Dear EWRS members and followers of our website,
with the beginning of the new year and my appointment as the EWRS President, I would like to wish all of you a healthy, prosperous and happy 2022! I look forward to having an opportunity to meet most of you face-to-face, after almost 2 years of travel and work restrictions caused by the COVID19 pandemic.
Despite these tough 2 years, the EWRS Board, ExCom, and SciCom have maintained the basic Society life and have successfully managed all necessary procedures such as budgeting, organization of meetings (usually virtual), elections, etc. Our past President, Dr. Jukka Salonen, deserves special thanks for his professional leadership, immediate communication and solicitation of rational solutions in frequently changing situations. He fulfilled the role of President to the utmost capacity in a way that no previous President has been required, and the Society, as such, has not been negatively affected by the pandemic. Information flow was ensured continuously through our media thanks to the effort of Camilla and Sabine in our communication office. Unfortunately, as the Vice-President, I was not able to invite WG coordinators for any physical meeting and played my role mostly virtually, with a support of Prof. Husrev Mennan, our Scientific Secretary. We have exchanged hundreds of messages, chats and calls during these two years.
One of our greatest tasks, together with our colleagues in Greece, was to prepare the 19th EWRS Symposium, which was already postponed about one year to June 2022. Since early in the pandemic and making the postponement, we had a careful expectation, that the pandemic would be gone by June of 2022 and scientists would look forward again for a physical meeting. However, the number of submissions was quite low with original deadline in December. Probably new optimism and positive thinking have started with the New Year, and a wave of submissions followed. I am happy and proud to announce now, that we have received over 200 abstracts, a similar number as in previous Symposia. The attendance of a majority of active members is a key ingredient to a successful symposium, and we are now off to a great start. This is a good signal that people trust in the future and are hungry for information, socialising and also traveling and tourism. We decided to leave the submission site open for some time to allow hesitating people to submit after the deadline, but now only as a poster.
It is my pleasure to welcome on board our newly elected Vice-President and SciCom chair, Dr. Maurizio Vurro from Italy, a long-term SciCom member, who also had coordinated the Parasitic Weeds WG. I wish him better times in his function than I had and will slowly pass him the SciCom affairs, including handling of abstracts and Symposium programme. I also welcome Dr. Therese Berge from Norway and Dr. Inés Santín-Montanyá from Spain as new Board members. The Society will need their experience in many future decisions related to both scientific life and administrative affairs.
Once again, all the best in the New Year and see you all in Greece in June! I would like to encourage those who are still indecisive, as well our industry partners, students, website guests and others, to come, interact, find new friendships, and fully enjoy this unique party!
Josef Soukup, EWRS President
18 January 2022