Welcome

Can you believe that it has been three years since our last in-person gathering?  Neither can we. It has been too long, and we are honored to host the 2023, in-person IHW in Missoula, Montana! We are putting together an exciting scientific program that includes both traditional and cutting-edge session topics. Continuing the efforts of past workshops, IHW 2023 aims to showcase the diverse community of outstanding herpesvirologists from around the world. While we cannot possibly match the low cost of the recent virtual workshops, we are making all efforts to make the IHW 2023 affordable. The workshop sessions will be held on the University of Montana campus, with hotel and dormitory housing options within a 15-minute walk to the meeting space.

In the 1976 novella “A River Runs Through It”, Norman Maclean mused of his youth spent in Missoula in the early 1900’s, "The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana."  While Maclean’s sampling and statistical methods might be questionable, Missoula is home to wonderful people who treasure this special place. At the end of the last ice age, a finger of glacial ice advancing from the north dammed the Clark-Fork drainage creating Glacial lake Missoula. Remnants of the shoreline ebb and flow can still be seen as striations on the surrounding mountains. The Missoula valley lies at the confluence of the Clark Fork, Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers and is the traditional homeland of the Salish, Kootenai, and Kalispel nations. Today, Missoula offers opportunities to experience modern urban amenities including outstanding restaurants, microbreweries, shopping and a thriving arts scene, world-class outdoor recreation, and humbling, reverent calls from the ancient past.

We hope that you join us this year and look forward to reconnecting with you all.

Brent, Katya, and Michael.