Belgium Universities of Liège and Gent

CIMP General Meeting

July 5 – 11, 2014

Pre-Cambrian and Palaeozoic Palynological meeting co-chaired by

Jacques Verniers and Philippe Steemans

Organization and scientific committee: Philippe Steemans (chairman), Palaeobiogeologie-Palaeopalynologie-Palaeobotany (PPP),

Department of Geology, Liège University

Jacques Verniers (vice-chair), Research Unit Palaeontology, Department of Geology and Soil

Science, Ghent University.

CIMP Subcommission on Acritarchs: President: Jun Li and Secretary: Sarah de la Rue.

CIMP Subcommission on Chitinozoans: President: Jacques Verniers and Secretary: Thijs

Vandenbroucke.

CIMP Subcommission on Spores/Pollen: President: Zélia Pereira and Secretary (CIMP

President): Marco Vecoli.

Second circular

Chitinozoan workshop, Ghent, July 5-6, 2014

General CIMP meeting, Lège, July 7-10, 2014

Post- meeting trip, July 11, 2014

Sponsored by: University of Liège, faculty of Sciences

Ghent University, faculty of Sciences

Fonds pour la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S. – FNRS)

Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)

General information

Jacques Verniers and Philippe Steemans will host the next CIMP general meeting in Belgium

in July 2014. The University of Liège, and especially professor Maurice Streel, has a long

history and affinity with the CIMP ever since the organization was founded. Therefore, it is a

very nice opportunity for the CIMP to come back to Liège, making the circle full. The meeting

is co-organised with the three sub-commissions and will form an excellent platform for

scientific discussions across the different palynomorph groups.

The formal theme of the meeting will be:

What’s trending in palynology?

There will be a workshop on chitinozoans from Saturday 5th July up to Monday morning 7th

July. This will be hosted by the Research Unit Palaeontology of the Ghent University.

The scientific general sessions will be at the Liège University, downtown Liège, from Tuesday

8th till Thursday 10nd. All the usual facilities will be available: internet, poster, coffee break,

meeting room etc. Two post-meeting field trips in the Palaeozoic are suggested on Friday

11th.

Provisional schedule

- Chitinozoan workshop at Ghent University:

Saturday 5 July 2014: Arrival in Ghent: 19-21h; informal meeting in a bar/restaurant

downtown.

Sunday 6 July 2014: 9 -18h00; Workshop at the Research Unit Palaeontology, Krijgslaan 281

building S8, 900 Ghent.

Monday 7 July 2014: 9 -12h00: Continuation of workshop.

Monday 7 July 2014: 12h00-13h00 lunch

Monday 7 July 2014: 13h00 - 16h00: transport to the railway station and

direct train Ghent to Liège

The main goal of the workshop is to discuss current issues amongst the

chitinozoan workers, staring students, PhD and post doc and senior

researchers. Therefore we propose to carefully prepare the workshop by hosting a six month

digital discussion forum prior to the meeting, staring as early as October/November 2013. It

will give all of you the opportunity to help signal topics you would like to see addressed

during the workshop, and to raise questions on different aspects of chitinozoan taxonomy,

biostratigraphy and facies analysis, and other matters that need urgent attention. During the

workshop at the Research Unit of Palaeontology at the Ghent University these different

topics will be discussed in plenum or in sub-groups and reports/publication will be prepared.

There will binocular microscopes, light microscopes with incident and transmitted light and

our SEM JEOL 6400 to discus taxonomy. Our databases with digital and analogue holotype

descriptions will be at your disposal for discussion, as well as a database with pdf of nearly

all chitinozoan publications. Oral presentations on chitinozoans however will be at the CIMP

general meeting in Liège.

- CIMP General meeting:

Monday 7 July 2014: arrival other delegates in Liège. Registration starts at 16:00 downtown

Liège, where also the ice-breaker takes place between 18:00-21:00; Aquarium and Museum

of the University of Liège, Quai Edouard Van Benededen, 22, 4000 Liège (To be confirmed).

