Preface: evolving rotifers, evolving science

The International Rotifer Symposium held in ?eské Bud?jovice, Czech Republic, from August 30th to September 4th 2015 was the 14th meeting of the rotifer family. These Symposia are a series of informal gatherings of researchers interested in rotifers. Participants usually include researchers who devote most, if not all, of their time to aspects of rotifer biology, ecology, and systematics, practitioners who encounter rotifers in their work, and researchers from disparate fields who find rotifers to be interesting model systems to address their research questions. In 2015, attendees included 124 participants from 28 countries (Fig. 1), with highest representation from Mexico, USA, and China.