Her doctoral students, Maximilian Ganser MSc and Michael Gruber MSc, presented their recent findings on phylogenetic analyses (FWF-Project I-3268) and character evolution in house-forming planktonic ciliates (FWF-Project P-28790), respectively. In an oral presentation given by Alan Warren from the Natural History Museum in London, S. Agatha and colleagues from the USA, Germany, and Australia suggested new guidelines for the investigation of biodiversity in ciliates (Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 64: 539). About 480 participants from all over the world enjoyed six days full of incredibly interesting plenary talks, oral presentations, and posters. The perfectly organized congress treated all aspects of protist biology, i.e., molecular genetics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, speciation, phylogeny, diversity, systematics, biogeography, ecology, ecophysiology, symbiosis, and cell biology.