One of the main activities of the GECD Committee is to organize symposia and networking events where issues of gender equality and career development could be discussed and recommendations made to individual societies for appropriate activities that would focus attention to these two subjects. The following events were organized in 2012:
Gender Equality and Career Development Symposium at the 5th Congress of the Federation of Immunology Societies of Asia Oceania (FIMSA) in New Delhi in March 2012. The Symposium attracted a large audience that listened to short presentations of the selected international panel of scientists and science administrators from India, whom then they later engaged in discussions mostly related to the state of women scientists in India. The panel included:
Dr. Rose French from the Burnet Institute and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Kishan Lal- President, Indian National Science Academy
Mr Amarjit Singh Chandhiok- Additional Solicitor General, India
Dr. Paola Ricciardi-Castagnoli – Scientific Director of the A*STAR Centre of Immunology (SIgN), Singapore
Dr. Geetha Bansal- School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
Prof Nirmal K Ganguly, President– JIPMER, Distinguished Biotechnology Research Professor, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India
Dr. Narinder Mehra, Dept of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India (Co-Chair of the GECD Committee)
Dr. Olivera Finn, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA
Please see the pdf attachment with pictures from the FIMSA Symposium. Also, see attached contribution by Dr Vineeta Bal, Scientist at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi or follow the link to the original publication: http://www.nature.com/nindia/2008/081120/full/nindia.2008.322.html
The second Symposium was held in Lima Peru on the occasion of the Association of Latin American Immunologists (ALAI) in June 2012. Report from this symposium is forthcoming.
