The 19th European Congress of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), with several sessions on medical mycology, will be organized in Helsinki, Finland, 16-19 May, 2009. The first announcement of this very large meeting can be found on http://www.akm.ch/eccmid2009/ .

The ISHAM congress in Tokyo, Japan, May 25-29, 2009 (http://www.congre.co.jp/isham2009/  ) will provide extra opportunities to present your work for an audience of colleagues from around the world. A new Poster Presentation Forum will be launched, in addition to the regular poster exhibitions. Poster presenters in the PPF will have 5 minutes of oral presentation may show 5 slides, and receive 1 question. Case reports are particularly welcome. We look forward with enthusiasm to see many young researchers and clinicians in these sessions.

An ESCMID postgraduate education course on invasive fungal infections will be given 5-7 November, 2008, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Target audience are medical doctors, scientists or clinical microbiologists and pharmacists. Click here for further information.

The American Academy of Microbiology has released its newest colloquium report, “The Fungal Kingdom: Diverse and Essential Roles in Earth’s Ecosystem.” It includes sections on the significance of human pathogenic fungi. It can be found on the ISHAM website at News and Reports

The next Infocus meeting, on infectious fungi and clinical practice will take place in Campinas, Brazil, 25-27 September, 2008. Click here for further information.