Published on: 28-03-2023
Dear Members,
We are well into the year now with many events planned for 2023!
Very soon, many TIAFT members will gather in London at the House of Commons (UK) to celebrate our 60th Anniversary as a professional scientific association. This is quite an achievement and as such should be celebrated by all TIAFT members.
We have much to reflect on and consider with regard to the contributions of significant toxicologists who have shaped and formed our discipline. We can be proud of our achievements as an association, achieved through hard work and commitment of members who strive to improve, inform and validate our science. The last decade has been particularly harsh on forensic disciplines that lack empirical studies to demonstrate the validity of their scientific underpinnings. Whilst we still have much to do, forensic toxicology is an essential service for the judicial system, law enforcement, health agencies and importantly communities, families and individuals who rely on us to provide certainty in the detection of drugs/poisons in biological specimens. From our membership database it is easy to see that we have members who are scientists, researchers and other professionals engaged in forensic toxicology. We have a broad membership base in over 100 countries and almost 1900 members!
The next major event on the TIAFT calendar is our annual meeting in Rome. Please note there are some key dates approaching for this meeting including deadlines for abstract submission and early bird registration. The deadline for abstract submission is April 30, 2023 and the deadline for early registration is May 21, 2023. Again, we have a number of TIAFT travel grants available and you still have time to submit your application if you need assistance to attend our annual meeting. A maximum of $2,000 USD will be given to up to 3 Standard Members and up to 5 DCF Members who have had abstracts accepted for the meeting, to contribute towards travel and accommodation. The applications must be received by the deadline of April 14, 2023 and should be emailed to me at president@tiaft.org. Please include the subject "TIAFT Travel Grant Application - Rome". Applicants will be notified of the outcome after the mid-year Board meeting on 17-18 April. For full application details and eligibility criteria visit https://www.tiaft.org/dcf-grant-awards.html.
We recently (26th February) had our first meeting of the TIAFT Board and our Regional Representatives (RRs) by Zoom. The next meeting will be in Rome on Sunday 27th August and will be in person. Again, this was an opportunity to inform our RRs of the Board’s activities since Versailles, but also a chance to meet some of our newer RRs. We discussed many items - both procedural and strategic, as our RRs play an important role in ensuring our association continues to keep members informed and connected. As was re-iterated at this meeting, it is important that members continue to log onto the TIAFT website to ensure their membership is active.
In other news we have secured a new printing agency to publish and distribute the TIAFT Bulletin. The hard copy of the Bulletin is something I look forward to receiving in the mail – however at some stage we may need to consider moving to a full electronic version of the Bulletin due to ever-increasing publication and distribution costs. We also have new email system for TIAFT, and we hope that the problems with the email rejections and server issues have now been resolved given that the Board and approved TIAFT committees are now using Office365.
Until next time,
Dimitri Gerostamoulos
TIAFT President