Letter from the President of IUPESM
Dear Fellow Member of IUPESM
On reflection, these Presidential Letters resemble a soap opera or a serial but, since the episodes appear at three monthly intervals, it is understandably easy to forget the plot. Consequently, with your indulgence, I will briefly recapitulate the story so far before bringing you up to date.
At the World Congress in Nice, your President and Council were charged with seeking Full Membership of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), which was itself reviewing our relationship at the time, and also with establishing innovative key programmes in which the collaboration of ICSU would be sought.
As I intimated in the previous letter from the President, ICSU advised us in July 1998 that it had concluded that ‘the Associate relationship was the most appropriate method of co-operation at the moment’. My letter in response was published in full and asked for the status of our relationship to be reconsidered.
Further negotiations were undertaken and I can report that ICSU has kindly agreed to consider again our application for full membership. A revised submission, including an Executive Summary and substantial supporting information have been submitted. Our application will be considered in the first instance by ICSU's Standing Committee on Membership, Structure and Statutes (SCMSS) on 13 April 1999. IUPESM has been invited to attend and the Council has agreed that I, as President, and Professor Jean-Pierre Morucci, as President Elect will undertake this daunting task. Precedence is not in our favour as no Associate has ever graduated to Full Member previously. It will be an uphill struggle but we will do all we can. If SCMSS supports our application, its recommendation will be considered, as the ultimate hurdle, by ICSU in its entirety at a meeting in Cairo in September 1999.
As evidence of our wish to collaborate with ICSU, IUPESM proposed a joint presentation at the World Conference on Science to be held in Budapest this summer and a draft abstract was sent to ICSU. A positive outcome is that IUPESM has received a formal invitation to participate in this prestigious conference at which we will be represented by Oskar Chomicki from Poland and Nandor Richter from Hungary, both expert in the relevant areas of the conference.
The primary benefits of full membership of ICSU are potentially symbiotic for both organisations. ICSU brings to the table its substantial international stature, greater resources (from which we may not directly benefit financially) and programmes and committee structures linking closely with our own. IUPESM can offer vast international experience, complementing that of ICSU, to create an authoritative international advocate for the appliance of science, including engineering, for the benefit of the sick and disabled world wide. Our key programmes to promote: Governmental and public understanding of physical and engineering sciences in health; education, training and continued professional development; global biomedical information networking; evidence based health technology and equipment evaluation, all with special reference to developing countries, link with ICSU’s committee on science, technology in developing countries; its programmes on capacity building in science and its international network for the availability of scientific publications. We hope to convince ICSU of these potentially important mutual benefits but, as I indicated earlier, it will not be an easy task.
In
conclusion, the role of President of IUPESM is a difficult one and nothing could
be achieved without substantial support from others. Consequently, I wish to pay
tribute to our Officers, Council Members and Constituent Organisations, IOMP and
IFMBE, for their unstinting and generous contributions of time and effort, which
I greatly appreciate. In particular, our Secretary-General, Gary Fullerton, has
made outstanding, innovative and dynamic contributions on our behalf. He has
instigated virtual council meetings, using the Internet, at quarterly intervals,
thereby enhancing simultaneously democracy and the availability of collective
wisdom. In addition, he has generated vital documents at short notice,
revitalised the administration and our website as well as contributing greatly
to our key programmes and links with Chicago 2000. On your behalf as well as my
own, I take pleasure in recording special thanks to him and those mentioned
previously.
I hope that the next episode of this soap opera will contain good news. We can but try—but this drama is real life!
Keith Boddy CBE, DSc, FRSE
President, IUPESM
Email: kboddy@rmpd–ngh.demon.co.uk