Alvin Simmons, co-chair of the 2016 International Congress of Entomology, was recently elected Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and his co-chair Walter Leal was recently named an Honorary Fellow of the RES.

Simmons, a research entomologist at the USDA-ARS in Charleston, SC, will sign the “Obligations Book” and be recognized during the society’s Annual National Science Meeting & International Symposium in Dublin, Ireland on September 1-4, 2015. Leal, a chemical ecologist in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of California, Davis, is a pioneer in the study of insect communication, investigating the molecular basis of olfaction, and the biochemical and physiological interactions among insects.

Both have been instrumental in organizing ICE 2016. Like the Olympics, the International Congress of Entomology is held every four years, and it attracts thousands of participants from all over the world. This event promises to be the largest gathering of entomologists in history, as the Florida Entomological Society joins the Entomological Society of Canada (ESC) and the Entomological Society of America (ESA), who will all co-locate their 2016 meetings in Orlando along with the ICE 2016.

International Congresses of Entomology have been held throughout the world every four years since 1910. The 2016 Congress in Orlando will be the 25th meeting. Each Congress provides a forum for scientists, researchers, academia, technicians, government, and industry representatives to discuss the latest research and innovations in the many diverse fields of entomology, to share expertise in their specific fields of interest, and to present their research and products. ICE delegates represent many countries in both hemispheres, and include both the developed and developing world. The week-long meetings allow participants to meet others from around the world with similar focus areas and to form important networks to collaborate and share knowledge, with an overarching goal of supporting and protecting the world’s population through better science.

Two Nobel Prize winners — Dr. Peter Agre (2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and Dr. Jules A. Hoffmann (2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) — will be Plenary speakers at ICE 2016, which will feature 287 symposia.

For more information, visit http://ice2016orlando.org.