14th APCCS in Taipei, Taiwan: Bruno Moerschbacher started his fare-well tour to the three important international chitin & chitosan conferences.

As in other fields, too, the Corona pandemic led to a gap in the three regular international chitin and chitosan conferences, EUCHIS, SIAQ, and APCCS. At EUCHIS 2023 in Iceland, representatives of national and regional chitin and chitosan societies had met and agreed upon a schedule for the next years, trying to spread conferences out reasonably so as to avoid crowding. But to make up for the Corona gap, we decided to re-start with a rather rapid succession of meetings. Thus, APCCS was held in Taipei this August, SIAQ will organize its next meeting at the end of October in Hermosillo, Mexico, and the next EUCHIS meeting will be organized by Prof. Francisco Goycoolea in Murcia, Spain, in May 2026. After retiring as a professor, Bruno Moerschbacher is taking this opportunity for a fare-well tour around the globe, meeting with colleagues and friends, met and made in more than 30 years of research on chitosans. APCCS 2025 marked the start of this tour – and an excellent one! The Taiwanese are an exceptionally friendly and lively, but at the same time well-organized people, a rare combination! Beyond his keynote lecture at the conference, he also gave a second and more personal seminar in the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology NTUST, on his scientific journey with chitosans and the best students in the world. Though meant as the beginning of an ending, Bruno confessed – in his Welcome Address during the Gala Dinner – that after listening to so many exciting talks opening up new opportunities, but also bringing new challenges, and after seeing so many eager young “chitosanologists” in the conference, he is about to change his mind and ask to be allowed to travel with them for a little longer.