President’s Message for 2018

Dear members of the Society for Free Radical Research Europe,

Year 2017 has been a busy and exciting year for SFRR Europe – and it has been my honor and privilege to serve as your president during this time. Our work together led to make our society dynamic and attractive especially for a new generation of young members. These efforts have been rewarded by a significant increase in our active membership. We continued to provide services to members through the development of a new website by our web manager Rodrigo Ribes and Professor Juan Sastre, with updated information about travel awards, jobs or vacancies, annual conferences, education such as how to write a Great Research Paper or the place of Women in Science. At the initiative of Professor Giovanni Mann and Professor Corinne Spickett, the Society has started using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to improve or enhance information and communication between our members.

The contract with Elsevier, the publisher of Free Radical Biology & Medicine and Redox Biology, was successfully renewed. Theses two journals are the official journals of SFRR Europe and of the Society for Redox Biology & Medicine (SfRBM). According to an agreement between Elsevier and the two societies a Publications Outreach Committee has been created to promote the journals.

A successful annual SFRR Europe meeting was held in Berlin this year as a joint initiative with the Oxygen Club of California (OCC). We are grateful to Professor Tilman Grune and Professor Helmut Sies who organized this meeting.
SFRR Europe is currently expanding outreach programme and co-sponsors various conferences.  In 2017 our society sponsored the International HNE Club meeting in memory of Herman Esterbauer in Graz. Thanks to Brigitte Winklhofer for her contribution to the success of this event. SFRR Europe also sponsored the Plant Oxygen Group meeting in Kuşadası and the Gordon Research Conference in Barga.

SFRR Europe has established a new partnership with the Oxygen Club of California. In the future OCC will be a main sponsor of the annual SFRR Europe meetings especially for Lisbon meeting in 2018 and Ferrara meeting in 2019. On behalf of SFRR Europe I warmly thank OCC for supporting the missions of our Society such as Scientific Education.

The main challenge for 2018 is the 19th SFRRI Biennal Meeting hosted by SFRR Europe in Lisbon on 4-7 June (sfrri2018lisbon.organideia.pt). The congress will deal with Redox Biology and Medicine and include symposia, plenary and keynote lectures and poster presentations. SFRR Europe will be pleased and honored to welcome you in the beautiful city of Lisbon. For more informations you can contact the organizer Joao Laranjinha (laranjin@ci.uc.pt). Another important event in 2018 is the SFRR-Europe Biennal Free Radical School co-organized with FEBS which will be held in Spetses Island (Greece), from 17 to 23 September 2018 (https://redoxomics.febsevents.org/). The course will focus on Redox-omics Technologies and their application in Health and Disease. For more information you can contact Professor Corinne Spickett (c.m.spickett@aston.ac.uk).

On behalf of SFRR Europe I would like to thank our sponsors, Elsevier, DSM and Bertin Pharma for supporting our mission, and for their generous contribution in terms of time and workload.

I wish to thank each and every one of you for all your energy and wonderful efforts for a successful 2017. 2018 will bring a new set of challenges and will require renewed efforts of all of us. I look forward to a great year in 2018.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Prof. Josiane Cillard,
The University of Rennes1, France
President, SFRR Europe