During June 25-30 of 2016, the 12th International Barley Genetics Symposium (IBGS) was held at the University of Minnesota, USA. More than 300 barley researchers and scholars from 31 countries and regions gathered to share the recent progress of barley studies, and also visiting barley breeding fields at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Zhang Guoping, as the president of 12th IBGS, leaded a team of six members including young teachers and post doctors to attend this symposium. The opening ceremony of the 12th IBGS was organized by the secretary-general, Prof. Kevin Smith from the University of Minnesota.
The 12th IBGS includes 39 reports and 230 poster presentations, dividing into 11 topics such as barley genetic breeding, morphology and development, barley genome, barley germplasm and populations, barley biotic and abiotic stress, new breeding methodologies and improvement, breeding success stories, barley end uses, plant breeding and genetics education and so on. Prof. Robbie Waugh from UK, Prof. Nils Stein from Germany, Prof. Mark Tester from Australia and other 11 well-known scientists gave keynote speeches. Dr. Ye Lingzhen from the Institute of Crop Science of Zhejiang University, as the only one person from the mainland of China was invited to report her research titled "Identification of Two Key Genes Controlling chill haze stability of beer in barley", which caused widespread concern in the international counterparts; Moreover, Prof. Dai Fei, Dr. Wu Dezhi and Dr. Zeng Jianbin reported on barley low temperature response, cadmium uptake and low potassium response by poster presentation.
At the closing ceremony, Prof. Zhang Guoping announced that the next congress will be held at the University of Latvia in 2020. According to the bylaws, Prof. Kevin Smith will take over as president of the 13th IBGS. IBGS is the highest level of scientific conference of barley, which was held every four years. Until now, it was held 11 times at different countries, including Netherlands, USA, Germany, Britain, Japan, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, Egypt and China. The 11th IBGS sponsored by ZJU was successfully held in Hangzhou in 2012.
Prof. Guoping Zhang at the symposium
Dr. Lingzhen Ye is doing report
Visiting barley breeding fields at the University of Minnesota