Dear Friends and Colleagues,

COVID-19 infection rates in Poland have been low compared to the Spring wave. Thus, currently no COVID-19 tests or quarantine is required upon arrival to Poland. However, the situation is dynamic and unpredictable to some extent, so please keep checking the latest information on travel restrictions at least a few days prior to your arrival to Kraków.

Please note that today is the last day to fill out the yellow form and/or the red form if would like assistance upon your arrival and/or examine microscope slides from our collection.

There’s a new subsection of the Symposium website with a few suggestions of extra activities you might want try while being in Kraków.

We don’t want to give too much away about the wonderful Symposium gifts we have for you, but Participants with the Full Symposium Package (***) are kindly requested to keep some free room in their luggage for a VIP gift (28×24×10 cm of space and 3 kg of weight).

For the last decade my team has been updating the literature database that the late Clark W. Beasley started many years ago. We add new papers as they are published and we also replace some of the old PDFs with better quality scans. The database contains ca. 3 300 tardigrade papers and is accompanied by an Excel spreadsheet with key information about each publication. If you’d like to get a copy of the database, please bring a pendrive with at least 10 GB free space onto which you’ll be able to copy the files at the Symposium.

See you next Monday! :-)

Best Wishes,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I’m happy to let you know that the detailed Symposium Programme with talk and poster titles is now available on the Symposium website.

Moreover, two further sections, which I hope you may find helpful, are now available: Venue and Polish Essentials.

Also, please don’t forget to fill out the yellow form and/or the red form by 15.08.2022 if would like assistance upon your arrival and/or examine microscope slides from our collection.

Finally, a message for Young Scientist Award Contestants: these shiny Symposium medals with Polish flag ribbons are ready and waiting to be presented (in addition to financial awards) to authors of two best talks (gold medals) and two best posters (silver medals) in the categories of Zoology and Physiology:

Best Wishes,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Symposium is now less than a month away and we have as many as three online forms for you to fill out... but don’t worry, they’re not obligatory.

The yellow form is for those of you who would like some help with getting from the Kraków Airport to the City. Our Volunteers, in bright yellow T-shirts with the Symposium logo, will be at the Arrival Hall on Sunday (21.08.2022) and will show you the way to the transportation of your choice (train, bus, taxi), as well as help you to buy appropriate tickets. Please fill out the form by 15.08.2022.

The red form is for those who would like to examine type specimens deposited at the Jagiellonian University Collection. The types will be available during the Microscope Slide Examination on Friday afternoon. There will be two light contrast microscopes (LCMs) with digital cameras and computers. If you wish to take measurements and/or photos, please bring a USB pendrive with you to save your files. We also encourage you to bring your own slides to the Symposium (at least one LCM will be available throughout the entire Symposium). Please fill out the form also by 15.08.2022.

The blue form is for those of you who would like buy a souvenir T-shirt with the Symposium logo when you arrive to Kraków (we have some really cool gifts for you in the Welcome Pack, but T-shirts are not included). Here is the guide to size categories both for male and female T-shirt models and to the fabric palette (40 colours to choose from!). Price per T-shirt (regardless of the cut, fabric colour or T-shirt size) is 45 PLN. An exemplary dark and bright colour T-shirt are shown below (the difference is in the outline of the logo: bright T-shirts have black outlines whereas dark T-shirts are with white outlines):

See you soon!

Best Wishes,

The position will focus on developing and analysing RNAseq data related to desiccation in heterotardigrades and eutardigrades.

Detailed information under: https://facultycareers.fiu.edu/?posting=527272

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Just to let you know that the preliminary Programme Overview of the Symposium is now available.

More information soon.

See you next month! :-)

Best Wishes,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Now that the Cancellation Deadline has passed and all abstracts have been submitted, we have prepared a new section of the website comprising Presentation Guidelines. Please get familiar with the guidelines and prepare your presentations accordingly.

The good news is that COVID-19 cases in Poland are already hitting summer lows, i.e. ca. 250 cases and 3 death per day across the entire country.

On a different note, we happy to announce that the Rector of the Jagiellonian University has taken the Symposium under his patronage.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

A quick reminder that the extended Late Registration deadline is only three days away, i.e. this Sunday, May 22^nd at midnight (CEST). Thus, if you haven’t completed your registration via our Registration Platform, please do it as soon as possible.

In case of any problems with registration or payment, please contact Michał or Kinga at konferencje@uj.edu.pl (please don’t forget to place “Tardigrada 2022: ” followed by the topic of your query in the email subject line).

This is the last Symposium Announcement circulated via the Tardigrada Newsletter Mailing List. All future Announcements will be sent from krakow@tardigrada.net only to the registered Symposium participants. Nevertheless, all Announcements will continue to be published on the Symposium website and here.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This is just a quick reminder that the extended Early Registration deadline is next Friday, i.e. there’s only one week left to register with the Early Registration fees. Thus, if you haven’t completed your registration via our Registration Platform, please do it as soon as possible to avoid paying the Late Registration fees, which all are 25% higher than the Early Registration fees.

