Dear Colleagues

In science, just as in ordinary life, we are governed by rhythms. Some have hormonal origins, but for many scientists and clinicians, other factors such as grant application deadlines, academic semesters or ward rotations dominate our lives. Being the President of IASO means that I have now identified another slowly revolving rhythm - namely the interval from one International Congress of Obesity to the next one. The 8th congress in Paris was almost two years ago and we are looking forward to the 9th ICO in São Paulo which is just two years away. 

Antwerp in May and Long Beach in November 2000 are the major obesity research meetings halfway through this cycle. Our scientific committee, chaired by Claude Bouchard, is already busy planning the ICO scientific programme and the IASO awards committee, chaired by Paul Trayhurn, is working to identify potential candidates for our IASO prizes -  who will also be keynote speakers in São Paulo.
Since Paris, we have taken a major step in a new direction, joining in a partnership agreement with the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). This allowed us to set up a secretariat in London headed by our new director, Kate Baillie.  To run such a “virtual” organization with officers from all regions of the globe is no simple task, particularly when the treasurer is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the director in London; David York and Kate Baillie have risen to this challenge, ensuring that the operation is managed efficiently and that activities of the various IASO committees are effectively co-ordinated.

This development reflects the fact that IASO is now in a more sound position financially. Careful stewardship of funds, a welcome share of the surplus from the 8th ICO in Paris and royalties from the International Journal of Obesity, in addition to membership dues, have provided stable sources of revenue to facilitate IASO’s growth. With the interest in obesity research rapidly expanding, several pharmaceutical companies, as well as the food industry, have willingly supported our attempts to develop a well-functioning network of obesity-devoted scientists all over the world. Our secretary, Professor Arne Astrup, as chairman of the membership committee, has also overseen the recruitment of new national associations to IASO, including some from areas where we had little involvement before. The number of countries under the IASO umbrella has reached 35, with more applications under consideration from associations including Turkey, Hungary, and Thailand.

In Antwerp the general council will decide where the 10th ICO will be hosted. It is obviously a challenge for the bidders to anticipate the scientific problems, which will be hot topics at that time and to develop a budget six years in advance. In Toronto in 1994, nobody had even heard about leptin – by the Paris meeting in 1998, a major proportion of papers in both basic and applied science referred to this new hormone. What we will discuss in São Paulo in 2002 and somewhere else in the world in 2006 is impossible to foresee, which is both the charm and the enigma of our profession.

A new journal, Obesity Reviews, is about to be launched under IASO auspices. It is strange to recall that at one stage we were concerned by the advent of the NAASO journal Obesity Research, and some were worried that another scientific journal in our research area might dilute the field. Now we know that demand is steadily increasing and that there is room for the International Journal of Obesity, Obesity Research, Obesity Reviews and others in the future. On the other hand, we live at a time when publication strategies are very much being debated. 

Will the conventional printed medical journal disappear, replaced by Internet based publications? What are the rules of this game? How can conventional quality assurance methods, derived from the peer review process be preserved in the electronic arena? These and other questions, not only related to the obesity field, have clearly to be discussed by us all as technology develops. For now we will still rely on the printed word for the bulk of IASO communication, as illustrated by this newsletter, also available online. In the future it could be argued that electronic format and distribution would release resources currently devoted to a publication of this kind to other uses.

Meanwhile I am delighted to see our organization prosper and evolve at such an impressive rate. Let us know how you feel that IASO could be further developed! 

Stephan Rössner