The 6th International Tunicate Meeting was held July 3-7 2011 at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The International Tunicate Meeting (ITM) is the major scientific gathering of tunicate researchers, and is an organic outgrowth of this wide-spread and diverse, but very collegial, scientific community. It is a regular biennial meeting of ~150-200 researchers from around the world, organized as a scientific conference with research presentations given in plenary sessions and poster sessions. Previous meetings were in Okinawa, Japan (2009), Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, (2007) Santa Barbara, California (2005), Marseille, France, (2003) and, in 2000, the inaugural ITM was held in Sapporo Japan.

The ITMs cover all aspects of tunicate research including, but not limited to, (alphabetically listed) developmental biology (including embryogenesis, metamorphosis, and regeneration), ecology and population diversity, evolution (tunicates/chordates/deuterostomes), genomics/proteomics, immunity and allo-recognition, invasive species, and neurobiology and physiology. These will all be featured in the 6th ITM in Montreal, including invasive species biology, reflecting the importance of tunicates as problematic invasive species in Canada and elsewhere.

This 5-day meeting will include 4 days of morning and afternoon scientific plenary sessions, and an Excursion Day in the middle (July 5) to rest and to visit the city. Several organized excursion events will be available (click here for more information).

Speakers at the plenary sessions will be selected by the Program Committee from among submitted Abstracts (click here for the Call for Abstracts and submission information).

Click here to see the preliminary program outline.

Participants will make their own travel arrangements. Lodging is available at the conference centre (and also at McGill student dormitories) and can be arranged and paid during on-line registration for the meeting (registration available mid April 2011). Click here for more information about lodging options.

In addition to its recreational aspect, the Excursion Day also provides an opportunity to schedule smaller-group meetings on specialized topics. If you would like to arrange such a meeting, please contact Ken Hastings (ken.hastings@mcgill.ca).

The 6th ITM dates overlap with the Montreal International Jazz Festival, one of the city’s major summer events. Click here for more information about the Jazz Festival and Montreal.