Published on: 28-05-2016
Dear TIAFT Members:
The first regional meeting of TIAFT was held in Cape Town, South Africa with great success. Alicia Evans and her team organized the first meeting and there were 70 participants from all over South Africa including National Department of Health laboratories, South African Police laboratories, Academic University laboratories and students. Because the program was very well organized, all participants and speakers were very much impressed by not only the highly informative program, but also the efficient arrangement of lectures. The program of the meeting is on our website. All board members and Nikolas Lemos gave 45-minute talks on one to three different subjects covering most subjects of Forensic Toxicology. All participants were eager to learn and very attentive from the beginning to the last moment and appreciated the opportunity of learning forensic toxicology. I was deeply moved by their positive attitudes and passion for forensic toxicology. It was a fabulous moment for the board to be a part of. The most important part was a very enthusiastic discussion after lectures between speakers and participants, indicating all lectures were very well received by participants. The meeting place was also perfect, which is located near the seashore of the Atlantic Ocean.
Regarding the regional meeting in Cape Town, on behalf of TIAFT, I would like to express my appreciation to Alicia and her team for their hard work, selfless service, and strong desire to make this a highly beneficial event for each and every participant. She and her team have worked very hard to make this meeting possible. She is a person of passion and energy. I would also like to thank Peter Smith, who is a laboratory director for division of Pharmacology and Lorna Martin who is a head for division of Forensic Medicine at University of Cape Town. Dr. Martin gave an overview of the Forensic medicine situation in South Africa and it also raised a lot of questions and insightful discussion. It was a great moment for us to learn about the situation of Forensic Toxicology in South Africa.
After the regional meeting, there was a board meeting. The agenda of 24 items included the minutes of last annual meeting, report of secretary and treasurer, report of annual meeting in Brisbane, DCF travel grant 2016, Award, Bulletin (new editor), young scientist committee report, website report, Regional meeting( 12th Latin meeting and so on), 2020 annual meeting sites, Database of therapeutic and toxic values, free books for DC members, New RRS, Grant for analytical method, student membership, library service, ethics guidelines, RR requests, Board term limit, new initiatives for membership and so on.
For DCF travel grant, this year awards will be given to Ana Miguel (Brazil), Lilia Melo (Brazil), Rachel Bulcao (Brazil), Jalilov Fazilddin (Uzbekistan) and Bronwen Davies (South Africa) among 17 applicants. Congratulations!
Youness Zebbiche was appointed as a new RR in Algeria.
Most importantly, the board proposed to organize the ethics committee and the new editor of Bulletin will be appointed very soon.
Regarding the deadline for the Alan Curry Award and TIAFT achievement Award it will be two months before the annual meeting, so this year it will be June 27th. Also, the deadline for hosting the 2020 annual meeting is August 1, 2015.
The board had a discussion about the term limit for the board. After a long discussion, it came to conclusion that two terms at one position will be proposed. It will be discussed at the business meeting in Brisbane and finalized by our members.
Now it is time for us to prepare for our trip to Brisbane. The 54th annual meeting is being prepared under the leadership of Olaf Drummer, Mark Stephenson and Dimitri Gerostamoulous. They informed that 350 abstracts were submitted including 116 oral presentations. It sounds like we will have a great scientific program. For the social program, the welcome reception will be held on Sunday evening, a half day excursion on Wednesday and farewell banquet on Thursday. Please make yourself available for both scientific program as well as the social program.
I encourage all of you to be in Brisbane to share your knowledge and to meet old and new friends. We are going to have a grand time together. Make sure to be there to learn, contribute, and enjoy.
I greatly hope you enjoy it. Thank you all very much.
Sincerely,
Dr. Heesun Chung,
President, TIAFT