Tuesday 8 July till Thursday 10 July 2014:

Scientific sessions between 09:00 and 18:00 in the Curtius (pronunciation: cursius) museum,

13, Quai de Maastricht 4000 Liège (to be confirmed). Poster sessions and the talks will be

displayed throughout the meeting; Group meetings of the sub-

commissions. The Curtius Palace, patrician, was built between

1600 and 1610 by Jean De Corte, industrial, merchant and

purveyor Liège but also Treasurer and supplier of the armies of

the King of Spain in the Netherlands, universally known by his

Latinized name Curtius to which the Principality of Liege had the

development of its industries in the seventeenth century.

Home Curtius, also called Palace Curtius, is

the most representative example of Renaissance architecture in the

Meuse region. It was restored between 1904 and 1909. It is part of

the real estate Grand Curtius museum complex and is ranked most

important heritage of Wallonia.

Wednesday 9 July 2014: 19h00 Conference dinners in a restaurant

downtown Liège (to be confirmed).

Friday 11 July 2014: Field trip (see below)

Registration fee and payment

We will try to keep this congress as cheap as possible for all, and especially for students.

The registration fee for the both scientific sessions at Ghent and Liège Universities will be

around € 150-200 (200 euros for CIMP member in order of payment – 250 for people not in

order since 2 years at least and members working in private societies. 150 Euros for

students. The fees cover the formal registration, handouts, transport from the Research unit

of Palaeontology to railway station, all coffee breaks, and icebreaker snacks and drinks, but

not the conference dinner (the location and the price will be announced in the third

circular).

The conference dinner will be around € 50. For students around € 40

The fee for the post-Conference excursion will be around € 50 (around 20% less for PhD-

students) and will cover excursion guide, bus travel costs and packet lunch.

You pay for the conference and post-conference excursion on a banking account especially

open for the congress. After the date March 31th

2014, you will not able to pay for the

conference.

It is possible for researchers with limited funding to apply for some support. Please contact

Philippe Steemans in good time if this needed.

Submission of abstracts and short papers

Abstract submission

Submit your abstract in Word-format (.doc) to Jacques or Philippe no later than March 31

2014. The file should be named after the first author’s surname followed by underscore and

‘oral’ or ‘poster’ (e.g. Chaplin_poster.doc). The abstracts will be not reviewed. You are the

only responsible for its content. The abstract must be written according to the editorial style

of the journal RPP (http://www.elsevier.com/journals/review-of-palaeobotany-and-

palynology/0034-6667/guide-for-authors) and should include a maximum of 750 words,

including references. One high-resolution plate or drawings may be included in colour or

grey-scale colour. Abstracts that do not follow these rules will be rejected. The abstract book

will be latter published online (e.g. Mortier, J., Zalasiewicz, J., Verniers, J., 2011.

Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy with chitinozoans and graptolites of the ravine 700 m

east section of Neuville-sous-Huy (upper Llandovery to middle Wenlock), Condroz Inlier,

Belgium, in: Steemans, P., Gerrienne, P. (Eds.), Miscellanea Palaeontologica Liège:

Palaeobiogeology-Palaeobotany-Palaeopalynology, 15. http://hdl.handle.net/2268/105852).

The proof of the proceeding and the printed field guidebook will be sent by EMail to you

several weeks before the start of the meeting. You will be able to print all or parts of the

abstracts and field trip book you are interested in (the less printed pages = the better for the

ecology and economy).

Oral and poster presentations

Oral presentations are limited to 15

minutes plus 5 minutes for questions.

PowerPoint presentations (ppt, pptx or

pdf format) will be shown on 3X3 m screen

using a high-

definition

digital

projector.

Upload and

submit your

presentation before the sessions starts. The upper size limit for

your presentation is 100 Mb

Posters will be displayed throughout the entire meeting

immediately next to the scientific sessions lecture hall. Size of

posters should be A0 (portrait).

Information about the

climate in Belgium in

July

July is the summer in Belgium.

