by Srishti Batra – Last month, I got the opportunity to attend one of the most important meetings in the field of Chemical Ecology. It was joint meeting of International Society of Chemical ecology (ISCE) and the Asian Pacific Association for Chemical Ecology (APACE), held in the beautiful city of Kyoto, Japan. Thanks to the ISCE, which provided a travel award, I was exposed to the immense depth and breadth of the chemical ecology field at the meeting ranging from pheromones, plant defenses, herbivores, immunology and marine ecology. I got to learn a lot from interesting talks and received great reviews for my poster. It was an amazing week full of talks, meeting new people in our field and enjoying Japanese hospitality.