Communications and Publications

• Public Relations Committee
• Internet and e-Learning Committee
• CPD Working Groups
• IFCC Publications/Documents
  • eJIFCC - electronic Journal of the IFCC
  • eNewsletter
    • eNewsletter Archive
    • eNewsletter Mar-Apr 2012
• News Archive
• Conference Proceedings
• CPD Minutes

Editorial from Graham Beastall, IFCC President

Report from the IFCC Council Meeting

Introduction:

The Council is the overall governing body of IFCC. It meets once every three years, usually in association with the IFCC WorldLab congress. Accordingly, the 2011 IFCC Council meeting was held on Sunday 15 May in Berlin. Approximately 100 people, including 57 representatives from IFCC Full Member National Societies who were empowered to vote, attended the Council meeting.

 

Presentations:

The first part of the Council meeting was chaired by Paivi Laitinen (Honorary Secretary) and comprised reports from:

 

Graham Beastall	President
Chris Lam	Vice President
Ghassan Shannan	Treasurer
Joseph Passarelli	Corporate Member representative
Ian Young	Chair of Scientific Division
Janet Smith	Chair of Education & Management Division
Ellis Jacobs	Chair of Communications and Publications Division

Copies of all these reports are available from the Executive Board section of the IFCC website www.ifcc.org

Election of Executive Board for 2012-2014:

Professor Jocelyn Hicks (Past President) conducted the election of the next Executive Board. The following individuals were elected to serve from 1 January 2012 until 31 December 2014:

President	Graham Beastall	UK
Vice President	Howard Morris	AU
Secretary	Sergio Bernardini	IT
Treasurer	Bernard Gouget	FR
Member	Ulisses Tuma	BR
Member	Vanessa Steenkamp	ZA
Member	Larry Kricka	US

In addition Jocelyn Hicks (US) will continue as Past President for the duration of the next Executive Board. A photo montage of the new Executive Board is shown. The new Executive Board includes four new faces. Short biographies of each of these newly appointed individuals are included.

 

 

Newly Elected Vice President of IFCC Professor Howard Morris, Australia

 Professor Howard Morris is Professor of Medical Science at the University of South Australia and a Chief Medical Scientist in Chemical Pathology at SA Pathology, Adelaide Australia. He leads a research group investigating the pathophysiology of metabolic bone disease and the effects of hormones including vitamin D funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council, the major competitive funding bodies in Australia. His latest work has identified the basis for vitamin D requirement to reduce the risk of fractures amongst the elderly. He was invited to present the Louis Avioli Memorial Lecture at the 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research on this topic. He is also Deputy Chair of a South Australian Department of Health Working Party on Osteoporosis and Fracture Prevention. He had 18 years experience working in diagnostic clinical biochemistry in the field of immunoassay and endocrinology and continues an active professional life in laboratory medicine. Between 2002 and 2008 he was the Secretary of the Scientific Division of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) and a member of the IFCC Task Force on the Global Campaign on Diabetes Mellitus. He currently is a member of the IFCC Task Force on International Clinical Liaison. Between 2003 and 2009 he was the Director of the Hanson Institute in Adelaide, South Australia.

Newly Elected Secretary of IFCC Professor Sergio Bernardini, Italy

Professor Sergio Bernardini MD, PhD, currently is a full professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology at the Department of Internal Medicine of The University of Rome Tor Vergata, and the head physician of the Clinical Molecular Biology Unit at the Tor Vergata University Hospital.
He received his degree in Medicine in 1986 and the PhD in Paediatric Sciences in 1995. He has specialized in Paediatrics (1990) and in Clinical Chemistry and Biochemistry (1998).
He act as the president of the undergraduate course in  "Diagnostic laboratory techniques in the medical field" and, as a clinical laboratory research consultant with Bambino Gesu' Children's Hospital in Rome.
He is a member of the Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry (SiBioC), where he form part of the committee of Clinical Molecular Biology, as well as the  Italian Society of Biochemistry (SIB) and the Italian Society of Allergology and Immunology (SIAIC). His international activities include membership of theEditorial Advisory Board of The Encyclopedia of Life Sciences.
As a professor he has several teaching responsibilities including a Bachelor's course in diagnostic laboratory techniques in the medical field, degree courses in medicine, medical biotechnologies, movement sciences and postgraduate courses in Clinical Biochemistry, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Medical Genetics, Allergology and Immunology, and Paediatrics.
The research interests are diverse in nature and have included work in paediatric endocrinology with particular interest in growth hormone and insulin like growth factors and their binding proteins. He has also worked on apoptotic pathways in oncology, in particular neuroblastoma, as well as on glutathione transferases, a family of enzymes involved in cell detoxification and in the control of the programmed cell death. He has collaborated in the application of molecular biology and proteomic methods and techniques in research applied to neurodegenerative diseases, oncology and pharmacogenetics. Since 2009 he has collaborated in the application of molecular biology and biochemical methods to monitoring of sport training and performance.
Sergio is married to Elisabetta since 1998 and has a son, Andrew 21 years old, and a daughter Marta aged 19. His personal interests include football, theatre and travelling.  

