Outgoing Presidents Letter Fall 2023
September 18, 2023
Dear IZFS Members,
It is hard to believe a year has flown by since I wrote my message as the incoming President in the Summer 2022 News Splash (Issue 13). I write this letter as the outgoing President, having left the flowers bursting forth in our unusually early spring in Chile to visit my family in an unsettling, vibrant green fall in northern New York state.
Today the eighteenth of September marks the date that Chile began fighting for independence from Spain (September 18th, 1810), a dream that was not fully realized until eight years later with the official declaration of independence on February 12, 1818. Celebrations of statehood, whose roots often lie in military might, remind one of the fragile state in which many countries exist; civil wars, drug wars, and terrorist insurgencies that disproportionately affect developing countries (https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/countries-currently-at-war). I assumed the role of President shortly after the brutal invasion of the Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, an action that brought war to the developed countries leaving thousands dead and destabilizing of the world economy. More importantly, the hopes for not only European but world peace, are strained as the situation threatens to erupt outside the borders of Europe. I think of our closely-knit zebrafish community, built on friendships and collaborations that span years and continents. This gives me hope that the web of humanity based on knowledge and shared dreams will prevail.
My first challenge as president was to navigate the intricacies of planning the Strategic Conference for Zebrafish Investigators (SCZI) 2023 meeting in Asia with very limited time. Careful consideration of the challenges of planning the meeting on a short deadline led to the decision in November 2022 to not take on the financial risk. Thus we moved forward on planning the very busy 2024 calendar for the IZFS. In these endeavors we have continued to work with our essential EDI team based in Milwaukee, USA; Nichole Nikolic, Alyssa Czerwinski, saying good-bye to Alex Llanas and welcoming Avery Farmer.
Planning for the SCZI 2024 in Asilomar, California meeting is well underway where I have been working with Karuna Sampath, Kelly Monk and Kessen Patten, the organizing committee for this meeting. The response of the IZFS community has been enthusiastic and we look forward to an exciting meeting in Asilomar, the first time since 2019. Concurrently our President, Corinne Houart, has been moving forward with our second meeting organized by the IZFS in 2024: The 18th International Zebrafish Conference in beautiful Kyoto, Japan from August 17-21, 2024 (mark your calendars!). In addition, the IZFS will be participating in The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC 2024) organized by the Genetics Society of America (GSA) March 6–10, 2024 in Washington DC. We are delighted to have Cecilia Moens representing the IZFS on the Allied Program Committee, with Florence Marlow and David Tobin serving as our Zebrafish Community Program Committee Organizers.
In the European Zebrafish Meeting in Kraków, Poland 2023 we continued to recognize our colleagues both near and far for their contributions to the zebrafish community with Mary Mullins receiving the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard award for outstanding achievements in zebrafish research from the European Zebrafish Society and John Postlethwait, receiving the George Streisinger Award recognizing scientific advances and transformative contributions to the zebrafish and developmental biology fields. The Chi-Bin Chien Award for outstanding young scientists went to Peter Fabian (PhD Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic). All these awards highlight not only the talent and good will that is exemplified by the zebrafish community, but also the strong international bonds that unite us.
We continued our IZFS webinar series in 2023, organized by Christian Mosimann, highlighting toxicology/teratology, a field of investigation in which zebrafish are ideally suited, as well as the amazing wealth of information in the zebrafish genomics and epigenomics datasets. In other activities, Special gratitude goes to the News Splash group for keeping us on track with our Newsletter!
Part of my stated interest in accepting the candidacy for IZFS President was that I could further work on sustainability. To this end I was delighted to participate in the plenary session and workshop dedicated to this theme and organized by the Sustainability Committee at the 17th IZFC in Montreal, Canada, 2022. As part of our commitment to sustainability and responsible financial planning we have initiated discussions between the different professional societies of the zebrafish community looking for opportunities to reduce our impact on the environment. Notably, the Sustainability Committee now has a link on the IZFS website where information can be found on the first IZFS Sustainability Audit! Finally, the IZFS and the European Zebrafish Society are working together to facilitate interactions through our IZFS committees on not only Sustainability, but also Diversity and Inclusion.
A second stated goal in my accepting the candidacy for IZFS President was to change our website design, incorporating images from zebrafish labs around the world, and thus increase visibility of the IZFS. With the help of our EDI team we have recently implemented the new website design and look forward to receiving images from colleagues around the world.
As I move to assume the role of Past- President, it is with great pleasure and confidence I welcome our new President Corinne Houart, a highly motivated and professional scientist. I know Corinne will not only continue to work toward a more sustainable approach to science, but also expand our horizons to include labs from the far reaches of the world, extending opportunities to all scientists.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge contributions of people with whom I worked: Lila Solnica-Krezel who as IZFS President was a role model for professional conduct and humanism, the Executive Committee (past and present) Kristen Kwan, Han Wang, Steve Farber, Corinne Houart, and the team at EDI, especially Alyssa and Nichole for their infinite patience. Finally I thank all members of the IZFS for this opportunity to serve the society and support scientists around the world.
With my very best wishes to all,
Kate