The Plant Oxygen Group (POG) was established in 1993 in the Society for Free Radical Research (SFRR-Europe). The main goal of POG is to provide a major interdisciplinary platform for cutting edge research in all aspects of Free Radical Research in plants and to organize the POG conference every two/three years in order to facilitate information transfer and other essential interactions. The first conference was in St Andrews (U.K.) in 1993, and others followed in Aberdeen (U.K.) in 1995, Vienna (Austria) in 1996, Pisa (Italy) in 1997, Granada (Spain) in 1998, Nice (France) in 2001, Freising-Weihenstephan (Germany) in 2003 and Bristol (U.K.) in 2005. The last POG conference was held in 2007 at VIB/Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium.
The aim of the POG conferences is to provide a forum for discussion and for the effective exchange of information and new ideas on every aspect of oxygen metabolism, free radical action and oxidative signaling. The conferences also provide a dynamic interface between innovative academic research and practical applications in areas such as agriculture, forestry, plant pathology, food technology, medicine and human nutrition. The POG enjoys the general support of SFRR-Europe. We aim to give ample opportunity for everyone especially for early career scientists to participate in these meetings.
The POG conferences regularly attract a large number of participants from all over the world. For example at the Nice conference there were more than 250 scientists. The success of the POG conferences is due to the motivation and passion of the POG members for the topic and to the importance and impact of the topic in all areas of Plant and Animal Biology. The POG steering committee takes responsibility for decision making and funding, under the umbrella of SFRR-Europe. To achieve better co-ordination and organization of European Plant Biologists working in this area the POG seeks interactions with other organisations such as SEB, EPSO and FESPB in areas where there are common goals. The Steering Committee strongly believe in the effectiveness of collaboration as a mechanism for achieving rapid progress and that joint efforts are always more successful than fragmented and not properly coordinated actions. The POG Steering Committee invites you to join us at the next POG meeting in Ghent in 2007 to discuss global scientific developments and to encourage young biologists to develop their interests or enter the field of Plant Oxygen Metabolism.
Plant Oxygen Group Steering Committee:
ROS in Plants International Scientific Committee:
Klaus Apel, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland
Laura de Gara, Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy
Luis A. del Rio, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Spain
Radhika Desikan, Imperial College London, UK
Jörg Durner, GSF Munich, Germany
Christine Foyer, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Jaakko Kangasjärvi, Helsinki University, Finland
Alex Levine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Ron Mittler, University of Nevada, USA
Phil Mullineaux, University of Essex