Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) are pleased to sponsor, and assist with the organisation of, the 22nd European Congress of Herpetology which will take place at the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, between 4th and 8th September 2023. Dr John Wilkinson, ARC’s Regional, Training and Science Programmes Manager is a member of the Local Organising Committee and ARC Trustee, Professor Richard Griffiths from the University of Kent will discuss reintroductions and rewilding in a changing world.

Prof Mark O’Shea, Chair of the Local Organising Committee, said: “We are indebted to the School of Architecture and Built Environment, in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Wolverhampton, for allowing us to use their spectacular Springfield Campus for the Congress. The Congress is organised by the Societas Europaea Herpetologica (SEH) and it will be the first time it has been in the United Kingdom since the SEH co-hosted the 1st World Congress of Herpetology (WCH) in Canterbury, Kent in 1989.

The aim of the Congress is to bring together herpetologists, conservationists, policy-makers and other interested parties to advance and share our knowledge of amphibians and reptiles, their habitats, and their conservation requirements, primarily within Europe but also further afield, through three parallel sessions of talks and lectures, plenaries, workshops and poster sessions. As anybody who has attended such events in the past will know, the oral and poster sessions are only part of a conference, the networking that takes place afterwards in various hostelries is of equal importance,  a chance to renew old friendships and make new ones, for students to approach potential sponsors and discover more about research possibilities, and for seasoned researchers to recruit new blood for their fieldwork or laboratory research projects.

We also plan to organise some post-conference trips and will announce those as our plans materialise.

So along with my colleagues Dr Simon Maddock, Dr Natasha Kruger, Dr John Wilkinson, Ms Rebecca Morris, Dr Deepak Veerappan and Mr Rémi Martin and the band of keen herpetologists at the University of Wolverhampton, we really hope to see you in Wolverhampton in early September 2023.”

The 22nd European Congress of Herpetology website is now live at https://sehcongress23.com. Here you will get more information about the meeting, venue, sponsors, post-conference trips and more.