We hereby announce one scholarship of 15 000 SEK to cover fees and travel expenses in connection with the "IPC XIII/IOPC IX 2012" conference in Tokyo, Japan, 23-30 August 2012.

The scholarship can be applied for by PhD students or recently educated palynologists, who are members of CPS or would like to become a member.

To apply, an accepted abstract, and (for PhD students) a recommendation from the supervisor should be forwarded. The poster or presentation must have palynological relevance.

The person who recieves the scholarship is obliged to acknowledge the CPS on the poster or presentation, and to write a summary of her/his experience of the meeting, potentially for publication in PALYNOS.

The application, including the accepted abstract and a recommendation from the supervisor (for PhD students), should be sent to Karen Dybkjær, GEUS, Copenhagen, before 01 May 2012.

Warmest regards,

the CPS-board.

Niina Kuosmanen, University of Helsinki, receives this years' scholarship to cover travel expenses for the PC XIII/IOPC IX 12 conference in Tokyo in late August 2012.

Niina is PhD student at the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the Helsinki University. She started in summer 2010. The aim of her work is to produce more fossil data from northern Europe to reconstruct the changes of the boreal forest composition from the late-glacial to the early Holocene and throughout the Holocene. Special notice is given to the Holocene vegetation dynamics at the modern western range of the Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) and the migration of the Norway spruce (Picea abies).

So far sh has got interesting results from her studies in the modern western range limit of Siberian larch. The poster will present her preliminary results from two small hollow cores showing new data indicating that the boreal trees have been present near the sites already from the early Holocene.

The title of the poster is "Long-term boreal forest dynamics at the modern western range limit ofthe Siberian larch (Larix sibirica), new insights from stomata and pollen records".

The material is from Gotland (Ludlow age) and consists of sporangia from early land plants with in situ cryptospores, a land plant axis, spore masses and coprolites. The material contains the earliest land plant mesofossils found from Baltica and is very well preserved. Land plant material, especially from the earliest cryptospore-producing plants is very rare from this period.

Participation in the AASP meeting was very important for her since a lot of researchers within her area were attending and she got the chance to meet them and discuss herwork. It is very important to receive feedback from more experienced researchers in this particular field, but also general comments are crucial for the development of her research. She made many important contacts during this meeting. It was also very interesting to hear all the talks and see all the posters from different aspects of palynology. She thinks going to conferences and meetings is very worthwhile since it’s a good opportunity for networking, discussions and it’s also very inspiring.

The AASP meeting was a relatively small meeting with no parallel sessions which made it possible to hear all the talks and this was great. It was also fun to meet other students from different countries in the world. Overall, she had a great time in Southampton and is very grateful that to receive the funding from CPS to have the possibility to participate at this meeting. It has been a great experience and she have met a lot of new people and had many interesting discussions and also the opportunity to visit Great Britain.

Economy: The funding of 4500 SEK was used to cover travel costs from Höör to Southampton, accommodation 4 nights in Southampton and food expenses.

Kristina Mehlqvist, Lund