President's Report August 2009

Report from the Past-President

IMSF President's Report

August 2009

This report provides a brief account of the most relevant actions and decisions made on behalf of the IMSF following the 17th IMSC in Prague, August 2006.

IMSF Affiliates
Over the past three years there have been several changes to the group of IMSF affiliated mass spectrometry societies. Unfortunately, Argentina, Egypt and Venezuela have ceased their affiliation. However, it is hoped that these will be restored in the near future. It is a pleasure to welcome Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan as new affiliates of the IMSF.

To assist the Treasurer in maintaining an up-to-date register of financial members, a small change was made to By-Law Article 4.5 in 2008. This now provides a 6-month window for member societies to pay their annual subscription and remain affiliated with the IMSF.

IMSF Web Site
Thanks to the efforts of Fred Mellon, the changeover in web-site management was accomplished in October 2006 without any major problems.

Following an agreement with Zdenek Herman and the IMSC17 organizing committee, the conference database of abstracts and authors was uploaded to the web site. This now serves as a permanent record of the Prague conference.

IMSF Awards
I would like to thank John Monaghan (Thomson Medal Awards), Marcos Eberlin (Curt Brunnée Award) and Paul Mayer (JMS Awards) for their efforts in overseeing the selection processes for the IMSF awards to be presented at IMSC18 in Bremen. A special thanks goes to Thermo Scientific and John Wiley & Sons who have once again sponsored the Brunnée and JMS Awards, respectively.

Advances in Mass Spectrometry
Following each previous International Mass Spectrometry Conference, a compilation of plenary and keynote lectures has been published as a book volume of Advances in Mass Spectrometry. Because of the high costs associated with this for IMSC17, it was instead decided to have the papers published as a special issue of the European Journal of Mass Spectrometry. All registered conference delegates received a copy of this issue.

IMSC18
I would like to thank in advance the IMSC18 Local Organizing Committee [Jürgen Grotemeyer (Chair), Klauss Heumann (Co-Chair), Michael Linscheid (Secretary), Dietmar Kuck (Treasurer), Karl-Peter Wanzcek (Local Support), Jochen Franzen (Company Support), Jürgen Srega (Company Support)] and their Topics Organizers for the fantastic work they have already done in arranging what promises to be a most successful conference, both scientifically and socially. In doing so, they have managed to overcome the significant problems associated with the recent major decline in the world economy.

Travel Assistance
The IMSF has been able to financially assist students attending and presenting at IMSC18 via a student travel scheme. The overall budget of €17,000 this year represents a significant use of income from annual affiliation dues. For the first time, travel assistance to attend the IMSC18 presentation ceremony has been provided to the three Thomson medallists as part of their award.

IMSC19
Organization of the 19th IMSC, to be held in Kyoto in 2012, has commenced. The foundation committee consists of Yoshinao Wada (Chair), Koichi Tanaka (Co-Chair), Michisato Toyoda (Secretary) and Takemichi Nakamura (Treasurer). I wish them every success with this first IMSC to be held outside of Europe.

Executive Committee
Finally, I would like to offer my deep gratitude to all members of the IMSF Executive Board. Their constructive advice on many wide-ranging issues over the past three years has been greatly appreciated.

Dr John C Traeger
12 August 2009