ISAR's President’s spring 2022 MESSAGE
Dear ISAR Members,
I am extremely excited to begin my tenure as President of ISAR following our first in person meeting in three years in Seattle last March. It was wonderful to finally see so many old friends as well as to make new ones. I would like to first thank my friend and colleague Kara Carter for her incredible dedication and perseverance as ISAR President for the past two years. It was truly an honor to work alongside her. Although most of you may not have been aware, she worked tirelessly to lead the Society through the pandemic with great professionalism and calm, despite the many hardships and tough decisions that had to be made in a continuously changing environment. Fortunately, however, Kara isn’t going anywhere!! She is still an active part of the ISAR leadership as Immediate Past President and I very much look forward to continuing to work with her, as we definitely make a great team!
I am also thrilled to be working with my good friend and collaborator Luis M Schang as the incoming President-Elect. Luis is incredibly dedicated, and he will undoubtedly bring his enthusiasm, experience (particularly his excellent handling of ISAR News and our social media team), not to mention, his excellent scientific expertise to the Society. I look forward to continuing to work with all of our outstanding members of the Board of Directors, as well as the Officers of the Society and you – our members. Having served for many years as a Board member, and also having been involved in many Society activities, I know how important all of our members are to the success of our Society.
As each day passes and we slowly begin to return to normal, it fills me with pride when I reflect upon the herculean efforts that our Society members have been involved with towards ending this horrible pandemic over the past two years. Moreover, I am also heartened to see how dedicated our Society members remain in their efforts to develop new therapeutics and vaccines for COVID, as well as towards finding cures and treatments for the other viruses that still threaten our lives. I think all of us that were able to attend ICAR2022 in person this year felt a renewed sense of purpose, particularly after the inspiring plenary lectures we heard from Ken Duncan and Carl Dieffenbach. Their message that we must all pool our expertise and resources to work together to solve global health inequities as well as existing and emerging infectious diseases, is indeed the same as one of the major goals of our Society. In that regard, good science is a collaboration, a melding of expertise. Importantly, as a chemist, almost all of my collaborators over the years, both new and old, arose as a result of attending ICAR meetings. Which is why I bring my students to ICAR meetings so that they can see how important collaborations are, as well as to be exposed to outstanding science.
As we look forward with great anticipation to meeting again in person next year at ICAR2023 in Lyon, France, and following that, ICAR 2024 in Australia, I feel confident that our members will continue to be on the forefront of new discoveries to help cure not only the current viruses we face, but also new infectious diseases that continuously emerge. We should never forget we have an amazing and deep treasure-trove of expertise among us that spans many areas.
In short, I am incredibly honored to have been chosen as President of this wonderful Society and I look forward to continuing to serve all of you with great enthusiasm and dedication.
Best Regards,
Kathie Seley-Radtke
President, ISAR
May 17, 2022