Dear members and friends of the World Association of Copepodologists (WAC):  

It is our pleasure and honor to welcome you to the National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU), Keelung, Taiwan, for the 8^th International Conference On Copepoda (ICOC), which will be held here during the period of 21-26 July 2002.

After the 7^th ICOC, in order to facilitate organization of the 8^th ICOC, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and International Organizing Committee (IOC) were established.  The LOC members are Drs. Tin-Yam Chan, Wen-Been Chang, Shin-Hong Cheng, Jiang-Shiou Hwang (LOC Chairman and Local Secretary of IOC), Ching-Long Lin, Wen-Tseng Lo, Chang-tai Shih, J. Rudi Strickler, and Shu-Shen Young.  The IOC members include Drs. Ruth Böttger-Schnack, Ju-shey Ho (IOC coordinator), Rony Huys, Rubens Lopes and Shin-ichi Uye.  Five LOC meetings have been held to discuss matters related to the preparation of the 8^th ICOC.  Four symposia have been organized, which are the following: Symposium I : The Role of Copepods in Aquaculture, organized by Ju-shey Ho; Symposium II: Copepods and Pollution, organized by Shin-ichi Uye; Symposium III: The Significance of Small Copepods in Estuaries, Neritic Waters, and the Open Sea, organized by J. Rudi Strickler and Gus Paffenhöfer; and Symposium IV: Copepoda in Deep-sea Habitats, organized by, H. Kurt Schminke.  As usual, all symposia will be held in the morning and contributions from participants will be held in the afternoon.  We invite contributions from all conference participants, by oral or poster presentation, in all areas of copepodology, including ecology, behavior, systematics, physiology, biochemistry, fisheries etc.  The 8^th ICOC has arranged two optional evening symposia.  They are evening symposium I : The importance of phylogenic reconstructions and a natural system of the Copepoda, organized by Hans-Uwe Dahms; evening symposium II : Molecular vs Morphology:Sorting out the actual and the artefactual, organized by Rony Huys.

A pre-conference training course in Copepod Taxonomy has been organized by Dr. Geoff A. Boxshall.  Also, before the start of the conference, we will arrange a one-day sampling trip to the Kuroshio Current with the research vessel, Ocean Researcher II.  For those who are interested in freshwater copepods, we will also arrange a sampling trip to some local lakes and ponds.  The mid-conference tour will visit the National Palace Museum and metropolitan Taipei.  Participants will also be given the opportunity to register for three-day and six-day post-conference tours.  Detailed information of the above–mentioned activities is available from our website, http://8thicoc.ntou.edu.tw/.  Please visit our website whenever you need any information related to the 8^th ICOC.  If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at jshwang@mail.ntou.edu.tw or fax no. 886-2-24629464.

We are looking forward to seeing you in July, 2002, at the NTOU, Keelung, Taiwan

Jiang-Shiou Hwang

LOC Chairman and Local Secretary to the IOC