International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG 2015)

Posted on Jan 3, 2016

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The 27th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG 2015) was held in Prague from September 13th – 18th, and brought together over 500 of the world’s leading researchers and graduate students in organic geochemistry. Topics and themes included petroleum systems, paleoclimate, soil biogeochemistry, biodegradation, archaeology, analytical methods and evolution of complex life.

St. Anna and the St. Vitus Cathedral — at Charles Bridge. (Image credit: Ross Williams)

St. Anna and the St. Vitus Cathedral — at Charles Bridge. (Image credit: Ross Williams)

Ross and Shane both presented on Monday in the Earth and life history session. Ross presented his work on Early-Middle Equatorial Eocene of North-western India, while Shane presented his work on the potential microbial role in ooid formation and implications for their utility as molecular paleoenvironmental records. Ainara, who recently returned to the Summons Lab as a new postdoc, presented her research on utilizing faecal biomarkers in non-human primates to explore the origins of ancestral hominin meat consumption. On Wednesday morning, David provided the audience with an excellent plenary talk titled ‘Sterols, rocks, and molecular clock’. David’s talk was followed by Emily’s later that afternoon. Emily presented some of her recent exciting findings on the diversity of bacterial hopanoids in Antarctic lake microbial mats and structures.

On Wednesday evening, the gala dinner took place at Zofin Palace on an island on the Vltava River. Attendees, were transported to the venue, treated to a champagne reception, before being escorted into the palace for a fantastic evening of great food, music and fun.

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Champagne reception prior to the gala dinner at Zofin Palace (Image credit: Guarant International)

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The gala dinner at Zofin Palace, with members and friends of the Summons Lab in the foreground (Image credit: Guarant International)

On Friday morning, Xiaolei completed the contributions to IMOG 2015 from the Summons Lab. He gave an impressive talk on his recent work investigating the predominant parallel glycerol arrangement of archaeal tetraethers in marine sediments. Overall, it was a very successful and productive meeting. The countdown to IMOG 2017 in Florence has commenced!