ICPPB & Biocontrol 2024

ICPPB & Biocontrol 2024 

brought together two conferences with the overarching theme of how new insights into the biology, evolution, and ecology of plant associated bacteria and technological advances ranging from bioinformatics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, remote sensing, to machine learning can be used to improve prevention and control of bacterial plant diseases to feed a growing world population in the face of climate change.

The 15th International Conference on Plant Pathogenic Bacteria and the 5th International Symposium of Biological Control of Bacterial Plant Diseases was held as a combined conference at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, USA from July 7-12, 2024.

The International Conference of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria goes back to 1964, when it was held for the very first time in Harpenden, UK. Since then, it has been held in locations around the world with the last conference being in Assisi, Italy, in 2022 (delayed by 2 years due to COVID) when 206 participants attended the conference.  ICPPB promotes and disseminates the latest scientific advances in all aspects of phytobacteriology including but not limited to disease epidemiology, pathogen ecology and evolution, disease diagnostics, molecular plant – bacteria interactions, and disease control and prevention.

The 1st edition of the International Symposium of Biological Control of Bacterial Plant Diseases was held in Darmstadt, Germany (2005), followed by Orlando, Florida, USA (2008), Belgrade, Serbia (2016), and Viterbo, Italy (2019), where 145 participants attended the symposium. The scope of the symposium has been to meet and discuss the management of the most serious bacterial plant diseases occurring worldwide with topics ranging from the study of the interactions between plants and their microbiome, plant and microbial genetics and genomics, to the production, safety, and regulation of biopesticides.

The conference was held at the Inn at Virginia Tech and the state of the art Skelton Conference Center in Blacksburg, situated in the scenic New River Valley, an economic and technological powerhouse in the mountainous Southwest corner of Virginia. Pick up of participants from the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport and the Roanoke Amtrak railway station were arranged.

Boris Vinatzer, 

Chair of the Local Arrangement Committee

Carolee Bull and Virginia Stockwell

Co-chairs of the Scientific Committee