History of the conference series
More than 200 years ago, Henri Braconnot isolated interesting substance from mushroom in 1811 and named “fungine”. Ten years later, in 1821, the name “chitine” was given to a material seemingly identical to “fungine”, but found by A. Odier while studying insects. Scientific interest in chitin continued for a time, but they were forgotten until 50 years ago when researcher awareness that this natural polymer has an impressive number of potential applications stimulated new research. [Proceedings of The First International Conference on Chitin and Chitosan, 1978]
It was the time that the 1st International Conference on Chitin and Chitosan (ICCC) was held in Boston, USA in April, 1977, not only basic but also applied research has made extensive progress. After the 2nd ICCC was held in Sapporo, Japan, this very successful series of international conferences is running every three years normally since 1982. Previous ICCC conferences were held in the following cities:
| No. | Year | City (Country) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1977.4 | Boston (USA) |
| 2 | 1982.7 | Sapporo (Japan) |
| 3 | 1985.4 | Ancona (Italy) |
| 4 | 1988.8 | Trondheim (Norway) |
| 5 | 1991.10 | Princeton, (USA) |
| 6 | 1994.8 | Gdynia (Poland) |
| 7 | 1997.9 | Lyon (France) |
| 8 | 2000.9 | Yamaguchi (Japan) |
| 9 | 2003.8 | Montreal (Canada) |
| 10 | 2006.9 | Montperie (France) |
| 11 | 2009.8 | Taipei (Taiwan) |
| 12 | 2012.9 | Fortaleza (Brazil) |
| 13 | 2015.8 | Munster (Germany) |
| 14 | 2018.8 | Osaka (Japan) |
| 15 | 2023.9 | Siglufjörður (Iceland) |
| 16 | 2025.10 | Hermosillo (Mexico) |
The interest in chitin and chitosan among researchers in Asia is relatively new, except Japan. However, it gained its momentum around 1990s, soon after the importance of this modern versatile environmentally friendly materials were realized plus the raw materials to produce them are abundant and know-how to produce them with an acceptable equality is not too difficult. [Advances in Chitin Science, Volume III, 1998]
As a result, 1st Asia-Pacific Chitin and Chitosan Symposium was held at Bangi, Malaysia in 1994. APCCS were held mostly every two years except for the COVID-19 pandemic period.
| No. | Year | City (Country) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1994.5 | Bangi (Malaysia) |
| 2 | 1996 | Bangkok (Thailand) |
| 3 | 1998.9 | Keeling (Taiwan) |
| 4 | 2000.9 | Yamaguchi (Japan) |
| 5 | 2002.3 | Bangkok (Thailand) |
| 6 | 2004.5 | Singapore (Singapore) |
| 7 | 2006.4 | Busan (Korea) |
| 8 | 2009.8 | Taipei (Taiwan) |
| 9 | 2011.8 | Nha Trang (Vietnum) |
| 10 | 2013.10 | Yonago (Japan) |
| 11 | 2015.9 | Kochi (India) |
| 12 | 2018.8 | Osaka (Japan) |
| 13 | 2023.10 | Jeju (Korea) |
| 14 | 2025.9 | Taipei (Taiwan) |
The very successful series of international conferences have been running supported by many researchers and students all over the world. In 2027, both the 17th ICCC and 15th APCCS are jointly organized from the end of September to the beginning of October at Kitakyushu International Conference Center, located in Fukuoka, Japan. In addition, 41st Japanese Society for Chitin and Chitosan Conference (JSCCC) is also held together at the same venue and the same period. Hoping that this conference will leave footprints for the future in the development of the chitin chitosan field.