ISME Australia 2008

International Society for Microbial Ecology
http://www.kenes.com/isme12/
This year, the meeting will take place in Cairns, which is located in the northern part of australia. I am getting to go, and I just can't wait. Australia..

Besides the amazing location, those ISME meetings are so far my favorites. This is right the field I love, microbial ecology, and I get to hear exciting talks about marine biology, soil ecology, goemicrobiology, Archaea, extreme ecosystems, gene exchanges between organisms and biomes, new molecular technics and conepts. Of course, this will be interesting too to hear about human gastro intestinal tract, but I go there somehow to get a broader picture. These meetings are scheduled every couple of years, the previous one was in Vienna Austria and four years ago, my first one, had taken place in Mexico (Cancun).

Each time I go to ISME, it somehow gives me a crystal ball, or some kind of directions on my future research; Some of those ecosystems are intensively studied by the best labs, and I get the feeling that listening to the talks there, and interacting with reasearchers from all over the world gives me some ideas on what I will be doing, or trying to do in the next 2 to 5 years. Of course some of the methods can not be directly applied to human gut ecosystem, for some obvious ethical and techical issues, and some other ones linked to the difference between microbial ecologists and MD or medical microbiologists, but it ives some roadmaps.

Plus, plus, plus, I get to meet a lot of colleagues and friends, I miss them in terms of both friendship and fascinating science discussions, and going to Isme is a great way to keep in touch....