IQUA has been the very proud organiser of the 20th INQUA congress in Dublin in 2019. It was the largest INQUA congress to date with 2305 (56% male, 44%
female) delegates from 75 countries. The Congress was held at the Convention Centre and the professional conference organiser employed to assist with the organisation and hosting of the event was Keynote Ltd, a Dublin based specialist company. There were 139 sessions convened including 1185 oral presentations and 1476 posters. In addition, there were 6 plenary lectures by invited guests and a set of lunchtime presentations given by the INQUA medal winners with a well-received special presentation on ‘Quaternary Mars’ taking place on the final day.
The flawless timetabling and organisation of this volume of presentations took a lot of care and patience by a number of people in IQUA and Keynote Ltd staff working in close collaboration in the months before and during the Congress. There was an extremely good take-up for the fieldtrip programme which ran in tandem with the Congress meeting. 585 delegates attended 22 pre-, mid- and post-Congress fieldtrips to all corners of the island of Ireland (for which the fieldguides can be purchased below) and several locations in Britain thanks to the excellent support of the QRA.
This level of success for the Congress could not have been achieved without
the support of all our sponsors that include Science Foundation Ireland, Geological Survey Ireland, Geological Survey of Northern Ireland and Failte Ireland and many years of work by members of the Local Organising Committee, Keynote Ltd, all the fieldtrip organisers and many contributors to fieldtrip success including accommodation and other services providers, the IQUA members who volunteered at the Congress and the staff of the Convention Centre Dublin.
The video below showcases some of the highlights of this very successful congress.
A number of events and publications were prepared and published in the run-up to the Congress which you can see throughout our website with some highlighted below.
INQUA 2019 Abstract Booklet
All the abstracts of the oral and poster presentations of the INQUA 2019 congress have been compiled in a booklet that is downloadable here.
INQUA 2019 fieldguide publications
14 fieldguides were compiled for the various pre, mid and post-congress field trips. You can purchase them individually on our website (here) or you can purchase the 14 at a special package deal of €80 by clicking the link below.
IQUA fieldguide publications
The Irish Quaternary Association has been organising annual field meetings since the late 1970s. These 2-3 days event focus on a specific region and allow for research discussion in situ while presenting the current research to a wider audience. They are always accompanied by the publication of a fieldguide of which printed copies can be purchased at the stand at the various IQUA events throughout the year or on our website (here) where you’ll also find digital copies of such for sale.
Quaternary sites of Ireland
An A3 map of the Quaternary sites in Ireland was included in the registration pack at the Congress. This map was designed with the general public and visiting experts in mind to help highlight the most significant sites on the Island of Ireland that were discovered, visited and analysed over the course of the development of Quaternary science research in the region. 60 sites were selected classified as archaeological, geomorphological, megafaunal, palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphical sites with the 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites also indicated. They are displayed over the topography (EU-DTM at 25m resolution) and bathymetry (EMODnet bathymetry DTM at around 115m resolution) with added indications of landscape features like lakes, main rivers, bogs, ice-moulded sediments (drumlins, ribbed moraines, …), hummocky esker and moraines, U-shaped valley and larger urban areas. Although some of the historical sites are not accessible anymore, most are still visible and were visited for instance during IQUA field meetings over the years or will be during some of the congress excursions. They are named and described succinctly at the back of the map. A digital interactive version with further description, pictures and references is in the works to be included on this website in the future.
IQUA newsletter n°63
The 63rd edition of our newsletter was released for the INQUA congress and contains a range of information on the active Irish Quaternary scientific community with a “who’s who” that is there to simplify networking and creating potential future collaborations. The digital version is available for download here.
Giants of the Irish Quaternary booklet and exhibition
A recent publications on the historical spearheading figures of Irish Quaternary science is available for purchase online here. An exhibition of 10 pull-up banners dotted around the congress venue was also put in place. They focus on some of the selected “giants”, their life and their work in Ireland. Ask the IQUA committee if you’re interested in hosting the exhibition.