Please note that registering under the Early Registration fees requires: (1) filling the registration form, (2) paying the registration fee, and (3) submitting your abstract(s) if you want to give a talk or/and present your poster(s). Submitting your abstract(s) after 22.04.2022 will mean that you will have to pay the Late Registration fee in order to present at the Symposium.

If for any reason you cannot come to the Symposium but you’d still like to present your poster in absentia, you can register, send us your poster in PDF, and we will print and display it for you.

In case of any problems with registration or payment, please contact Michał or Kinga at konferencje@uj.edu.pl (please don’t forget to place “Tardigrada 2022: ” followed by the topic of your query in the email subject line).

COVID-19 infection and death rates in Poland are now low and constantly decreasing:

Data source: Polish Ministry of Health; graph: Flourish Studio (modified).

Thus, it seems that the rates are very likely to diminish to nearly zero in the summer, as predicted based on the last two summers.

As always, we kindly ask you to spread the news about the Symposium wherever you can!

Cannot wait to see you all this summer in Kraków! 😊

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well and healthy.

I have received numerous requests to extend the deadline, as some of you need more time to finalise abstracts and secure funds to pay the registration fees (please remember that abstract submission deadlines are the same as registration deadlines). Therefore, to accommodate your appeals, the Early Registration deadline is now extended to 22.04.2022, whereas the new Late Registration is 22.05.2022, and the new Cancellation deadline is 06.06.2022. The Early Registration countdown has now been reset to the extended date.

Some of you are also concerned about whether the Russian aggression against Ukraine may affect the Symposium. I would like to emphasise that Poland is a member of NATO and as such, the risk of military actions on the territory of Poland is negligible. Moreover, despite welcoming a large number of Ukrainian refugees (or guests, as we refer to them), life in Kraków is business as usual (see photos below). Most importantly, however, in the unlikely case that the Symposium cannot be held in Kraków in August 2022, everyone who registered will be able to vote on whether they want to postpone the Symposium and come to Kraków in 2023 or whether they would like the Symposium to be held online. In other words, registration entails no risk of losing your funds.

While we are on the subject of Ukraine, I am happy to announce that all Ukrainian citizens and residents affiliated with Ukrainian institutions, who left the country on or after 24.02.2022 or are currently in Ukraine and wish to apply for a Travel Grant, are exempt from age limits and from paying the registration fee in advance.

I also have some good news regarding the COVID-19 situation in Poland. The omicron wave has plummeted much faster than predicted and the current infection and death rates are similar to those at the end of April 2021, so we are one month ahead in the desired direction compared to the last year. This significantly strengthens the predictions based on the two last years that the rates are expected to diminish to nearly zero in the summer (see the subsection devoted to COVID-19 for more details).

Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday afternoon in the Old Town and at the river to show you that although the overall mood is not cheerful, life goes on as usual:


The Main Square with locals and some foreign tourists.


Grodzka Street with locals and tourists.


A group of tourists from North America in the Maria Magdalena Square.


People catching spring sunrays at the Vistula River close to the Royal Castle.


The Wawel Dragon breathing fire as usual and kids teasing the Dragon, also as usual.

I hope that this reassures those who might be worried. Kraków is safe and we will do everything to make your stay as pleasurable, inspiring, and healthy as possible.

Best Wishes,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Just to let you know that our Registration Platform is fully operational and you can start registering for the Symposium (big thanks Kinga Rozwadowska from the JU Conference Organisation Section for her valuable help in setting up the Platform).

Take care, 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am very pleased to present you with the official website of the 15^th International Symposium on Tardigrada: tardigrada.uj.edu.pl

Although a few sections are yet to be published at later times (e.g. the Symposium Programme), the great majority of subsites are fully operational and you are kindly invited to explore them all. The most important sections at this moment are: information on all Deadlines related to the Symposium, Fees & Payments, detailed Abstract Guidelines (with a template to help you prepare your abstracts), and the description of our Registration Platform (which is aimed to be launched by the end of the month). Those among us who are still lucky to be enjoying their youth may be interested in information about Travel Grants and Young Scientist Awards too. There are two countdown clocks on the website: one showing how much time is left until the Symposium (currently 188 days), and the other – displayed only in the REGISTRATION section – counting down to the Early Registration deadline (45 days left).

You may also find useful the sections devoted to information and tips on what are the best ways of Getting to Kraków and how to find great Accommodation in the Royal City (primary suggestion: book as soon as possible, especially that nowadays many booking services offer reservations without prepayments or with fully refunded cancellations up to a week prior to arrival). Some of you may be hesitant to travel in the COVID-19 era, thus there is a separate section devoted only to COVID-19 and how to make your trip to Kraków as safe and as hassle-free as possible. Please check out also the Contact section and our kind request on how to use the offered channels of communication to help us help you efficiently.

Please forward this Announcement to anyone who could be interested in attending the Symposium, and please publicise also the address of the Symposium website, tardigrada.uj.edu.pl, by all possible means (social media, newsletters, websites, blogs, etc.).

All the best in the recently started New Year :-) and lots of love on the occasion of St. Valentine’s Day! <3