Newly Elected Member of IFCC Executive Board Prof Vanessa Steenkamp, South Africa

Vanessa obtained her MSccum laudein Biochemistry at the University of Pretoria while employed as a Junior Lecturer.  She took up at position at the South African Institute for Medical Research, now the National Health Laboratory Services in the Department of Endocrinology. She was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand and obtained her PhD in Clinical Toxicology.  She returned to the University of Pretoria as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Urology and was transferred to the Department of Pharmacology as head of the Phytopharmacology Unit.  Vanessa's research interest focuses on traditional herbal remedies and their effect on patients, as well as the development of methods for the detection of these active compounds in biological fluids. She is also involved in pre-clinical testing of traditional herbal remedies which includes the isolation of active compounds and development of new drugs.  Vanessa is the author and co-author of >60 scientific papers.  She has received a number of awards for her research both nationally and internationally, amongst which is the prestigious Friedel Sellschop award, formerly known as the University of the Witwatersrand Young Researcher in 2001 and Exceptional Young Researcher of the University of Pretoria in 2006, two of the leading academic institutions in the country.  In 2007 she received two international awards in her recognition to research as a young scientist; from the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology and the American Association of Clinical Chemistry.  Currently she is supervising 15 postgraduate students.
She is the President of the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry, Vice-President of the Toxicology Society of South Africa, Secretary-General of the South African Association of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Treasurer of the Federation of the South African Society of Pathologists and Past President of the South African Association of Clinical Biochemistry. She serves as reviewer for 18 international peer-reviewed journals and is on the editorial board of 4 journals.  She has 149 conference contributions and has been the invited speaker on 16 occasions.
Vanessa is the mother of four boys; triplets Brendon, Dylan, Lance (10) and Jacques, 14.  Both herself and husband, Johan are very involved with coaching of children in school sports.  She is the manager of a provincial chess team (under 16). She thoroughly enjoys gardening and nature and spends her free time reading.

Newly Elected Member of IFCC Executive Board Professor Larry J. Kricka, United States of America

 Larry J. Kricka D. Phil., F.A.C.B., C.Sci., C.Chem., F.R.S.C., F.R.C.Path., is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the General Chemistry Laboratory and Director of the Critical Care Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. 

Awards and honors include:- the Society of Analytical Chemistry Silver Medal (Royal Society of Chemistry) (1981), British Technology Group Academic Enterprise Competition Award (1985), Prince of Wales Award for Innovation and Production (1989), Queens Award for Technological Achievement  (1990), Rank Prize for Opto-Electronics (1991), the AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research (1998), and the Ullman Award (2006).  In 2002 Dr Kricka was the Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge, England.
Research interests include analytical applications of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence, DNA probe assays, analytical microchips for genetic and other types of testing, analytical applications of nanotechnology, analytical interferences caused by heterophile antibodies and direct to consumer testing.  Dr Kricka holds over 30 U.S. patents; and is the author/co-author of over 500 articles, abstracts, book chapters, and papers; and 22 books. He is Editor-in-chief of Luminescence, a member of the editorial board of Clinical Chemistry, Lab-on-a-chip, and Analytical Biochemistry, and past Editor of the Journal of Immunoassay.  He was President of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in 2001 and is currently President of the International Society for Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence and will be a member of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) Executive Board beginning in 2012.

Changes to the Governance:

Under the chairmanship of the President the Council considered and voted on a number of proposals for changing the governance and operation of IFCC. Council approved:

1. President Elect:

At the next Council elections in 2014 the post of Vice President will be discontinued. The President Elect will replace it.

2. Terms of Office for President Elect and Past President:

With effect from January 2015 the term of office of the Past President will be reduced from three years to two years. The President Elect will be elected at a time that enables him/her to take over from the Past President and serve for the final year of an Executive Board, before submitting himself/herself for election as the next President

3. Electronic Voting:

The next Council elections for the Executive Board that will commence in 2015 will be conducted by an electronic ballot of Full Members rather than by personal vote at the Council meeting

The IFCC Rules and Statutes will require amendment to permit these changes in governance. That will be a task for the next Executive Board.

Membership Subscription:

The Council noted that the membership subscription had remained unchanged for 12 years. It then agreed to an increase in the baseline membership subscription from 6.0 to 6.5 Swiss Francs per member of the National Society. This revised membership subscription will apply from 2012 and last for at least three years.  In order to soften the financial burden a little the Council also agreed to a modest differential according to the wealth of the country as defined by the World Bank.  Therefore, the membership subscription that will apply will be:

• 6.5 Swiss Francs per member in High Income countries
• 6.0 Swiss Francs per member in Upper Middle Income countries
• 5.5 Swiss Francs per member in Lower Middle Income countries
• 4.0 Swiss Francs per member in Low Income countries

IFCC WorldLab 2017:

The President announced that the Executive Board, on the advice of the Committee for Congresses and Conferences, had selected Durban in South Africa as the host city for IFCC WorldLab 2017.