About IGO


History - Up to 1989, a Steering Committees of 10-15 participants was responsible for the organization of the biennial International Symposium on Glycoconjugates. In 1987 Hans Vliegenthart, who was then the contact person with the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB, now IUB-MB) proposed that a formal organization be established. At the Steering Committee meeting in Jerusalem (1989), chaired by Nathan Sharon, it was agreed that the International Glycoconjugate Organization should be created and Alan Chester was elected as Secretary. Hans Vliegenthart, Bengt Lindberg and Alan Chester prepared the Constitution, which was accepted in 1991 at the Toronto meeting.

Aims - Beyond overseeing the proper arrangement of the biennial International Glycoconjugate Symposia, IGO is charged with the responsibility to select recipients of the IGO Award and the IGO Young Glycoscientist Award, and to administer the Award fund. Above all, IGO is to promote international collaboration for the study of glycoconjugates.

from the official website of IGO


Board Members
President:Sandro Sonnino (National Representative of the 2019 host country, Italy).
President-Elect:Albert M. Wu (National Representative of the 2023 host country, Taiwan). 
Immediate Past President:Jin Won Cho (National Representative of the 2017 host country, Korea).

Secretary:Celso Reis
Treasurer:Thierry Hennet


National Representatives
(1) Pedro Bonay (Spain)
(2) Nicolai Bovin (Russia)
(3) Henrik Clausen (Denmark)
(4) Philippe Delannoy (France) 
(5) Anne Dell (UK) 
(6) Jukka Finne (Finland)
(7) Thierry Hennet (Switzerland)
(8) Rüdiger Horstkorte (Germany)
(9) Koichi Kato (Japan)
(10) Jaroslav Katrlík (Slovak Republic)
(11) Ute Krengel (Norway)
(12) Gordan Lauc (Croatia)
(13) Hakon Leffler (Sweden)
(14) Haojie Lu (China) 
(15) Matthew Macauley (Canada)
(16) Stacy Malaker (USA)
(17) Karina Marino (Argentina)
(18) Mauro Pavão (Brasil)
(19) Andrei Petrescu (Romania)
(20) Alessandro Prinetti (Italy)
(21) Celso Reis (Portugal)
(22) Avadhesha Surolia (India)
(23) Morten Andersen (Australia)
(24) Maciej Ugorski (Poland)
(25) Els Van Damme (Belgium)
(26) Hans Vliegenthart (The Netherlands)
(27) Iain Wilson (Austria)
(28) Michaela Wimmerová (Czech Republic)
(29) Albert Wu (Taiwan) 
(30) Won Ho Yang (South Korea)
(31) Yehiel Zick (Israel)


GLYCO Meetings
GLYCO I        1964, Swampscott, USA; by late Professor Roger Jeanloz
GLYCO II       1973, Lille, France; by late Professor Jean Montreuil
GLYCO III      1975, Brighton, UK; Professor Colin Hughes
GLYCO IV      1977, Woods Hole, USA; Professors John Gregory and Lennart Roden Co-chaired the meeting
GLYCO V       1979, Kiel, West Germany; by late Professor Roland Schauer
GLYCO VI      1981, Tokyo, Japan; by late Professor Tamio Yamakawa
GLYCO VII     1983, Ronneby, Sweden; by late Professor Bengt Lindberg
GLYCO VIII    1985, Houston, USA; by late Professor William J. Lennarz
GLYCO IX      1987, Lille, France; by late Professor Jean Montreuil
GLYCO X       1989, Jerusalem, Israel; by late Professor Nathan Sharon
GLYCO XI      1991, Toronto, Canada; Professor Harry Schachter
GLYCO XII     1993, Kraków, Poland; by late Professor Jerzy Koscielak
GLYCO XIII    1995, Seattle, USA; by late Professor Sen-itiroh Hakomori
GLYCO XIV    1997, Zurich, Switzerland; Professor Jürgen Roth
GLYCO XV     1999, Tokyo, Japan; Professor Akira Kobata
GLYCO XVI    2001, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Professor Hans Vliegenthart
GLYCO XVII   2003, Bangalore, India; Professor Avadesha Surolia
GLYCO XVIII  2005, Florence, Italy; Professor Guido Tettamanti
GLYCO XIX    2007, Cairns, Australia; Professor Paul Gleeson
GLYCO XX     2009, Puerto Rico; Professor Dipak Banerjee
GLYCO 21     2011, Vienna, Austia; Professor Leo März
GLYCO 22     2013, Dalian, China; Professor Jianxin Gu
GLYCO 23     2015, Split, Croatia; Professor Gordan Lauc
GLYCO 24     2017, Jeju, Korea; Professor Jin Won Cho
GLYCO 25     2019, Milano, Italy; Professor Sandro Sonnino
GLYCO 26     2023, Taipei, Taiwan
GLYCO 27     2025, Vancouver, Canada