Seville, 9/1/2012. Dr. Aurelio Serrano, Research Scientist at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF), belonging to the Centro de Investigaciones Científicas Isla de la Cartuja (cicCartuja), has recently been appointed Secretary General of the European Federation of Protistology Societies (FEPS) for the period 2011-2015, following a meeting organized by the committee of this institution at the Free University of Berlin, on the occasion of the VI European Congress of Protistology (ECOP 2011). Dr. Serrano will succeed Dr. Klaus Hausmann of the University of Berlin, and will also be president of the organizing committee of the next ECOP congress, which will take place in Seville in 2015, having already received the support of the Specialized Group of Protistology (GEP) and the Spanish Society of Microbiology of which the GEP is a member.
What is FEPS?
FEPS is a transnational non-profit institution formed by twelve national and international societies and other European Protistology scientific groups. FEPS was founded in 2006 to promote and foster research and higher education in Protistology, a branch of Microbiology that studies eukaryotic unicellular and multicellular organisms without tissue organization, such as thallophytic algae. It also aims to stimulate and expand collaborations between research groups from different European nations and to help young protistologists. A fundamental objective of FEPS is the regular organization of the European Congresses of Protistology (ECOP) held every four years, while promoting and supporting meetings and conferences at the European level on specific topics related to Protistology.
FEPS is governed by a committee made up of delegates from member societies, who may be their national presidents or designated representatives. The FEPS committee meets on the occasion of the ECOP congresses, and elects a Secretary General who is in charge of the administrative and coordination work of the federation for a period of four years.
Who are the members of FEPS?
The following institutions are members of FEPS: Belgian Society of Protozoology (Belgium), Czech Section of Protozoology (Czech Republic); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Protozoologie (Germany), British Section of the Society of Protozoologists (Great Britain and Canada), Groupement des Protistologues de Langue Française (France), The Israel Society for Parasitology, Protozoology and Tropical Diseases (Israel), Società Italiana di Protozoologia (Italy), Polish Protistologial Group (non-formal) (Poland), Society of Protozoology (; ) (Russia), Scandinavian Section of the Society of Protozoologists (Scandinavian countries), Grupo Especializado de Protistología (GEP) de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología (Spain), Ukrainian Scientific Society of Parasitologists (Ukraine). In addition, FEPS maintains a special relationship of collaboration and coordination with the International Society of Protistologists, with special emphasis on the organization of joint congresses and scientific meetings.
The FEPS web page will be hosted for the next four years in the facilities of the Information Technology Service of cicCartuja, thus contributing to increase the visibility of the Center at international level.