To the Presidents of Immunological Societies, Presidents of Federations of Immunological Societies, Board Members, Officers.

Dear Colleagues and Friends

as I did at the end of 2017, I would like to provide our Constituency with an executive report on IUIS activities in 2018, in a continuing effort to strengthen communication and transparency in the Union.  On May 13^th 2018 the IUIS Council met in Cancun, Mexico, on the occasion of the congress of the Latin American Federation of Immunological Societies (ALAI).

The Council was preceded for the second time by a meeting of Committee Chairs, which was characterized by a productive discussion. Committees are the backbone of IUIS and provide an invaluable service to our Community and to Biomedicine at large. As such, they are a priority for IUIS.

 

Highlights of the 2018 activities are presented in the enclosed PDF and can be summarized as follows:

Link to the executive report

1)      Communication.  Efforts have been continued to improve communication, accountability and transparency. This executive report and the Newsletter sent regularly are testimony to this effort.

2)      Committees. See the Committees’ reports. A rotation policy was established and has been implemented.

3)      Other Societies. We strengthened liaisons with societies with a focus on specific areas of Immunology (SITC for cancer immunotherapy) or with overlapping interests (IUPHAR for immunopharmacology).

4)      Beijing 2019. 18-23 October 2019. We thank the Chinese Society of Immunology (CSI) for an outstanding effort. The Scientific Program Committee is chaired by Xuetao Cao and Vijay Kuchroo serves as vice-Chair. Mike Ratcliffe serves as IUIS liaison in the Committee. We are confident that the IUIS-ICI meeting will be unforgettable in terms of science and ambiance.

 

Finally, I would like to express my personal gratitude to the ExCo members (Faith Osier, Vice-President; Jorge Kalil, Past President; Michael Ratcliffe, Treasurer; Roslyn Kemp, Secretary General) for their dedication to the Union and to the KIT crew (Sumiko Tanaka and Angelica Gutierrez) for invaluable support.

 

This executive report summarizes efforts and progress; we are aware of challenges ahead and we are confident that the IUIS community will continue to serve “Immunology without borders”

 

Yours friendly,

Alberto Mantovani

IUIS President