The peaceful and relaxing Uppsala (Sweden), the site of the oldest University in Scandinavia where Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) lived and studied for many years, hosted the 7th EAFE annual meeting.
After the intense days spent in the Neo-Renaissance Universitetshuset (University Main Building), it is time to congratulate all participants to the meeting. It was a truly international congress, four days long (from 9th to 12th June 2009), attended by approximately 70 delegates mostly from Europe but also a really great opportunity and pleasure to meet people from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Malaysia, Kuwait, South Africa, Turkey and, USA. A total of 36 oral presentations have been divided in 7 scientific sessions and 18 poster have been displayed all dealing with a wide range of research and case studies. Worth of mentioning are the survey of pig and human cadavers by infra-red thermography performed by Martin Hall and Amoret Withaker in the Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) in Tennessee (USA), the study on the relationship between necrophagous insects and volatile organic compounds released during decomposition investigated by Helen LeBlanc (Canada) and by Frederickx et al. (Belgium) through electroantennography and, finally, the fascinating talk on the accuracy of minimum PMI estimation presented by Martin Villet (South Africa). For those interested, this last speech was just a summary of a more detailed chapter listed in a newborn scientific book edited by Jens Amendt et al., actually in press but very soon available in library. During the meeting there was enough space also for an invited lecture made by Patricia Wiltshire (UK) who went on the very exciting field of forensic botany, palynology and, mycology. Something forensic scientists and forensic entomologists have to face with deeper during their criminal investigation. The 7th EAFE annual meeting was closed by an high profile workshop on the identification of blowfly larvae organized by Krysztof Szpila and colleagues from Poland (Department of Animal Ecology). Most participants took benefits of having access to microscopes comparing directly the identification keynotes illustrated and also available in well-organized handouts.
During the meeting Emmanuel Gaudry, one of the founding members of EAFE seven years ago in Paris, has been elected the new EAFE President. A really good luck to Manu who will have the responsibility of driving us facing with the impressive development of the forensic entomology discipline. Thank You very much indeed to Jens Amendt for his efforts during the past years. Jens was an excellent and very active EAFE President, we do not miss him since he will have part in the New EAFE Board. Three years are already passed since last election process we had in Bari 2006 and it was time to renew the EAFE Board. New Board members have been nominated Alejandra Perotti (UK) and Luc Bourguignon (Belgium) who were involved in the recent past in the organization of our previous annual meetings respectively held in Brussels (5th EAFE meeting 2007) and Crete (6th EAFE meeting 2008). Ian Dadour (Australia) was also elected our first representative of the associate EAFE members. I am quite sure of the fresh breeze coming from them all with new ideas and proposals useful to EAFE.
Unfortunately, the soft atmosphere we had in the unstressed Uppsala did not help the process of election. Several remarks raised soon at the end of the election process largely discussed by the Old and New Board members. The result of such intense discussion was really constructive and will certainly provide some changes for the further development of the EAFE. Folks, that’s quite all! Get prepared for Spain 2010 where we will be hosted by Isabel Arnaldos and her colleagues of the University of Murcia (Department of Zoology).

Carlo P. Campobasso