The country is situated in a

temperate climate zone. It

could be (very) hot (35°C) and

dry as well as a very humid,

rainy and cold (15°C). July is

also the holiday month for

many people, therefore it is

important to book hotels early

especially for the hotels of the

touristic Ghent city. There are

many restaurants in both cities

Information about Belgium goodies

Don’t forget: Keep some free space in your luggage to

return with kilos of our delicious chocolate

(http://www.visitbelgium.com/?page=chocolate-lovers)

and some precious bottles of our famous beers

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Belgium). Belgium

contains thousands of cafés that offer a wide selection of

beers, ranging from perhaps 10 (including bottles) in a

neighbourhood café, to over 1000 in a specialist beer café

(e.g. « De Dulle Griet » and « Trappistenhuis » in Ghent;

« La pierre levée » and the « Vaudrées » in Liège).. There

are 2445 different beers brewed in Belgium, i.e. one each

12 Km2. If you do not believe us, go to

http://www.bierebel.com/biere.php?sort=all

This is not a chitinozoan

Travel to Ghent & Liège

It is really easy to get to both cities by car, by train (with a high-speed train station in Liège)

or by plane. The national airport is located at Brussels (60 min train to Ghent and 60 min to

Liège). Take care that the Brussels South Charleroi airport is located near Charleroi and not

close to Brussels. However you may reach easily the other cities by train from Charleroi:

Belgium is a very small country. The Charleroi airport is an alternative for low-cost airlines.

The Maastricht, Cologne/Koln, Frankfurt, Lille and Luxembourg airports are also close to

Belgium. There are no flights between Paris and Brussels. The connection between both

capitals is best by high-speed train.

Accommodations Very important! You must book your accommodation

yourself.

All

questions about accommodation should

be directed to Jacques (for Ghent) or

Philippe (for Liège). Take care that

Ghent is very touristic city. Do not try to

book a hotel too late. They are also

cheaper youth hostel in both cities

(write in the Google search: “Youth

hostel liege” or “Youth hostel Gent”)

List of hotels in Ghent:

http://www.booking.com/city/be/gent.f

r.html

Add B&B list of Ghent: http://www.bedandbreakfast-

gent.be/_fr/home.php

Add Hotel list of Ghent (check where they give a discount

for the University)

List of hotels in Liège: You may find a list of hotels without

or with reduced costs for researchers visiting the

University of Liège

http://www.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_143439/en/liege-hotels.

Registration and ice-breaker

The registration and ice-breaker take place on Monday 7 from 16:00 (ice-breaker at the

same location between 18:00-21:00). At this time you can register, pick up your badge and

conference package. Take the opportunity to stay and chat with colleagues. Beverages and

snacks will be served. The registration desk will be open also on Tuesday -Thursday 08:30-

10:00.

Conference dinner

The conference dinner will take place on Wednesday 9 July 2014: 19h00. The price and the

location will be around € 50 (20% less for students).

Partner activities

Partner activities will only be arranged during the time period of the scientific sessions in

Liège. The partner activities will be detailed in the third and final circular around May 1st

2014.

Contact information for the CIMP

General questions about the meeting, scientific sessions or related to CIMP should be

directed to Jaques or Philippe

Welcome to Ghent (picture on the right here above) and Liège (picture on the left) in July

2014!

On behalf of the organizing committee,

Philippe Steemans (p.steemans@ulg.ac.be)

Jacques Verniers (jacques .verniers@ugent.be)

Please check the CIMP website for news on the meeting Important dates:

Request for Support: January 1st, 2014

Registration Payment: March 31th, 2014

Abstract Submission: March 31th, 2014 or earlier 1th February 2014

Article Submission: To be precised

Upload talks: at the conference, or before by internet

Field trip

Two trips are proposed and will be effective if enough delegates (at least 6) subscribe

1) The Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian of the Brabant Massif and Condroz Inlier

OR

2) The Lower Devonian up to the D/C boundary in Belgium. Localities to be visited:

Nonceveux and Ninglinspo: unconfomity of Lower Devonian on the Cambrian-Middle

Ordovician of the Stavelot Inlier, and Lochkovian to Emsian outcrop. Gileppe:

Lochkovian/Pragian. Emphanisporites micrornatus phylozone. Levels with fossilized plants.

Upper Devonian to Carboniferous sections In the Ourthe valley.

It will be the last day of the congress, and then we will be back in Liège around 4 PM.

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For a good organization of the congress and to ask funds we need the

following information (cut and paste in your email software)

Name:

Country:

University:

Private society:

Email:

I will come to the congress: Yes/No

I will participate to the field trips: trip 1 or trip 2/none