Published on: 04-12-2017

Dear TIAFT members,

Winter is here in the northern hemisphere, and this means that we are going to meet very soon in Boca Raton. How lucky we are to meet in January in Florida, the sunshine state. Above all, next year will be very special for all TIAFT members, because we are going to meet twice in 2018. First, we meet in Florida, and then in August in the historic city of Ghent in Belgium. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at both meetings and would like to express my appreciation to the meeting organizers, Dr. Ruth Winecker and Dr. Dan Anderson in the USA, and Dr. Chrisophe Stove and Dr. Sarah Wille in Belgium.

Recently there was the 13th TIAFT Latin American Regional meeting on November 14-17 in Calarca, Colombia. Ana Georgina Gonzalez hosted the meeting with her fantastic team. Marc LeBeau, the president-elect, Alain Verstraete, the immediate past president and Marilyn Huestis, past president attended the meeting and gave very useful and informative lectures to our friends in Latin America. I was told that there were about 85 participants and the high quality of the oral and poster presentations was very well received by all participants. It was very promising to know that both aspiring and experienced scientists worked very hard to make the meeting successful. On behalf of all TIAFT members, I would like to express my appreciation to Ana and her team for hosting such a fruitful meeting. Ana will soon send the report from the Latin meeting to the bulletin.

In the past two months, I attended two very interesting meetings in China and Portugal. In China, the Belt and Road International Symposium on Forensic science were held in Shanghai in conjunction with the opening ceremony of the Dr. Henry Lee Museum. There were 50 forensic pathologists and scientists from 22 countries attending this meeting. After the conference in Shanghai, all participants moved to Xian by train for the 2nd International meeting of the Silk Road Forensic Consortium. Because all participants were from different disciplines of Forensic Science and medicine, both meetings were full of informative discussions. It was a great opportunity to learn about other fields of Forensic Science.

In the middle of November, I was invited to give a plenary lecture at the International Caparica Congress of Translational Forensics, which was held in Portugal. There were 150 participants from 37 countries; again it was a meeting of all combinations of forensic sciences. It was unique and rather innovative, new and truly translational. It was very useful and informative to learn all other fields of Forensic Science and Medicine from experts. On my way to Lisbon, I stopped over in Coimbra, where our dear friend, Helena Teixeira is located. Since she was organizing the 16th National Meeting of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences as the National Director of the Research, Teaching/Training & Documentation Department of the Legal Medicine Institute in Portugal, I had the honors to give a talk at her annual meeting. I met many of the Portuguese forensic toxicologists of the National Institute and was very happy to have a discussion with them regarding TIAFT, forensic toxicology, and other related topics. I also had a chance to visit their toxicology labs in Coimbra and Lisbon and was very impressed by their high level of scientific standards and their efficient system.

As you all know, we will have elections for executive board members in Boca Raton. Board nominations will be accepted until 11 December 2017 and please nominate those who would like to serve for TIAFT before then. At the business meeting in Boca Raton, we will also decide on the location of our meeting in 2021. Your presence at the business meeting will be very much appreciated. 

I am looking forward to seeing you very soon in sunny Boca Raton

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Heesun Chung,
President, TIAFT