The 8^th IUFRO Phytophthora in Forests and Natural Ecosystems Meeting was held in Vietnam from 18-25 March, 2017. Professor Treena Burgess, an extraordinary Professor at FABI and based at Murdoch University in Perth, along with Profs Giles Hardy, and Pham Quang Thu organised this meeting. The aim was to bring together research leaders and students working on Phytophthora from around the world to share their research in the form of presentations and posters.

A delegation of five postdoctoral and doctoral students and a technical staff member from FABI attended this meeting where they gave oral presentations: Dr Duccio Migliorini, Dr Trudy Paap, Juanita Engelbrecht, Joey Hulbert, and Tanay Bose.

The next meeting will be held at Italy.

Oral presentations:

Dr Duccio Migliorini - Comparisons of Phytophthora incidence and diversity in cultivated and natural endemic species of Proteaceae in South Africa.

Mr Joey Hulbert - Cape Citizen Science: public engagement to survey Phytophthora in a developing country.

Ms Juanita Engelbrecht - Identification and characterisation of polymorphic microsatellite markers to study Phytophthora cinnamomi populations.

Mr Tanay Bose - Do Phytophthora species migrate from natural forest to plantations of non-native trees in South Africa?

Prof. Treena Burgess - Native soil-borne pathogens equalise differences in competitive ability between plants of contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies; Current and projected global distribution of Phytophthora cinnamomi, one of the world’s worst plant pathogens.

Dr Trudy Paap - Botanical gardens: Sentinel plantings to detect new and emerging Phytophthora risks.