Conference Patron:

Márton Lontai
director general of the HIFS

We would like to announce and cordially invite you to the 12th Haploid Markers Conference (HM2023) that will held in Budapest, Hungary. Because of Covid, the meeting was unfortunately postponed from 2020 first to 2021 than to 2022, but now we are very happy to finally be able to hold it in 2023.

HM2023 will be taking place in Budapest, one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. The previous conferences have taken place in the magnificent cities of Berlin, Porto, Innsbruck, Ancona, Brussels, and Bydgoszcz. In the history of Budapest, the year 1872 stands out as a milestone, for it was then that the three separate settlements of Pest, Buda and Óbuda (literally "Old" Buda) were united into one city. Its origins can be traced to the Celtic people who occupied the plains of Hungary from the 4th century BC, until its conquest by the Roman Empire who established the fortress and town of Aquincum on the bank of Danube, today’s Budapest around AD 100, and the subsequent arrival of the Hungarian Conquerors 895 AD.
Budapest officially became the capital city of Hungary in 1873 and underwent rapid growth in size and eminence. This was the city's golden age, and coincided with the Hungarian millennial celebrations in 1896 when the continental Europe's first underground was opened. 

The HIFS is the only institution established for forensic expert activities in Hungary, covering the entire country and under the control of the Ministry of the Interior.
The Hungarian Institute for Forensic Sciences located in Budapest, one of the most experienced in studies of haploid markers in Hungary, will be hosting the Conference.

The venue is Hotel Hungaria City Centre in the heart of the Budapest. 

Under the motto
Application of haploid markers – innovation and reflection
we want to invite papers –among others- on the following topics: 

• forensic application of the MPS technology, including the capture approach
• bringing Y chromosome and mtDNA haplogrouping on a new level using MPS
• haploid markers in the courtroom
• adjustment of forensic frequency databases to the needs of science and law enforcement 
• model-based statistics to evaluate the weight of evidence for haploid markers
• guidelines and recommendations concerning the interpretation of haploid markers results 
• ancestry and genealogical analyses using haploid markers
• matches and mismatches between genetic, linguistic, and geographical histories
• advanced statistical tools for population genetics analyses
• identification of human remains in a forensic, archaeological, and humanitarian context
• strengthening scholarly freedom and scholarly responsibility in the forensic genetics field
• testing evidence in sexual assault cases
• rapidly mutation Y-STR markers
• distinguished casework examples

As in the conferences before renowned plenary speakers will be invited to share their views with us.
The HM2023 has attractive pre-congress and training events.

We hope to see you in Budapest!

Sincerely 
Horolma Pamjav (HIFS), Ágota Dobos (HIFS), Lutz Roewer (ILM Berlin) and Walther Parson (ILM Innsbruck)

Soon...

Charla Marshall

Armed Forces Medical Examiner System's Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFMES-AFDIL)

Talk title: Mitochondrial DNA in the Age of SNPs 

Chiara Barbieri

Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Talk title: A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories

Lutz Roewer

Department of Forensic Genetics, Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Berlin, Germany

Talk title: Y chromosome analysis in the forensic laboratory

Walther Parson   

Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Talk title: EMPOP in the era of Massively Parallel Sequencing

Some fall in love with Budapest at first sight, others will only become devotees after a longer stay, but no-one denies that it is one of the most beautifully situated cities in the world. The wide stream of the Danube divides the metropolis of some two million inhabitants into two, the hilly Buda and the flat Pest. The panorama over the Danube and the radial avenue of Andrássy út are on the UNESCO world heritage list. Once you have seen them flood-lit, you will appreciate why.

The story starts on the Buda side when Celts settled on Gellért Hill well before the birth of Christ. This territory was later occupied by the Romans in the 1st century A.D. in their effort to expand the empire's frontiers north to the river Danube. The Roman settlement – Aquincum - grew into a town of 30,000 inhabitants and became the main city of Pannonia province. The Romans constructed paved roads, amphitheatres, bastions and fortified strongholds here, the ruins of which now increase Óbuda district's reputation.

Magyars settling in the territory in the 9th-10th century considered the river Danube the core of their new homeland rather than a natural borderline. The flat areas were populated first, including the large island that once stood where Pest City Centre stands today. The Tatar invasion in the 13th century quickly proved that defence is strategically difficult on a plain. King Béla IV therefore ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls around the towns and set his own royal palace on the top of the protecting hills of Buda.

The town's development was abruptly halted and took a new direction in the 16th century. Formerly rich settlements of Western civilization were gradually turned into vivid oriental "towns" and later abandoned, while the Christian cross was replaced by a new symbol: the crescent of the East. The Turkish occupation lasted for more than 140 years and left only very few marks but much destruction. All the values created by the occupants are linked to water - Turkish thermal baths are the best example. So after the Romans, we "owe a note of thanks" to the Turks for turning our city into a valuable spa resort capitalizing on its rich thermal resources. Some of the pools built in Budapest during the Turkish thraldom are still used today, like Rudas, Király, and another reminder of the Turkish times in Hungary.

The 18th century marked the slow awakening and recovery of the city. On the other hand the 19th century was the age of major changes and witnessed the birth of a completely new city almost from scratch. The hills of Buda and the city walls of Pest no longer provided protection and limited space was a barrier to real development. The core of the shaping metropolis thus moved down from the hill to the plains, making Pest the centre again. 1867 was the year of Reconciliation that brought about the birth of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy which significantly contributed to the blossoming of the country and its capital city.

In 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with the third part, Óbuda (Ancient Buda), thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The rapidly growing and flourishing city received new public offices, avenues, channels, public lighting, horse carriageways, a subway, green parks and bridges. By the turn of the century it was a genuine rival to Vienna. Dynamic Pest grew into the country's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub.

The destruction of the Second World War could only be compared to the devastation wrought by the Turkish occupiers. After the war and until May 1990, when the first democratically elected government took power, the country was a victim of communist imperialism. The achievements of the political changes and the past decade, like democracy and a market economy, help to efface the dictatorship of the not so distant past.

More information: http://www.budapest.com/city_guide.en.html

(Photographed by Horolma Pamjav)

Chain bridge from Buda csatle

Parliament at night

Parliament

Margit bridge from the Buda castle

St Stephen Basilica in Budapest

Erzsebet bridge

Margit bridge at night

Chain bridge at night

A rare sight