From October 17 to 21, CSU hosted the 2025 Annual Academic Meeting of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) Project 735 at its Xiangya Campus, with co-organization by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS). Nearly 70 experts, scholars, and students from 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Russia, Argentina, and the Republic of Korea, as well as from a range of domestic research institutions, attended the meeting.
The conference brought together leading scholars such as Zhan Renbin and Zhang Yuandong (NIGPAS); Professor David A. T. Harper of Durham University, a Fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters; Professor Thomas Servais of the University of Lille; Professor Yves Candela of National Museums Scotland; and Professor Birger Schmitz of Lund University.
Under the theme “Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life”, the conference focused on recent advances in relatively underrepresented areas of Ordovician research, including stratigraphic intervals, geographic regions, biological groups, and chemostratigraphy, offering a high-level forum for international academic exchange.The four-day program included six keynote presentations, 29 oral presentations, and 21 poster presentations, as well as a Liexi fauna specimen workshop and a field excursion.During the meeting, participants visited Weishan Township in Ningxiang, Changsha, Hunan Province, to study continuous Ordovician stratigraphic sections.Awards for the Best Student Oral Presentation and Best Student Poster Presentation were announced at the closing ceremony on October 21.
IGCP, a UNESCO natural sciences initiative, is the only international geoscience development program within the United Nations system.It brings together more than 10,000 scientists from over 150 countries and regions and has made notable contributions to addressing major geoscientific issues of global, continental, and regional importance that are closely related to human society.IGCP Project 735 was jointly launched by Dr. Wenhui Wang of CSU, along with an international team of scholars, including Dr. Bertrand Lefebvre of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France), Dr. Yves Candela of National Museums Scotland, Professor Khadija El Hariri of Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco), Dr. Mansoureh Ghobadipour of Golestan University (Iran), Dr. Elena G. Raevskaya of the A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute, Dr. Oive Tinn of the University of Tartu (Estonia), and Dr. Beatriz G. Waisfeld of the National University of Córdoba (Argentina).
(First Reviewer: Xiong Jiaxin, Second Reviewer: Tang Xiaojun, Third Reviewer: Wang Jianxiang)
