Dear IASR members,
This week we are opening the 5th IASR and AFSP virtual Summit on Suicide Research with more than 520 participants, the largest summit ever. As an International Academy, we planned to hold this congress for the first time outside the US, in Barcelona and conduct a pre-congress workshop in Rome, but unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic put a spoke in our wheels. Due to the pandemic this will be a virtual conference but hopefully in 2023 we will meet in Barcelona for a face-to-face meeting.
When I was elected two years ago, I promised to promote educational activities between summits. Despite the limitations on traveling, we succeeded to promote many educational activities prior to the summit for both senior and junior scientists:
A year and a half ago we conducted a Metanalysis and Systematic Review workshop with Prof. Stefan Leucht MD from Germany. More than 60 participants learned how to conduct a metanalysis. They then split into 4 groups, chose subjects to study and continued working on their studies for the next year and a half. These 4 groups will present their findings in a IASR workshop during the summit.
In collaboration with AFSP we conducted 2 virtual webinars for early career researchers on suicide-research methods. More than 50 early career researchers participated in each webinar.
We finalized and published a SPOC, short private online course, an introduction to suicidology, open to all of you on our website. In 6-8 minute zoom talks, IASR experts teach the basics of suicidology. More lectures will be added soon.
At the summit, 50 early career researchers will participate in the early career researcher forum organised by Prof. Elizabeth Sublette and Dr. Olivia Kirtley with a lecture by Prof. Diego the Leo. They will also be matched with senior researchers through mentorship programs.
Our journal the Archives for Suicide Research is improving with an impact factor of over 3 under the leadership of the editors in chief Prof. Barbara Stanley and Prof. Rory O’Connor.
During this conference we intend to give away two IASR best poster awards, worth $1000 USD each. The James Kirk Bernard Foundation will award a scholarship in Biological Psychiatry to a young researcher.
If you are not a member yet, I urge you to apply for membership in IASR. You can do that through the banner in the reception hall of the conference.
I would like to thank the IASR board members who are leading all these activities: Dr. Diana E. Clarke, member-at-large, Prof. Vladimir Carli, Treasurer, Prof. Lars Mehlum, past President, Prof. Katalin Szanto, Secretary and Prof. Barbara Stanley, our Journal Editor and President-elect.
Finally, I would like to thank the organising committee of the summit: Prof. Jill Harkavy Friedman and CEO Bob Gabia from AFSP, our two excellent summit chairs: Prof. Ping Qin and Prof. John Mann who did a wonderful job and the excellent Parthenon team led by Kelly Phy.
I hope we all enjoy the summit and the educational activities in between summits.
Prof. Gil Zalsman MD MHA
President, International Academy of Suicide Research