27th International Congress of Entomology (ICE2024 Kyoto), Kyoto, Japan, August 25 to 30, 2024
I am pleased to welcome you to the 27th International Congress of Entomology (ICE2024 Kyoto) to be held in Kyoto, Japan, from August 25 to 30, 2024. The Local organizing Committee (LOC) is in the Union of the Japanese Societies for Insect Sciences (UJSIS) which consists of 17 insect science-related academic societies and one association. Thirteen years have passed since the UJSIS was established at its inaugural meeting held in the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) on July 24, 2010. The UJSIS Statutes state that its purpose is, “to promote research and education in insect science and related disciplines, and to contribute to the development and social diffusion of this field in Japan”.
Since prehistoric times, both rare and familiar species of insects have been closely associated with many aspects of human life, including infectious diseases, food resources, agricultural production, environmental conservation, education, culture, and biomimetics. During recent debate on global issues, such as climate change and population growth, insect scientists from various fields have been expected to collaborate in addressing these issues using ‘hands-on’ approaches. While both deep individual specialization and interdisciplinary collaboration are required, it is also essential to strengthen systems for confronting the urgent issues we face from the standpoint of ‘consilience’ in insect science.
Rapid globalization has facilitated various forms of international cooperation, but has contributed to the spread of a new coronavirus and resulting pandemic that has brought globalization into decline. Despite this, our role of providing an invaluable forum for international academic exchange between member societies is being fulfilled through the 27th ICE. The ICE2024 Kyoto Congress will be held at the Kyoto International Conference Centre and the organizing committee is now fully engaged under the theme ‘New Discoveries through Consilience’. The 16th Congress in Kyoto in 1980 was the first to be held in Asia, so the congress returns to Japan after 44 years. Although the COVID pandemic is still unpredictable, let’s be prepared and hope it can be overcome soon.
