ESA News

ESA Newsletter: April 2002

From the ESA President

I am delighted to report that members of the Society continue to be recognised for their achievements. Congratulations to John Funder for receipt of the 2002 Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Service Award from the US Endocrine Society this year. Congratulations also to Evan Simpson for the Asia Oceania Medal from the Society for Endocrinology UK and to Martin Silink who was recognised in the Australia Day Awards for distinguished services to medicine.

I am pleased to provide you with an update on financial matters, the Secretariat, professional relationships and scientific meetings. The ESA’s financial status was boosted significantly by a healthy surplus from the ICE meeting and continued strong corporate sponsorship. I express my thanks to Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Pharmacia, our major corporate sponsors and to Boehringer Ingelheim, DSL, Ipsen, Novartis, Serono and Servier as corporate sponsors for 2002. Council is assessing various managed funds to provide a balance of security and investment returns to the Society. We have carefully reviewed how the present endowment can be used to benefit the ESA membership. After considering a range of options including research scholarships, Council has made a decision to strengthen travel support for national meetings, provide travel grants for international endocrine meetings and to fund the establishment of a Japan-Australia lecture, which will be inaugurated at this year’s Annual Scientific Meeting.

Ivone Johnson and Ben Canny are working hard to set up the new membership database and to upgrade the web facilities which will allow the Secretariat to provide more efficient service to members. The College has been strongly supportive of our needs and has relocated the Secretariat to a more spacious and better equipped office. It has also worked closely with Ben and Ivone to ensure that our procedures comply with recent changes to the Privacy Act covering private sector provisions.

The Society has also been engaged in a review of the Memorandum of Understanding with the College. This serves the purpose of identifying the structural working relationships between the two parties and facilitating communication and joint planning in a number of collaborations covering physician training, professional development, health policy, access to College resources and credentialling activities.

I draw your attention to the exciting programs planned for the Seminar Meeting in April 2002 and the Annual Scientific Meeting in September 2002. For the Seminar Meeting in Hobart, Dr John Burgess has programmed a special day on neuroendocrine tumours with Prof Kjell Oberg from Sweden as the Keynote Visiting Professor. Professors Peter Lauberg from Denmark and Laurence Cole from the US will participate in the remainder of the program which includes osteoporosis, iodine deficiency and metabolic disorders.

The Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) will be held jointly with the Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) and the Australian Diabetes Society (ADS) in Adelaide. Ray Rodgers and his Local Organising Committee are working tirelessly with conference organiser Mike Pickford towards its success. Steve Judd has put together a scintillating mixture of educational and social activities for the Clinical Weekend in the Barossa Valley. Dr Leon Bach has introduced a number of exciting innovations to the ASM program including joint sessions on male and female reproduction and a Hot Topics session with the SRB. The Inaugural Japan-Australia Lecturer is Prof Masayasu Kojima, the discoverer of ghrelin, the Harrison Lecturer is Prof George Chrousos and the Taft Lecturer is Prof Paul Stewart. The program also features a Neuroendocrine Symposium on stress, which will be held jointly with the Neuroendocrinology Interest Group.

Finally, I draw your attention to the Call for Nominations for Council. Please consider standing or nominating others whom you think would serve the Society well. The new Council will take over at the start of the Annual Scientific Meeting in Adelaide.

Ken Ho, ESA President

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