President’s Message:

At 2 year intervals, when a new President of the BTS is appointed, it has become custom and practice for the incoming President to chair a Strategy Review meeting. The Executive Committee meet to identify opportunities and to plan initiatives that will be of value to BTS Members and to Toxicology as a scientific discipline and a profession. Minutes of previous strategy meetings are available on the BTS website. http://www.thebts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BTS-Strategy-Meeting-Final-Minutes-27-May-2016-Signed.pdf

This year’s meeting is scheduled for May 16th. We would like to hear from as many members as possible about ideas you would be interested in. One recently proposal, is for the BTS to form a new Specialty Section on “Computational Toxicology, Artificial Intelligence and Adverse Outcome Pathways”.  While many would, no doubt, be interested in learning about these increasingly important areas of toxicology, it is critically important that specialty sections are led by people who are actively involved in such areas of toxicology. Please do forward ideas on BTS strategy by email bts@execbs.com, or to a member of the Executive Committee.

As the BTS is a Member Organisation of the Royal Society of Biology, I was invited to attend their “Presidents Dinner” in London on May 2nd, to acknowledge the Leadership of the outgoing President, Professor Dame Jean Thomas and the welcome the new President, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow. https://www.rsb.org.uk/news/14-news/1961-rsb-welcomes-new-president-at-2018-annual-general-meeting

The after-dinner guest speaker was Lord David Willetts, the former Universities and Sciences Minister. https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-willetts/53

There is no doubt that the Royal Society of Biology are doing an excellent job representing the diverse scientific interest of the UK Biosciences sector.

Congratulations to Dr Paul Brooker (BTS Member and current member of the BTS Executive Committee) who was elected to the Council of the Royal Society of Biology as their Honorary Treasurer. https://www.rsb.org.uk/about-us/governance/council

Chris Powell

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