The 8th International Legume Conference (8ILC) took place from 6th to 11th of August 2023 in Pirenópolis, Brazil. In this edition of the ILC, the global legume community was represented by 147 participants from 18 countries including different institutions and nationalities. It was remarkable that a considerable proportion of participants were students, which means that the new generation is going to move legume research forward. We are also pleased that 40% of all participants and keynote speakers were women, highlighting our commitment towards gender equality.

The 8ILC scientific program covered a range of themes distributed into eight main symposia, which included 126 invited keynote talks, talks and posters. Invited keynote speakers from outside the legume community brought new perspectives and ideas to enrich the scientific debate during the 8ILC. The wide diversity of topics encompassing systematics, morphology, conservation, uses, evolution, ecology, plant/animal interactions, genomics, and nitrogen fixation, fully supports the conference title “Integrating knowledge on the legume family”.

We took the opportunity of hosting the conference in Brazil to pay tribute to ten Brazilian colleagues for their outstanding work on legumes. We also dedicate one symposium to the career of Janet Sprent, a global authority on nodulation in legumes.

Conference participants enjoyed a relaxing time during a trip to a natural reserve where they were able to walk in the Cerrado vegetation and swim in waterfalls. In the evening of that same day, we had a nice time at the conference party with live music and dancing.

Overall, the 8ILC was a major success - people from all over the world were able to meet in person, present some very exciting research, and establish new connections and collaborations. Photos of the event are available here.

We invite all attendants to contribute manuscripts to the next volume of the Advances in Legume Systematics, which will be published as a special edition of the the Brazilian Journal of Botany.
 

Marcelo Simon and Tânia Moura

on behalf of the 8ILC organizing committee