Published on: 23-07-2017
Dear TIAFT Members:
I hope you all have a beautiful summer in the northern hemisphere and mild winter in the southern hemisphere. These days it is hot and humid here in Korea, and I miss the cold of winter very much.
Our 55th meeting in Boca Raton is just two months away, and now it is time to finalize our travel arrangements. We will be having participants coming from all over the world. It's going to be special, and I hope all of you attend.
As you know, this will be the 5th Joint Meeting of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) and The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT).
Here is our joint meeting history:
- 1994: Tampa
- 1998: Albuquerque
- 2004: Washington DC
- 2011: San Francisco
- 2017: Boca Raton
Whenever we have a joint meeting, it's always great fun to be together with American and International toxicologists to exchange state of the art technology and share new ideas. Through the joint meetings, our friendship has continued to grow closer. Therefore I am positive that our collaboration and friendship will be stronger than ever after this fifth joint meeting.
I am happy to inform you that the meeting committee has prepared many beneficial activities for us to enjoy. Have a look at these event highlights:
- Monday: Welcome reception
- Tuesday: Beach party
- Wednesday: Dinner Cruise
- Thursday: President Banquet
The opening ceremony will be on Monday, September 11 at 5:45 pm and I am looking forward to meeting you all there.
Our SOFT friends in the US are working very hard to make the meeting a memorable and enjoyable one. On behalf of all TIAFT members, I am grateful to them for their dedication.
First, I would like to thank our meeting hosts, Ruth Winecker and Dan Anderson for their great effort to ensure this meeting is pleasant and comfortable. Thanks to their great efforts, we are sure to enjoy the meeting.
Second, I would like to thank the scientific program committee, especially Robert Kronstrand and Robert Johnson for their excellent contributions as Scientific program chairs. Because there were over 500 abstracts submitted, they had a hard time to select 178 papers for oral presentations and 218 for poster presentations. It was tough work to choose papers among all the great abstracts.
Third, I would like to thank Frank Peters and Diane Boland for conducting workshops on Sunday and Monday. There will be 17 workshops, and all of them will enrich our knowledge in Forensic toxicology.
Fourth, I would like to thank all meeting committee members for taking care of all matters in organizing the meeting.
Last, I would like to thank Bruce Goldberg, president of SOFT for allowing for us to have a joint meeting between SOFT and TIAFT.
I encourage all of you to be in Boca Raton to share your knowledge and to meet old and new friends. We are going to have a grand time together. Please make yourself available for both the scientific program as well as the social program.
Before closing, I would like to inform you that I am still waiting for the nominations of executive committee members. The deadline for nominations will be Aug. 14, 2017. Also, the deadline for hosting the 2021 annual meeting is Aug. 15, 2017.
Last week, I visited Malaysia and had a chance to meet many experts at the Malaysia Department of Chemistry. At the section of Forensic toxicology, I introduced the activities of TIAFT, and most of the toxicologists there showed interest in joining TIAFT and promised to join (photo). Since we only have one member in Malaysia, I greatly hope we will have many new members from there very soon.
I am looking forward to seeing you all very soon in Boca Raton.
Sincerely,
Dr. Heesun Chung,
President, TIAFT