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The World Association of Copepodologists (WAC) is a
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
created to promote research on copepods by facilitating communication among interested specialists. WAC has about 130 members worldwide. Although the World Association of Copepodologists is composed primarily of
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professors Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
and
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researcher Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...
s, "any person interested in any aspect of the study of Copepoda is eligible for membership."Estimate of "about 130 members" based upon recent information from the Treasurer The business of the WAC is conducted primarily at a business meeting held every three years at the International Conference on Copepoda (ICOC). Since 1987, conferences have been held at venues in
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,
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,
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, North America and
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. The 13th conference was held in July 2017 at the
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is an aquarium in Los Angeles at San Pedro, California. The aquarium interprets both the physical processes of oceanography and marine biology of Southern California by use of displays and educational programs for the pu ...
in
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, United States. The 14th conference is to be held in July 2020 in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Recent conferences have attracted about 250-350 participants. The WAC assists the local organizers of the ICOCs in sponsoring and organizing workshops associated with these conferences. Most workshops train students in identification and other practical aspects of copepod studies. Between conferences, communication between members takes place through the society newsletter ''Monoculus'' and via such
on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
resources as the society website hosted by the enckenberg Research Institutein ilhelmshavenGermany and
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s hosted by academic bodies such as the Asociación Latinoamericana de Carcinología and the
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Institute of
Marine Science Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dyna ...
. ''Monoculus'', the name of the newsletter, is
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "one-eyed" and refers to a shared feature of many members of subclass Copepoda.


History

In 1979, copepodologist Dov Por wrote a letter to the
meiofauna Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term ''meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrof ...
newsletter ''Psammonalia'' suggesting the creation of both a symposium and a newsletter dedicated to the discussion of the Copepoda. There was a small response to this initiative, which increased when the suggestion was repeated in ''
Crustaceana ''Crustaceana'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specialising in carcinology. It was established in 1960 and is published monthly by Brill Publishers. The journal is abstracted and indexed by BIOSIS Previews, the Science Citation Index, Th ...
'', a publication dedicated to
crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...
s. In 1980, a circular letter was sent out to 87 copepodologists around the world, of whom 34 replied. In a second letter, Dov Por announced that the first International Conference on Copepods was to be organized by the copepodologist Jan Stock and was scheduled for August 1981 in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. It was also announced that the copepodologist Kurt Schminke would edit the newsletter. In October 1980 the first issue of ''Monoculus'' was published. About 120 copepodologists attended that first conference in Amsterdam and it was deemed a great success. The Second International Conference on Copepoda was organized by copepodologist Chang-tai Shih and held in August 1984 in Ottawa, Canada. Here it was decided to establish a formal organization, the World Association of Copepodologists. Zbigniew Kabata, a
veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that h ...
of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, was elected as the first president. Subsequent presidents included Arthur Humes, Geoff Boxshall, Kurt Schminke, Ju-shey Ho, Shin-ichi Uye, Janet Bradford, Rony Huys, Eduardo Suárez-Morales, and Diana Paola Galassi. A popular feature of each conference is the "Maxilliped Lecture" given by the outgoing president, who then passes on the pectoral pendant, a metal maxilliped on a chain, to the incoming president.


References


External links

*{{official website, http://www.monoculus.org/ Organizations established in 1984 Biology organizations