It’s hard to believe that its already 2025.
Reflections
We have compiled answers from the survey of attendees at the Seoul ICIS meeting, which confirmed our own feelings about the success of this conference. Kudos again to Drs. You-Me Kim and Sang-Il Lee, and our Korean Association of Immunologists (KAI) partners for putting together a truly excellent conference. As always, we conducted a survey of attendees, which confirmed this. The most striking finding is that over 94% of respondents plan to come to another Cytokines meeting based on their experience in Seoul (Figure 1).
Plans to graduate or budget considerations were the reasons most cited for not planning to attend in the future. But remember, the ICIS provides lots of travel awards! Notable speakers were also highlighted in the survey, with special shoutouts to Keynote speakers Drs. Drew Weissman and Judi Allen. The Early Career Researcher (ECR) networking reception was again very popular, with one attendee commenting “I got to meet amazing peers from all over the world.” Only very minor issues were raised concerning the website and the packed schedule – a good problem to have, since it means we have so much great science to share.
New Year, New Opportunities
In other news, we are sad to say goodbye to our longtime Managing Director Joan Oefner, who steered the ICIS since shortly after its merger, and has been the enthusiastic face and voice of our organization.
In Joan’s honor, we have established the Joan Oefner Travel Award to help defray costs for a future attendee(s). We encourage members to consider donating to this worthy cause, or indeed to support any of our other initiatives – and remember, your donations may be tax deductible.
Stephanie Flores, who spent the last year learning the ropes of ICIS as our co-Managing Director, will, proceed in this role full time, and I have no doubt that ICIS continue to be in excellent hands. I personally cannot thank Joan and Stephanie enough for all they do.
Mark your Calendars for Cytokines 2025!
This year’s meeting is November 2 – 5 in Seattle, Washington, USA. The meeting, co-chaired by Michael Gale, Jr and Ram Savan, will feature Nobel Laureates Charlie Rice and David Baker as keynote speakers. In addition to the exciting program, they are planning great networking and an exciting gala dinner. We will have lots of travel awards, so be sure to apply.
Finally, I sincerely wish everyone reading this the best as we embark on a new year. While acknowledging that challenges may lie ahead, with serious uncertainties in research funding among other troubling signs, we at the Cytokine Society remain hopeful that, if we help each other and remain strong, we can navigate whatever rough weather lies ahead (cytokine storms or otherwise).
Sincerely,
Sarah L. Gaffen, Ph.D.
President, International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS)