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In 1957, Dr Keith Harrison in Sydney and Dr Bryan Hudson in Melbourne first discussed the possibility of an association of physicians interested in diabetes. Over the next few months, the discussion was widened to include other areas of endocrinology and a number of additional physicians and scientists became involved. The Endocrine Society of Australia was formed in 1958 with 92 members, and ESA held its first scientific meeting on June 3 in Sydney with 8 papers being presented.

Fast forward to our 2007 annual scientific meeting held in Christchurch where we had 540 attendees, 4 plenary speakers, 11 symposia/workshops, 12 oral/poster sessions and 3 ‘meet-the-expert’ sessions, and it is obvious that our founders’ vision of ‘a society to unite physicians, physiologists and biochemists in a single forum’ has been fulfilled.

Additionally, ESA has over 800 members, it runs two other highly successful annual meetings (the Seminar Meeting and the Clinical Weekend).

We award a higher degree scholarship and a post-doctoral grant-in-aid each year, as well as a series of travel awards and junior investigator awards for best presentations at meetings.

On the clinical side, ESA has a very active involvement in physician training and medical affairs relevant to endocrinology.

ESA members have made seminal contributions to endocrine research and have received many prestigious international and national awards.

This very brief outline clearly shows just why ESA is proud of its first 50 years, and celebrations of this anniversary will be centred on our Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne this year. Because we need to look forwards as well as backwards, one of the highlights will be a Rising Star Symposium (co-endorsed by the Australian Academy of Science), which will showcase the young scientists and clinicians who are our future.

On behalf of ESA Council, I look forward to your participation in our celebrations.
ASM website: www.esa-srb.org.au

Leon Bach
President, ESA