In the AGM on the 4th of May, the ECTS announced the results of the April membership vote for three new Members of the Board of Directors of the society. It gives us great pleasure to welcome Claudine Blin, Salvatore Minisola and Willem Lems to the Board. It is hugely important to have dedicated and experienced ECTS members on the Board of Directors and do this in a way that comes as close as possible to ensuring balanced geography, gender balance and a balance between Basic/Translational and Clinical/Public Health researchers so that the Board can be truly representative of the membership.
You will probably recognize our new Board members both from their great contributions to musculoskeletal science and from their experience in the ECTS as members of Scientific Programme Committees for the ECTS congresses and activities in the ECTS Action Groups.
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) and co-chairs the ECTS PhD training action group. She is a member of the scientific board of the French Arthritis Fondation and a member of the scientific andeducational committee of the Life University School of Research,University Cote d’Azur.
Salvatore Minisola is 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. A leader in the area of rare bone disease, Salvatore is Visiting Doctor at the National Institutes of Health, USA and Past president of the Italian Society of Osteoporosis, Mineral Metabolism and Skeletal Diseases. He has also served on the Professional Practice Committe of the ASBMR and on the Executive Committee of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine.
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. He is the founding member of the Oslo-Truru-Amsterdam collaborative study. Willem is on the editorial board of serveral journals, including Osteoprosis International, and 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. He is a member of the ECTS corporate engagement and has also been hugely engaged in the PhD training programme.
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.