Support for Eastern European scientists

david_hedley@pmh.toronto.on.ca
Mon, 10 Feb 1997 09:03:17 -0500

I strongly endorse Gunter Valet's suggestions about support for Eastern
European scientists working in our field.
Last year I was invited to talk at a meeting organized by the Polish
Cytometry Society. I got a strong impression that the restoration of
democracy, free scientific interchange, and economic development are
somehow linked, and that is possible for organizations such as ISAC to
make a contribution, even if the monetary cost is trivial compared to
defence spending.
The organizers of the ISAC Sam Latt conference, being held in Toronto
next June, are attempting to address this issue as follows:

1) We have kept the costs as low as possible, and we are attempting to
raise funds to provide travelling fellowships. Support for young
investigators from Eastern Europe was specifically mentioned in an NIH
grant that we have submitted requesting support for this meeting.

2) We will be making extensive use of the World Wide Web before,
during, and after the meeting. In addition to making all abstracts available,
we will be able to show actual data, and allow discussion of results via the
web. We hope that in this way people who are unable to attend will still
be able to participate in the meeting. Of course, this emphasises the point
that Gunter makes about the need to improve electronic communications
to Eastern Europe.

David Hedley
Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital
Toronto