President's Message

August, 14 2009

Dear Members,

Geneva is ready! Over 450 registrations and a full scientific program and an excellent number of sponsors and exhibitors. This will be a full week starting off with the young Scientists workshop on the Sunday, a meeting of regional representatives in the afternoon and the opening in the evening. The TIAFT board meets in the morning.

I would like to again thank the organisers for their wonderful effort.

As you may have seen the TIAFT board has introduced a program to help our colleagues in developing countries. Book donations are encouraged. Please contact our secretary Heesun Chung who will coordinate efforts. Any DCF member or member laboratory who have a wish for a reference text please contact Heesun Chung. We have also set up a sponsorship program to encourage sponsors (and indeed members) to donate to not only enable us to continue with travel scholarships to future TIAFT meetings but also for them to visit a developed laboratory for a short period of time. See the web site for details. I will provide more information at he business meeting.

There has been some confusion over the TIAFT logo over the years, indeed there has been a number used since the inception of the Association in 1963. I plan to conduct a survey at the meeting to gauge views of the membership as to which logo we should adopt, or indeed if we need a competition to design a new logo. Please let me know your thoughts.

The new Bulletin editors Drs Dimitri Gerostamoulos and Jochen Beyer are making great progress in the design of the next editions. You will hear their plans at the annual general meeting.

I would like to invite all members attending Geneva 2009 to come to the business meeting.

See you soon and safe travelling.

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