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Society History

Parasitic plants have been a source of scientific interest for many years and the subject of international conferences since 1973. That was the year of the first International Symposium on Parasitic Weeds that brought together a group of researchers who were (and still are) passionate about parasitic plants. The loosely organized group held major symposia for nearly 3 decades (See under Meetings), often interspersed with specialized workshops on Striga, Orobanche, or non-weedy hemiparasites.
In 2000, a number of these researchers met in Nantes, France to work out details of a society structure and write a constitution. This was presented to the parasitic plant research community the following year and the first General Assembly of the International Parasitic Plant Society (IPPS) was held in Nantes (France) during the International Parasitic Weed Symposium on June 4, 2001. In this meeting the General assembly elected the IPPS board – consisting of André Fer, president; Patrick Thalouarn, vice president; Daniel Joel, secretary; Jos Verkleij, treasurer; James Westwood, editor – and approved the Constitution. The society was officially registered in The Netherlands in 2001. The society continued to promote the ideals of the founders in 1973, and now organizes biennial conferences dealing with all parasitic plants to keep up with the accelerating pace of discovery.

IPPS Objectives

  • Promote the study and understanding of parasitic plants.
  • Promote the exchange of information and transfer of technologies concerning parasitic plants and their control.
  • Promote the exchange of biological materials relevant to parasitic plant research.
  • Form and maintain an international network for the advancement of parasitic plant research and control.
  • Convene international meetings on parasitic plants and their control, the World Congress on Parasitic Plants (WCPP)
  • Publish information of interest to persons working with parasitic plants.
  • Distribute scientific and technical publications related to parasitic plants.

Current Officers

President : Harro Bouwmeester, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vice President: Jonne Rodenburg, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
Secretary: Ai-Rong Li, Kunming Institute of Botany, China
Treasurer: Renate Wesselingh UCLouvain, Belgium
Editor: Susann Wicke, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany
Members at Large: Luiza Teixeira-Costa, Harvard University Herbaria, USA and Pradeepa Bandaranayake, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Membership info

Membership of the IPPS is open to individuals and organizations of all nations that are interested in the objectives of the Society. IPPS membership brings exclusive advantages:

  • A discount on the registration fee of the biennial IPPS meeting, the World Congress on Parasitic Plants (WCCP)
  • Access to the IPPS Online Seminar Series
  • Entry in and access to the member directory; edit your member profile for broad and public visibility
  • Access to the Members Only area of the IPPS website, where you can:
    • make non-commercial use of the photo gallery containing over 150 high-resolution pictures of parasitic plants
    • post international vacancies for jobs in parasitic plant research (posted on the public part of the site)
    • post news relating to parasitic plants (posted on the public part of the site)
  • Receive the tri-annual IPPS newsletter Haustorium

A membership year runs from 1 June until 31 May the next year. The full membership fee is € 35 per year or € 60 for two years for regular members and € 25 per year or € 40 for two years for students. Because the WCCP was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board decided to install a reduced fee of € 20 for a one-year membership until 31 May 2022 for regular members, and free student membership until 31 May 2022. All revenues will go towards funding WCCP attendance for students from developing countries (IPPS fellowships, see above).

If you want to become a member of the Society or renew your membership for the coming years, use the buttons below, your membership will be valid as soon as you have paid. A two-year membership for 2022–2024 entitles you to a reduced registration fee for the conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2022. All payments are to be made through the membership fee payment plugin. Should you encounter problems, payments can also be settled as a regular bank transfer to the IPPS bank account. All transfer costs are to be paid by the sender, not the recipient.

The Society’s banking information is:

Name of account holder Int Parasitaire Planten Ver
Name of bank ING Bank N.V.
Address of bank PO Box 1800, 1000 BV Amsterdam
Account number (IBAN) NL75 INGB 0007908341
Bank Swift code INGB NL 2A

Meetings

Upcoming meetings

To encourage a broad international participation, IPPS aims to rotate its meetings geographically (2015 China, 2017 North America, 2019 Europe). In 2022, the meeting will be held in Kenya. The local organizing committee will plan the scientific programme together with the IPPS Executive Committee.

Previous meetings

All previous meetings »

IPPS Awards

Honorary Fellows of the Society

Honorary Fellowship may be awarded to an individual for outstanding contribution to the field of parasitic plant research. The Fellowships will be awarded at the occasion of the General Assembly meeting. The recipients need not necessarily be members of the IPPS. No more than two such awards may be presented at any one Assembly. The honorary Fellows should be selected and approved by the Executive Committee well in advance of the meeting so that they can participate in the annual meeting. The President will notify the Honorary Fellows immediately after approval by the Executive Committee. After retirement, Honorary Fellows are entitled to lifelong free membership.

Honored at the 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2019, Amsterdam

Koichi Yoneyama
John Yoder

Honored at the 13th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2015, Kunming, China

Diego Rubiales

Honored at the 12th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2013, Sheffield, UK

Jim Westwood

Honored at the 11th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2011, Martina Franca, Italy

Malcolm Press
Gebisa Ejeta

Honored at the 10th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2009, Kusadasi, Turkey

Danny Joel
André Fer

Honored at the 9th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2007, Charlottesville, USA

Yasutomo Takeuchi
Binne Zwanenburg
Jose Ignacio Cubero
Klaus Wegmann
Patrick Thalouarn

Honored for significant contributions to parasitic plant science at the 7th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 2001, Nantes, France

Chris Parker
Lytton J. Musselman
Siny ter Borg

Recognition and Presentation prizes for Early Career Scientists

For every WCPP the IPPS provides fellowships for young participants from developing countries consisting of free registration for the WCPP plus €500 contribution to other (travel) costs. In addition, a number of poster prices are provided for the best PhD and postdoc posters. Together with the WCPP organisers, we strive to provide additional PhD fellowships depending on the success to obtain sponsoring from other organisations. At the last WCPP in Amsterdam the following fellowships and poster prices were provided:

  • An IPPS fellowship (free registration plus €500 contribution to other costs; for young participants from developing countries): Pradeepa Chandani, Willy Kiprotich Kibet, Imarhiagbe Odoligie, Jhonny Rabefiraisana and Samuel Adewale
  • A European Weed Research Society (EWRS) fellowship of €500 to Ivana Imerovski, Amir Arellano Saab, Nicholas Flanders, Estelle Billard, Sabine Tourneur
  • Poster prices to Changsheng Li (best PhD poster; €500), Nathan Johnson (second best PhD poster; €300) and Muhammad Jamil (best postdoc poster; €500);

Contact

Professor Airong Li
Professor of Conservation Biology
132 Lanhei Road
Kunming
Yunnan Province
China 650201

E-mail: secretary@parasiticplants.org

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