Expanding Internationality, Embracing Inclusivity, and Empowering Early Career Scientists
I am still reflecting on the incredible experience at the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany last month listening to groundbreaking science at the talks, posters and in informal chats. Connecting with members of our community provided me with tremendous insight and inspiration. This highly successful annual meeting was created through the vision of Malin Parmar and Agnete Kirkeby in partnership with the members of the 2024 Program Committee, and under the leadership of Amander Clark. This hallmark annual event, along with the scientific programming the ISSCR offers throughout the year, would not be possible without the incredibly talented group of ISSCR staff members who support our program organizers. Their contributions every day to our Society cannot be overstated.
The ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting also was my first opportunity to address our membership as incoming president. I am honored to be entrusted with this role and to make an impact on the future of our Society. Throughout my presidential year, I intend to focus on people and to scrutinize processes so that they better support the diversity of needs of our members across identities including geographies and career stages. In turn this will increase opportunities for professional growth of our members and augment our collective impact. As I commit to this vision, I equally commit to speak with openness about the struggles that we have and will experience in order to make this vision a reality.
The first process will be focused on the internationality of our community – the geographic diversity of our members, the location of our meetings and events, and the needs of our growing community, which vary across the world. By embracing our membership around the world, celebrating the local research and scientists, and bridging connections within our membership, we deepen our understanding of how we can provide greater value to our members.
The second process is one that commits to include and listen to our early career scientists – from training stages to early phases of independent leadership positions across professional areas. These researchers and professionals are the future of our field and comprise more than 50 percent of ISSCR’s membership. I remember starting out in my career and watching Leanne Jones leading this committee, composed of and dedicated to giving a voice to early career scientists. The impact it had on my capacity to feel a belonging within the ISSCR was profound.
Lastly, I commit to continue to highlight the incredible work of so many scientists that constitutes the human infrastructure of volunteers that is behind all the ISSCR programs and initiatives. In addition to a Board of Directors, there are 12 committees comprising 150 volunteers and 21 ISSCR staff members responsible for the vibrant programs and policies we witness coming from the ISSCR. Not to mention our task forces and working groups that convene around special initiatives. Our talented volunteers have forged many notable firsts including developing the International Standards for Human Stem Cell Use in Research, designing an open-access stem cell biology syllabus, and meeting for the first time with regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Medicines Agency to discuss opportunities and challenges of developing cell therapies.
As I focus on these goals – internationality, early career scientists, ISSCR volunteers – I will continue to ask myself and the ISSCR leadership to what extent these goals find expression in the work of the Society. How, for example, do the nominations for the board of directors, for our awards, and for our committees reflect the aspirations we have to be an inclusive society? How do we determine where to host international symposia and who is invited? How do we seek broader input on initiatives including the Guidelines and Standards that are the foundation for our field?
I look forward to the year ahead and to learning what subjects are important to you as the ISSCR continuously strives to evolve. So, please continue to email me with your ideas at valentina.greco@yale.edu and share with me what you need from the ISSCR and the community we are evolving together with you. I am honored to be serving you and to help mold this Society into an all-embracing home for us all.
Valentina
I am grateful for the collaboration with Kym Kilbourne for her partnership in giving expression to the thought reported in this message and the speech at the 2024 annual conference. I’m looking forward to partnering with her for the upcoming monthly news. I am also grateful for the input that Eugenia Piddini, Kathy Cheah, Evan Lee Graham, David Berg, and members of the Greco lab provided on this piece.