Finnish Bone Society was founded in 1989 at the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Oulu during the annual meeting of the Finnish Medical Society (Duodecim). The initial capital was gathered from the profits made from an osteoporosis conference held a couple of months earlier in Finland. Among the founding members were several notable researchers who would later on build strong academic careers, such as Kalervo Väänänen (Rector at the University of Turku, Finland), and Christel Lamberg-Allardt, a prominent nutrition scientist focusing on Vitamin D. As an interesting side note, Lamberg-Allardt acted as the opponent for the present chairman’s thesis defense in 2016. The 72 members of FBS constitute of a wide variety of researchers, from first-year PhD students to mature academic researchers, from medicine to biochemistry and nutrition scientists and the members are stretched in the biggest cities of Finland. This variety is, of course, one strength of FBS.
Despite the name, FBS also welcomes foreign researchers to join the society, and has active members for example in Sweden. FBS organizes an annual symposium targeted for bone researchers and encourages especially young PhD students to give an oral presentation of their projects. The symposium also acts as an important place for networking and distant friends to gather and enjoy a day of science and happy atmosphere. The best student presentation voted by the board is also rewarded. In recent years we have organized the symposium on a sea environment in a cruise ship, going through a route Turku-Stockholm-Turku, offering a more accessible way for the Swedish participants to join the symposium. The symposium might globally even be the only bone seminar held annually in the seas! However, we are planning to organize the next event in Helsinki in 2021, to make the symposium even more easily accessible to scientists globally.
FBS also annually rewards the best peer-reviewed publication by an FBS member. Every member is allowed to enter the competition with a publication from the previous year. In addition to being a member of ECTS, FBS is a member of The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, a forum uniting different scientific disciplines and their professional scientists, and a consultant organization for Luustoliitto, a Finnish organization offering reliable information for the public of bone health and osteoporosis. FBS is, therefore, linked to both professional academia and the Finnish public.
Anyone with a scientific background is welcome to join the society by visiting Luustoliitto’s website (currently unfortunately available only in Finnish).