My 2025 was a year of conferences! In July I attended the 14th International Meeting on Phytolith Research (IMPR) in Barcelona, Spain. That was my busiest conference, as I helped lead a workshop on phytolith fluorescence, I gave a lecture on carbon sequestration in phytoliths, and I was involved in two posters. I was very touched when Margarita Osterrieth, the leading Argentinian phytolith researcher, and I were both presented with beautiful botanical prints (signed on the back by conference participants) in recognition of our long years of phytolith research. I then went almost straight on to Porto, Portugal, for the 20th International Plant Nutrition Colloquium (IPNC). This was not a conference I had ever attended before, but the reason I went was that I was invited to speak at a special session in memory of Emanuel Epstein, the great plant scientist, who spent much of his retirement working on plant silicon (Si). I got to know Emanuel and wrote an obituary for him when he died in 2022. My talk in Porto was on Si as a beneficial element in plant nutrition.
I then had a few weeks to recover before going to Belgrade, Serbia, in September for the 9th International Conference on Silicon in Agriculture (ICSA). They were also having a memorial session for Emanuel Epstein, and Miroslav Nikolic, the organiser of the 9th ICSA invited me to speak at it. He also wanted me to help him with editing a special issue of Plant and Soil which would come out of the conference (that is ongoing, and should be complete by the end of 2026). What would I speak on in Belgrade? Miroslav and I decided that a history of plant Si and phytolith research would be appropriate for me, as one of the active researchers with a long time working in the area. I think the talk went well, and afterwards I discussed writing it up for the special issue with Hans Lambers, the Editor-in-Chief of Plant and Soil. Hans kindly suggested that it should be one of his special Lambers Opinion Papers, a series of papers that are invited by him. So ended my conferences of 2025. Before anyone gets the idea that I am some sort of jet set researcher, I should state this has never happened before, and almost certainly will never happen again! But the jet setting did at least give me a great overview of plant Si and phytolith research which was useful for my paper.
So when I got back home, I started writing my history. The paper is somewhat biased towards plant Si, which is appropriate for the special issue it is in, but phytolith people will find a lot there for them. There are now really two sub-fields in this area: plant Si where researchers are mostly interested in agriculture, ecology and plant physiology; and phytolith research where the main interests are archaeology and palaeoecology. But there is an area of overlap, and I spent some time discussing this. I wanted to make it a personal history, so starting in 1980, when I first met Dafydd Wynn Parry and I began my work on plant Si and phytoliths. Then I considered the research that happened in each subsequent decade. It includes some short sections on my own research. I looked at the books, the conferences, the top publications, and the special issues on plant Si and phytoliths. Then I had great fun finding the researchers who have published for more than 30 years in the area. There are 36 of us! Can you guess who has the longest publication career? Look at the paper! In the Supplementary Information I have three obituaries and a photographic history going back to 1983. I wanted people in 50 years’ time to know what we looked like. But I didn’t want the paper to entirely focus on the past, and I highlighted the work of the young prize winners at both the 14th IMPR and the 9th ICSA, before suggesting ideas for future research.
One final point. As I suggested in my paper, I think there would be much to be gained from more interaction between plant Si and phytolith people, particularly in the areas of overlap between the two sub-fields. A joint conference between The International Phytolith Society (IPS) and The International Society for Silicon in Agriculture Society and Related Disciplines (ISSAG) maybe? Just an idea!
If you want to have a look at my paper here it is:
Martin J. Hodson (2026) Forty-five years of plant silicon and phytolith research. A personal review. Plant and Soil https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-026-08993-8