The International Focus Group on Tephrochronology and Volcanism (INTAV) held an international tephra conference, “Crossing New Frontiers: Tephra Hunt in Transylvania”, at the spectacular mountain resort ‘Cheile Gradistei’ Fundata near Moieciu de Sus (Fig. 1), about 30 km southwest of the regional city of Braşov, in the southern Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, Romania, from 24 June to 1 July, 2018. INTAV (which has operated previously under various names including COT, SCOTAV, and ICCT) is a global tephra research group active within the Stratigraphy and Chronology Commission (SACCOM) of INQUA since its initiation in 1961 (Kobayshi, 1965; Westgate and Gold, 1974; Lowe et al., 2011). It organises specialist tephra meetings every four years or so on average, although the most recent meeting (before this one in Romania) was held in 2010 in Kirishima, Japan (Holt and Lowe, 2010). The Romanian tephra meeting was convened by Daniel Veres (Romania) and Ulrich Hambach (Germany), together with support from the INTAV executive committee of Britta Jensen (Canada), Peter Abbott (UK/Switzerland), Takehiko Suzuki (Japan), Siwan Davies (UK), and David Lowe (New Zealand).