Dear colleagues and friends, The next International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP) will take place in Beijing in August 2013. There will be several sessions dealing with forest/tree pathogens during the congress. Following the congress there will also be a three day Forest Pathology Field Tour. Please visit the congress website for more information: www.icppbj2013.org You can find more information on the sessions under the "Organizers and Speakers" section. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find more information on the field tour. The two main Tree Health session can be found under: "Management of Forest Diseases" The sessions consists of the following talks: Session 1: Increasing Threats to Tree Health Management Michael J. Wingfield, University of Pretoria South Africa, South Africa Topic: Plantation health management: challenges and opportunities Angus Carnegie, Australia Topic: Managing invasive pathogens: Puccinia psidii in Australia Jason A. Smith, University of Florida, USA Topic: Current efforts to understand the biology of and manage laurel wilt in the United States Paolo Gonthier, University of Torino, Italy Topic: Population genetics and GIS based analyses as essential tools to model biological invasions: the case of Heterobasidion irregulare in Italy Session 2: New Technologies and Disease Management in Forestry Jan Stenlid, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden Topic: Can genome sequencing transform our understanding of fungal forest pathogens? Manuel M. Mota, Dept. Biologia, Universidade de Évora,Portugal Topic: Bursaphelenchus xylophilus: opportunities in comparative genomics and molecular host–parasite interactions Matteo Garbelotto, University of California-Berkeley, USA Topic: Linking genotypic information to phenotypic characterization to improve the prediction of emergent forest diseases Giles Hardy, Murdoch University, Australia Topic: The role of climate change and woodland and forest decline syndromes in the South-west of Western Australia We encourage you to attend the congress and field tour. The deadline for submissions of abstracts is the 15th of January 2013. Hope to see you there, Jolanda Roux Jolanda Roux (PhD) Professor DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Insitute (FABI) University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa Tel: 012 420 3938/9 Cellular: 0829093202 Email: jolanda.roux(a)fabi.up.ac.za KEEPING TREES HEALTHY POSTAL ADDRESS FABI Private bag X20 Hatfield, Pretoria 0028, South Africa ADDRESS FOR PHYSICAL DELIVERIES FABI, University of Pretoria, Cnr. of Lynnwood and University Rds, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0083, South Africa