International stem cell society hopes to expand further from North American roots
“We’ve gone as far away from Boston as possible to go,” Paul Simmons, outgoing head of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, told sparse attendees at an organizational meeting in Cairns, Australia on June.
A couple attendees at the meeting had privately complained to me that the ISSCR is too focused on North America, and wondered whether anyone would dare bring the issue up at the town meeting. When the floor was opened to the audience, no one said anything. Maybe that’s because the ISSCR leadership beat them to it. Paul Simmons described US-centrism as one of the biggest concerns of the membership, saying that that’s one reason this year’s meeting was held in Cairns.
At last year’s meeting in Toronto, about 65% of attendees came from North America. This year, the number was just over a quarter. Just over 1,900 people from almost 50 countries were at the meeting. However, more than half of the presenters came from North America.
OOPS: When I posted earlier, I'd put Paul Simmons in as Paul Allen. Sorry for confusion.