MSIS President’s report
Ron M.A. Heeren, December 2018
This first year after MSIS was established at the OurCon meeting in Doorn in 2017 the society has grown to 58 active members. This inaugural year has targeted the realization of our society’s infrastructure and organization. After the election of the inaugural board members the different committees have been active in growing our community and exploring different avenues to disseminate knowledge in imaging mass spectrometry. Participation of our board and committee members in the interest groups at ASMS, the IMSC in Florence, the MSACL in both US and EU, EMIM and other topical meetings is a testimony of the success of MSIS. As a society we are reaching out to other professional organizations that potentially can benefit from imaging MS, and many of our (board) members are ambassadors to this effect.
OurCon V in Doorn was a huge success as a result of the efforts of the young researchers in the field. They have not only done an outstanding organizational job, but also we able to make OurCon a platform to engage young scientists. The meeting is financially not closed yet and it is still unclear if a positive financial outcome will be achieved, which leaves the worst case scenario to be a zero balance. But we are still actively working on it.
Our annual conference OurCon VI in Charleston was co-organized with IMSS, our US based sister society. Lengthy discussions with the joint board resulted in a successful scientific meeting. MSIS has stressed the importance of being an inclusive society where every imaging professional can find a platform to learn, network and share knowledge. We have received a significant amount of feedback on the abstract submission process that has led us to the conclusion that we need to be more open and transparent in future OurCon events, which we will act on in the upcoming OurCon in St. Malo. We have been fortunate to have been supported by all instrument manufacturers active in imaging MS and are looking forward to continue doing so in the future and are counting on their active participation. All preparations for the next OurCon in St. Malo are well underway and the communication and advertising have already started. As we have had Australasian requests to organize an imaging meeting we will discuss and determine our policy on the topic in the next year.
As my term as a president ends this year I am looking forward to handing over the office to the incoming president and wish her or him a lot of wisdom and success in growing our society further.
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