President's Message

June, 18 2009

Dear Members,

The preparation for the Geneva meeting is well on track. I would like to thank the organisers for their wonderful effort so far. Despite the economic downturn I hope as many of you as possible can attend.

The board approved six DCF travel grants for DCF members to attend the Geneva meeting. These are Dr Bruno Spinosa de Martinis (Brazil), Dr Luis Ferrari (Argentina), Dr Kamon Foihirun (Thailand), Ms Ampika Lelapojanaporn (Thailand), Dr Tarek Mahdy Ebead (Egypt), and Dr Tanuj Kanchan (India). Please welcome them in Geneva.

June has two conferences relevant to TIAFT: the Latin American regional TIAFT meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil (June 17-20) organised by Flavia Thiessen and Alice Chasin and the SoHT meeting (June 14-16) in Rome organised by Simona Pichini.

Drs Dimitri Gerostamoulos and Jochen Beyer have been appointed as the new Bulletin editors. They are both eager to continue on the great work of Anya Pierce. They will be soliciting articles from members: short communications, case reports, local news from regional representatives etc so please assist the editors and the association in enhancing the scientific content of the web. They will both serve on the revamped web committee with Alain Verstraete and Gianpaolo Brusini to enhance our TIAFT web site including the scientific content.

Organisations wishing to advertise in the bulletin or the web should make contact with me in the first instance (olaf@vifm.org). TIAFT would also encourage organisations or individuals to consider sponsoring a range of activities organised by the board on behalf of members. These include travel grants to members of developing countries, awards to young scientists (best paper, best oral presentation and best poster presentation) and the board's annual workshop in a developing country to coincide with its annual board meeting. Sponsorship package information will be available on the TIAFT web page soon. Details can also be obtained by contacting me directly.

Until next time, regards

Olaf
TIAFT President

Olaf H. Drummer PhD(med) ARCPA MRACI CChem
Head (Forensic & Scientific Services)
Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
Adjunct Professor,
Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Monash University, 57-83 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, 3006, AUSTRALIA
e-mail: olaf@vifm.org