The new year has started positively at the Society, the team are working to prepare and deliver many exciting projects and meetings throughout 2023.
Anticipation is building for the IUPHAR World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (WCP2023), which is now just six months away – and our team are working hard behind the scenes to ensure this meeting is a key part of the pharmacology calendar for our global community. I’m excited to meet with our members, and to network with those attending from overseas. As a Marine Biology graduate, I am excited to listen to the session on marine natural products and, given the success of our joint report with the Royal College of Physicians, the key note delivered by our President Emeritus, Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, on pharmacogenomics is definitely one not to be missed!
With early bird registration closing in March, I would encourage you register for your discounted early bird tickets, and visit the WCP2023 website for advice on accommodation, travel, and things to do in Glasgow while you’re at the conference. Once you’ve registered, make sure you tell your colleagues and friends – we want to bring our entire community together, and your help in spreading the word about WCP2023 will make all the difference.
The global economic crisis is something we are acutely aware of and we recognise the impact that these financial pressures may be having on your ability to travel and attend. To support our members, we offer bursaries designed to facilitate attendance for people speaking and attending and for those travelling from low- and middle-income countries there is further support available, please contact the team at registration.wcp2023@bps.ac.uk if you think you might be eligible. They would be happy to share further information with you.
It is also important to us that we provide opportunities for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to participate in meetings. For this reason, I hope you will consider donating to our WCP2023 ECR fund and help us reach our £10,000 goal to support the next generation of pharmacologists. All of your donation will help ECRs participate and present at WCP2023, with every single penny donated being used to support ECP attendance and opportunities. Thank you to those who have donated so generously already!
As Clive mentioned in his recent blog, we had an incredible response to our first call for WCP2023 abstract submissions. The call for late-breaking abstracts is now open until 14 February, and I encourage you to embrace this opportunity to share your science at the meeting by submitting your work and encouraging others to do the same.
If you’re a member of the Society, don’t forget that you’re eligible for discounted registration to our meetings, including registration for WCP2023. It’s one of many benefits of being a member – others include opportunities to serve on our committees, the ability to network with peers via our members only community hub, and free access to our journals.
We appreciate the contribution made by all members of our community, and we are particularly pleased to welcome our new Trustees, Professor Simon Kennedy and Professor Adrian Hobbs, our new Vice President roles, Dr Claire Guilding, Professor Pasquale Maffia and Professor A. Mark Evans, and our new Speciality Registrars (StR) Sub-committee Chair, Dr Elizabeth Adeyeye. In addition, I’d like to thank those who recently came to the end of their term in an appointed role – Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, Professor Lisa Wallace and Dr Christine Williams - for their hard work and commitment to delivering important projects and pieces for the Society.
I’d also like to reflect on the life of Sir Michael Rawlins, who passed away at the start of the month. His contribution to pharmacology made a significant impact on public health and helped to shape policy on medicine safety. Sir Michael was an Honorary Fellow of the Society, in recognition of his service to the field and the importance of his work. If you haven’t already I encourage you to watch the interview between Professor David Webb and Sir Michael, a fascinating insight in the life of a pharmacology giant.
This is a fantastic time to reflect on the importance of our community, and the value of collaborating to develop work that could make a huge impact on wider society. As well as joining us for meetings this year, we hope you’ll embrace opportunities to suggest ideas to us at the Society to collaborate, network, and connect to peers.
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