SPPS-News
The 13th SPPS PhD conference was a success!
The 13th SPPS PhD Student Conference was organized in Tromsø, Norway by Photosyntech PhD student members. The conference was organized in 3 sessions on; 1) Macro- and Micro-Algae, 2) Plants, and 3) Environmental Ecology that gave everyone the opportunity to discuss their work with fellow PhD students and five invited speakers within the different topics. Friendships and future collaborations were made. Side-events of excursions and workshops, organized and financed by Photosyntech, flanked the conference making it a total of 4 days of events.
SPPS SUPPORTS THE 21ST RRB CONFERENCE
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SPPS is proud to support the 21st International Conference on Renewable Resources & Biorefineries that will be held in Turku/Åbo (Finland) from the 2th to the 4th of June. The event is organised by Åbo Akademi University, the Industrial chemistry and reaction engineering and the Department of Life Technologies, University of Turku. The three day international conference will include plenary lectures, oral presentations, poster sessions and an exhibition.
SPPS members will benefit from a discount of €100 for the full-period registration and €50 for one-day registration. You can access this benefit in the link below. Please note that the full fee will appear initially on the registration page, but the reduced rate will be applied automatically once the participant clicks "Continue."
SPPS SPONSORS THE NPC-NAS SYMPOSIUM 2025
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SPPS is proud to support the combinied Nordic Photosynthesis Congress (NPS) and Nordic Algae Symposium (NAC) 2025. The symposium will be held on October 20-23th at Konventum, Elsinore, Denmark. The event, under the theme “Harnessing Photosynthesis and Algal Innovation for a Sustainable Future”, offers a unique opportunity to integrate expertise from both fields into a single, comprehensive event, and aims to provide a dynamic forum that brings together a diverse mix of international and Nordic experts, while also showcasing the innovative research of early-career scientists through numerous presentations.
For more information: Home - NPC-NAS
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE SPPS 2026 CONGRESS!
The next SPPS Congress will be held from the 18th to the 20th of August 2026 in Auditorium F2044 in the main building of the University of Helsinki (link). The building is located in the city center.
See you in Helsinki in 2026!
In memoriam: Jaakko Kangasjärvi
The Society has received with great sadness the news of the recent and unexpected passing of Professor Jaakko Kangasjärvi, one of their most influential members of the last decades. Until recently Jaakko has been professor in the Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme and the dean of the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Helsinki University. His research into the biological functions of reactive oxygen species in plants led him to be co-author on more than 230 peer-reviewed publications, attracting more than 24000 citations in google scholar. He was invited to join the Finnish Academy of Sciences in 2012 and was ranked one of the most cited plant and animal biologists on the planet in 2016.
In addition to being an excellent research scientist he has also contributed to the development of the plant biology community in Scandinavia by serving as president of the Scandinavian Plant Biology Society from 2008 to 2015. During that time, he and the council produced a booklet about the history of SPPS. Jaakko stated in the introduction to this booklet: “The Society’s Council hopes that this booklet can give both old and young members a good view of the function and significance of a scientific society, a long tradition that aims at bringing people together to create both professional and personal connections between scientists. Furthermore, we hope, that this booklet will also help the younger members of the community to better understand the existence, tradition, and significance of scientific societies – being a member and acting in a professional society is really part of being a scientist.” These words reflect Jaakko´s believes and attitude towards science, traditions and his conviction that scientists are obliged to serve society at large by delivering scientific outputs and contributing to the development of the scientific community.
He will be sorely missed by many colleagues and fellow scientists whose lives he has influenced throughout his career. Our thoughts are with Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi, his family, friends and close coworkers. (Text: Thorsten Hamann, Secretary General and Anke Carius)