in Warsaw’s superbly modern Copernicus Science Centre. On Wednesday afternoon, participants were transported by coaches to Białowieża National Park, on the border with Belarus, where the scientific programme resumed for another two and half days.
In Białowieża, in parallel with the plenary sessions and two workshops, there was a programme of visits to the National Park, including the chance to take part in guided tours to the Strict Reserve part of the Park. This is an amazing area of primaeval old-growth natural mixed lowland forest which has remained almost entirely undisturbed by human activities since the last glaciation melt, even surviving the huge threats of the 20th century’s two world wars. Friday morning was dedicated to forays in different parts of the surrounding Białowieża forest, with the choice for participants to be in specialist tours (parasitic micromycetes, polypores, macromycetes) or on a 'miscellaneous' tour. Online sharing of photographic field observations was enabled by an iNaturalist project named XVIIICEM.
The congress dinner took place on Thursday in a spacious restaurant in Białowieża village, and the social programme included a final campfire gathering in nearby Topiło on the Friday evening. These occasions were infused with a delicious atmosphere that illustrated the sense of a family gathering in these congresses, so aptly pointed out by one of the participants in the General Assembly. A full report of the event is in preparation and will appear in the Association's next Newsletter.
Visitors in this website can access the XVIII Congress of European Mycologists Book of Abstracts.