Good afternoon!
As President and a member of the Organizing Committee, I am pleased to welcome you to the 9th Conference of the Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology, co-hosted this year by the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Please, let me especially welcome our Distinguished Guests: Professor Werner Ulrich, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, the host of our Conference and our Honorary Guests and Plenary Speakers, first and foremost, Professor George Coupland, who kindly agreed to deliver the opening inaugural address. Thank you very much all for coming.
This event is the culmination of an enormous collective effort which began in 2015, when our University was selected as the venue of this ninth congress. From that moment, many institutions and individuals contributed in one form or another towards the organization of the meeting. Please, allow me now to thank them all for their massive work, especially in recent time. I should take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Professor Andrzej Tretyn Rector Magnificus of Nicolaus Copernicus University for the support and assistance he gave to the original initiative; to Mr. Michał Zaleski President of Toruń and Mr. Piotr Całbecki Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship for assuming an honorary patronage over the Conference; to the Minister of Science and Higher Education for his significant financial support. And many thanks to all the event’s sponsors.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Piotr Otręba, our computer programmer. Due to his involvement, we have successfully implemented a comprehensive on-line process for Conference registration, abstract submission, financial settlements, and many other services. Thanks to Piotr, all the participants were able to get acquainted with the abstracts of the presenters long before they were printed out.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We have divided our Conference proceedings into seven theme sessions. Next to the traditionally appearing topics, such as, for instance, plants’ responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, we have proposed, probably for the first time at our Conferences, sexual plant reproduction as the session topic, also referred to in the keynote lecture.
We hope that you will find the meeting to be a dynamic and productive event.
And, please, do not forget to visit the corners of our beautiful old city.
Our Organizing Committee members are committed to provide maximum hospitality, support, and advice. Please feel free to ask questions to Committee members. We are here to serve you.
Once again thank you for your participation.
Have a wonderful day.
Jacek Kęsy – President of PSEPB
See also: Opening speech of the Rector of the Nicolaus Copernicus University