President’s Message for 2019

Dear Members of the Society for Free Radical Research Europe,

2018 was a very busy and exciting year for SFRR Europe with the highly successful SFRR-International meeting held in Lisbon in June, with this being co-hosted by our region and a local organizing committee chaired by Prof. João Laranjinha. The meeting attracted 542 registrants (excluding exhibitors) from over 40 countries, making this the largest meeting held in this region for a number of years. The exciting program featured 17 symposia with 68 lectures, together with an Early Career Symposium, a Young Investigator Session, 7 afternoon sessions featuring 44 submitted oral presentations, 2 Keynote lectures, a “Women in Science” forum, a publishing workshop organized by Elsevier, 5 Award lectures and 406 posters. So, as can be easily appreciated, a very rewarding program and meeting that was very highly regarded by all of the attendees. Many thanks are due to everyone involved in organizing the meeting – a very large cast – but special thanks are due to João Laranjinha, the local organizing team, the Scientific Program Committee, the International Scientific Advisory Board (which contained members from the constituent societies of SFRR-International), and especially all of the sponsors who made the meeting financially viable, and possible.

As we are now entering 2019, we also have significant changes in the Executive and Council of the Society with a new group of office holders making up their roles. It is particularly important and appropriate to thank the retiring Officers and Council members for all of their service – and especially out retiring President, Josiane Cillard, who has provided high quality and visionary leadership of the Society over the last few years – a period of considerable change and development of the society with the hosting of the International meeting, as well as the  renewal and development of new sponsorship arrangements with Elsevier, the publisher of Free Radical Biology & Medicine and Redox Biology, and the Oxygen Club of California amongst others, which have allowed the Society to considerably increase its activities. This valuable support has allowed the Society to increase its support of its own meetings, enhance sponsorship of related meetings, and markedly increase our support for young researchers at all levels. This has allowed us to increase and consolidate the membership of the Society, and hopefully make it dynamic and attractive to a new generation of members – and particularly those at the early stages of their careers, who are vital for our future. These huge successes will make my job of filling Josiane’s shoes in taking over the role of President, much more difficult !

These developments have been significantly helped by the development of a new website by our web manager Rodrigo Ribes and Prof. Juan Sastre, with updated information about travel awards, jobs or vacancies, annual conferences, education items (such as “How to write a Great Research Paper”) and the “Women in Science” information. The Society is also increasingly using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to improve, or enhance, the communication and information flows to our members. The Council has also specifically appointed members to develop this area. As always, Prof. Sastre has been an enormous help is making sure the whole organization runs smoothly, and Aphrodite Vasilaki has managed our finances in a highly efficient and effective manner, and I am sure this will continue.

 A huge vote of thanks is due to Prof. Daniela Caporossi, our retiring Meetings Officer. Daniela has played an enormous and very important role in making the organization of our Annual meetings much more professional and organized with the development of specific documentation and guidelines for these meetings – and to help prevent the continued “re-invention of the wheel” which tended to occur in the absence of this efficient transfer of experience and expertise from one group of meeting organizers to the next. The success of this initiative and oversight from Daniela, with the support of the Executive and Council, has resulted in a long list of high quality meetings, and a well-organized list of future meetings (see below). Fortunately, Daniela’s insights and experience will not be lost of the Society, as she will be taking over as President-Elect. We are also very fortunate in having a highly experienced organizer of meetings – Prof. Brigitte Winklhofer-Roob – taking over as Meetings Officer. I am sure that Brigitte will be as successful and efficient as Daniela has been, and I look forward to working with Brigitte, the other new members of the Council, and the continuing post-holders.

Another important event which was held in 2018 was the SFRR-Europe Biennial Free Radical School co-organized with FEBS and the EU International Training Network Masstrplan, which was held in Spetses, Greece, in September organized by Prof. Corinne Spickett. This was highly successful and bodes well for the future of the field both within Europe and internationally.

Looking forward, we have our Annual meeting coming up in Ferrara (Italy) between  the 19-21st June, with this being hosted by Prof Giuseppe Valacchi and colleagues. The organization of this meeting is already well underway and further details can be found at the conference website http://www.sfrr2019ferrara.it/ . Ferrara is a beautiful and historic small city in northern Italy, and an exciting and rewarding place to hold a meeting. A high quality, thought-provoking and diverse scientific program is being put in place, and I look forward to meeting many of you at this meeting. Further in the future, the Council has already agreed that the 2020 meeting will be held in Belgrade, Serbia, hosted by Prof. Bato Korac, and the 2021 meeting will be held in Liege (Belgium), hosted by Prof. Joël Pincemail. Having previously visited all three of these cities, I would thoroughly recommend putting these events in your diary as soon as possible.

Major goals that I would like to set for the next two years include increasing the number, and rate of retention, of members of the Society who are younger scientists. This is critical to the future well-being of the Society and the field in general. I hope that we can continue to increase our support for early career researchers by increasing the number and variety of awards to allow attendance at meetings (both those organized by the Society, and also others) and to encourage inter-laboratory research projects, allowing a broadening of expertise and experience. I would also like the Society to strengthen its links with sister organizations, both within SFRR-International and in related fields, so that state-of-the-art methods and techniques are made available to those who do not traditionally attend our meetings or consider “oxidative stress” (in its widest  sense) to be their main field. This will require engagement with a broad range of groups ranging from all disciplines – an area that has traditionally been one of the strengths of the society, but where further efforts will undoubtedly raise the overall standard of research and importance of our field.

I would like to thank all the members of the Council of the Society for making the last two years a pleasant, stimulating and enjoyable (re-)introduction to the management of the Society, and I look forward to serving you all over the next two years as President. It is a great honour, and pleasure, to assume this position and serve the society.

Finally, I would like to thank each and every one of you for all your energy, enthusiasm, and wonderful efforts in this diverse, exciting and multi-disciplinary field of research. I look forward to a great year in 2019, and meeting and interacting with as many of you as possible .


Prof. Michael Davies,
President, SFRR Europe
Department of Biomedical Science,
Panum Institute,
University of Copenhagen,
Copenhagen,
Denmark