New Year's Letter
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." - Charles Dickens
Dear Member,
The Irish Society of Toxicology had a busy year in 2011 with several new changes and initiatives taking place alongside our normal activities.
The Biennial Student Scholarships were awarded again in 2011 to Hilary Cassidy and Pratap Chandra Naha from UCD and DIT respectively. It has also been decided to award these scholarships on an annual basis subject to funding. So if you were not lucky enough to receive a scholarship in 2011, look out for another opportunity coming up in 2012.
We also held a very successful and interesting Annual Conference in November titled "Toxicology in the 21st century (Towards 21st Century Toxicology)". This event was held in conjunction with Athlone Institute of Technology and ShareBiotech and approximately 80 participants attended. This conference had international speakers Prof. Thomas Hartung (Director of the John Hopkins centre for alternatives to animal testing), Dr. Eckhard von Keutz (Head of Global Early Development, Bayer Healthcare), Annette Bitsch (Fraunhofer Institute) and David Dix (Deputy Director for the National Center of Computational Research, EPA). In addition we had some excellent presentations from Postdoctoral Fellow, Postgraduate researchers. With topics ranging from the latest human toxome mapping, early decision process in pre clinical studies, regulatory issues and predictive toxicology systems. We had a very intense and interactive session on these topics. On behalf of the Committee, I would very much like to thank all who helped organize the day to such success, especially Paul Tomkins and Eileen Lane Athlone Institute of technology, Sharon McGuinness, Vera Dowling, James McIntosh and Brendan Murray. Thanks also to all IST members who travelled near and far on the day.
In 2011, under the capable hands of Brendan Murray, the IST has continued to develop the website and in 2012 it is planned to have a more interactive facility made available to members. We strongly encourage you to use and interact with the site. If you wish to upload stories, views or events on toxicology or related matters, we encourage you to do so using the webmaster channel on the site.
The committee is actively developing a business strategy to enact the recommendations of the business review of the Society developed by a working group under the stewardship of Mark Lynch. This was accepted at AGM. The group sought to determine how we can best meet the changing face of toxicology in Ireland and the needs of our members.
A recommendation in the business review is to foster a continuing professional development program that would be available to members. This involves reinstating the Spring meeting and developing CPD modules or workshops on discrete topics.
As a start therefore we hope to see you at the Spring meeting on 'biomonitoring' which will be held in March in UCD. James McIntosh and our hosts Tara McMorrow and Michael Ryan are putting a lot of work into this and it is likely that remote access will also be available for those who cannot travel.
Until then and on behalf of my fellow committee members, I would like to wish you and all your families a Happy and Peaceful Christmas and New Year.
John Moriarty, President, Irish Society of Toxicology.
