On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese Society of Phycology, the 15th symposium on phycological study was held from Nov. 15 to 18 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. About 330 algal experts and scholars from 55 institutes and universities attended this symposium. The symposium began by reviewing the historic development of Chinese Society of Phycology and recalling the predecessors in phycological study and their outstanding contributions. The symposium participants had extensive and cordial discussions on algae energy, algal resources, biochemical process in algae and molecular mechanism of algae.

40 IHB professors and students attended the symposium. IHB Prof. Lirong SONG and Prof. Renhui LI made plenary reports respectively on “Progress and prospect of the ecological studies of cyanobacterial bloom in China’s large shallow lakes” and “Taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of filamentous water bloom forming cyanobacteria”. Several IHB postgraduate and doctoral students gave oral presentations at different sessions, covering topics related to anti-freezing proteins of Chlorella, ecological mechanism of bloom-forming cyanobacteria, exploration of algae energy and resource utilization, cyanobacterial diversity.

The symposium organizing committee later gave awards to researchers who made great contribution to the development of Chinese Society of Phycology. These people included the former presidents of the Society and some older algal experts. IHB Profs. Zhengyu HU and Xiankong ZHANG were among the awardees. The winners of the excellent paper award in algal study were also announced at the symposium. IHB doctoral student Wei ZHANG (supervisor: Prof. Xudong XU) was awarded the first prize of the excellent paper award.

The 16th symposium on phycological study, organized by Chinese Society of Phycology, will be held in Shanghai in 2011.