NAMC – Newsletter of the Asian Mycological Committee

Asian Mycological Congress 2011
12th International Marine and Freshwater Mycology Symposium
7-11 August 2011
The University of Incheon Convention Centre, Incheon, Korea, was the venue for the 2011 AMC
and IMFMS meetings, an impressive new campus of the University. 269 participants attended
from 22 countries, with host country fielding the highest number (163). The AMC programme
included 72 oral presentations in 16 symposia, 263 posters and five plenary lectures by Robert
Samson (Fungi and food: Friends or enemies), Gareth Jones (Marine fungal diversity: How many
species are there?), Toru Okuda (Mycology for mycology?), Ching-Hua Su (Fluconaole induced
drastic genetic change in Candida albicans), and Hyun-Sook Lee (Mycoviruses and mushrooms
diseases and their detection systems).
The conference was opened by Prof. Tae-Soo Lee, Chair of the organizing committee who
welcomed all the participants. Besides the scientific presentation we were also treated to a
culture show and some wonderful photographs of mushrooms.
Two AMC awards were made at the meeting: Distinguished Mycologists 2011 award to
Professor Kevin Hyde, Thailand and Young Mycologists award to Dr Lei Cai. There were a
number of distinguished nominations considered by the search committee and set a very high
standard for these new awards by AMC.
IMFMS 12 attracted fewer participants than the very successful meeting in Taiwan in 2009. The
programme was reduced to four sessions with 19 oral presentations and 20 posters. This
prompted Gareth at the closing session to query whether the meeting had outlived its
usefulness with the declining numbers of mycologists working on aquatic fungi. However many
disagreed with this and the meeting in China will decide the future of the IMFMS. Prof. Yang
Soo Lee (Korea) offered to set up a website to promote IMFMS in the hope of attracting a wider
audience for future meetings. We wish this venture every success.