September and a new academic year is almost here. As you know, the members of the Board are elected by the Annual General Meeting of the ECTS and election is for a three year period with the possibility of standing for re-election. Many thanks for contributing actively to the election process and for supporting the ECTS.
All members of the Board of Directors have individually assigned responsibilities to take of in the ECTS in addition to being the official representatives of the organisation. I would like to briefly go through what these tasks are and how they are filled by individual Board members so that you have a better idea how the daily running of the ECTS work and who is the elective representative in charge of each aspect of what we do.
First, the Executive Committee is responsible for the daily business of the society. The committee has four members: The President of the ECTS, Bo Abrahamsen (DK). The Past President of the ECTS, Anna Teti(ITA). The Treasurer Christian Meier(CH). And the Secretary, Geert Carmeliet (BEL). Where possible we aim for the Executive Committee to consist of two clinical scientists and two basic scientists, ideally also with gender balance. This is all achieved in the 2021 Board and Executive Committee but is of course entirely depends on the result of a membership vote.
As you probably recall from the earlier election results update, the ECTS Board has three new members. First, Claudine Blin is research director and head of the team “Osteoimmunology, Niches andInflammation” at the Laboratory of Molecular Physiomedicine, Nice, France. She has a special interest in the heterogeneity and innate immune function of osteoclasts,their interaction with immune cells, and their contribution in inflammatory bonedestruction. Claudine is president elect of the French Society of Mineral Tissue Biology (SFBTM). Claudine is our new Chair of the Basic Science Committee and we are delighted to have her on boad.
Another distinguished new member is Salvatore Minisola, Full Professor of Internal Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome and a long standing lead clinician scientist in metabolic bone diseases with a strong dedication to training and mentoring new researchers in the bone field. In the ECTS, he has worked hard to further strengthen the relationships between Eastern and Western countries as leader of the East Meets West initiative linking Europe to bone societies in Japan, Korea and China. He has also served on the Professional Practice Committe of the ASBMR and on the Executive Committee of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine. Salvatore has taken over from Barbara Obermayer-Pietch as Chair of the Research Committee, which oversees the ECTS grants and awards programmes and the ECTS Academy Selection.
The third new member of the Board is Willem Lems, who replaces Carola Zilikens as Chair of the Clinical Science Committee, overseeing the Clinical Practice Action Group and the Rare Diseases Action Group. Willem Lems is Professor of Rheumatology at Amsterdam UMC, where he is also currently vice-chair and the Educational Officer of the Department of Rheumatology. He is well known for pioneering work in early treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as targeting phenotypes in hip- and knee osteoarthritis. Among his many roles in the bone field, he served as member of the Scientific Programme Committee for EULAR, IOF and ECTS. and most recently as Clinical Co-Chair for our ECTS 2021 congress.
We are delighted to have such excellent and experienced friends and colleagues join the Board of the ECTS for the next three years. It promises great things for the ECTS in coming years so that we can continue to provide our members and congress delegates with excellent opportunities for scientific growth, training and networking and advance the field of calcified tissue research.
The Education Committee remains in the extremely capable hands of Nuria Guañabens and the Communications Committee will also continue to be chaired by our Minnesota based colleague Andre Van Wijnen, coordinating the excellent activities of the Newsletter Action Group and the Social Media and Website Action Group. We are all hugely proud to have been elected to serve as Directors of the ECTS for the coming year and to hopefully continue to improve and grow the ECTS.