After 31 years since the last time a Crustacean Society conference was held in Paris, France, The Crustacean Society (TCS) summer meeting is once again coming to Paris in July 7-10, 2025. With the last summer meeting hosted in Taipei, Taiwan in May 2024, the TCS Summer Meeting will be returning to the old continent in Paris, France. The TCS Summer Meeting project is being led by a team of crustacean researchers from the Sorbonne University (SU) and the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), who collectively exemplify the rich diversity of crustacean research currently being conducted in France from palaeontology to genomics.
Since France has historically been a crucible for carcinology research, we were obliged to bid for organizing this TCS Summer Meeting. This meeting is one of the most important international events for all crustacean experts, as it attracts representatives from all over the world, with a unique opportunity to share latest discoveries and debate about emerging fields and applications.
Although the Paris area itself is not particularly rich in crustaceans, it has nevertheless been a world-renowned hotspot for crustacean research for over two centuries since the creation of the MNHN. Many famous scientists such as Lamarck, Latreille, and the Milne-Edwards family worked one after another within its walls, providing the basis of modern crustacean systematics by studying the extensive collections of the MNHN. The MNHN crustacean collections are probably the most diverse in the world. They date back to the naturalist expeditions of the 18th century and have been continually expanding thanks to expeditions led by the MNHN, such as the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos (ex-MUSORSTOM). The first MUSORSTOM cruise in 1976 was the starting point of a long series of deep-sea cruises in the Indo-Pacific. Under the leadership of Alain Crosnier, a modern pioneer in deep-sea biodiversity research at MNHN, these cruises rewrote the annals of deep-sea biodiversity. Inspired and guided by important carcinologists, Jacques Forest, Michèle de Saint Laurent, Danièle Guinot, and Bertrand Richer de Forges, exploration programs led by MNHN researchers go on providing specimens to the scientific community and contributing to our global knowledge of crustaceans.
Palaeontology, too, has a long history of crustacean research at MNHN. The crustacean fossil collection of the MNHN has been collected by pioneers in the field and dates back to the 18th century when Faujas de Saint Fond created the very first consistent set of specimens brought back to France by the armies of the Revolution. During the 19th century, numerous fossil crustaceans were collected while exploring “foreign lands” such as Indochina and Madagascar. The collection further developed during the 20th century with important missions of exploration in the Middle East led by Dubertret and Arambourg, and in North Africa by Hollard and Drot. The study of microscopic crustaceans in Paris, both in SU and in the MNHN, has stood out for over a century now. If the Milne-Edwards family reported and illustrated numerous species from modern freshwaters, the real boom of the microscopic discipline is more recent with the establishment of a “French school” that led the foundations of research currently ongoing in the SU, MNHN, and worldwide.
We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you all to our beautiful City of Light for the 2025 TCS Summer Meeting and hope you will have a marvelous time attending the conference and enjoying the Parisian way of life for at least a few days. Bienvenue !
A bientôt,
The 2025 TCS Summer Meeting Organizing Committee
The Crustacean Society Summer Meeting 2025
The TCS summer meeting is organized every year under the auspices of The Crustacean Society (http://www.thecrustaceansociety.org/). After the TCS and SICB annual meeting of 2025 (January 3rd to 7th 2025) in Washington DC, back to the old continent in Paris (France) in 2025.
News and announcements
Coming soon...