Past SIL Congress

SIL 100 – the centennial and 36th Congress of SIL –held in Berlin, Germany, from 7 to 10 August 2022, was a great success. Participants entered into personal exchange, the atmosphere was stimulating, facilitated by the positive spirit of the participants, the high quality of contributions in the individual scientific sessions, and interesting presentations by the seven plenary speakers, including the Baldi and Kilham lecturers. Importantly, there was a good mix of age groups. More than a third of the registered participants were early career scientists, suggesting the society is rejuvenating. Considering the ongoing constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the number of onsite registrations greatly exceeded expectations. Unfortunately, however, various countries where limnology is traditionally well-developed were less well represented and there were also late cancellations by delegates due to visa issues and travel restrictions.

Several new aspects were introduced at SIL100, which contributed to the success of the Congress. In particular, the scientific program, developed by the limnological community, was entirely bottom up. Instead of predefined topics, all sessions built on ideas submitted by session conveners. This resulted in a total of 41 sessions spanning a variety of themes that covered curiosity-driven fundamental limnological research as much as practical issues relating to urgently needed advice on the protection and management of freshwaters.

SIL 100 in Berlin was organized as a Hybrid Congress. A total of 626 scientists from 49 countries attended the Congress, not including exhibitors, guests, accompanying persons, and others. This number greatly exceeded the expectations that we had in view of the restrictions and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Conversely, online attendees were fewer than expected, totaling 230 registrations, which may reflect not only the great interest in direct personal interactions after nearly two years of isolation during the COVID pandemic, but also that online participation is still not considered a satisfactory alternative. More than one third of the participants were early career scientists, indicating their strong interest to participate in person.

Congress co-chairs: Rita Adrian, Mark Gessner, Lars Tranvik

For more details about SIL2022, read a full congress summary and photos in SILNews81!