By Hansjörg Haas, Ph.D.
October 18, 2021
Friends and colleagues – it is my sincere hope that your connection to SLAS has made your life just a bit easier this past year. For me, knowing that my Society was not only hard at work professionally to help solve an international health crisis, but available personally to help one another has been a source of great relief.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – SLAS works because it simply does everything within its power to clear a path to success for the life sciences community. Collaboration and connection are why we exist!
For years, SLAS has nailed the power of one-on-one access. This year, we’ve made additional strides in building partnerships amidst trying circumstances. We’ve formalized agreements with ELRIG UK and AseBio/BioSpain for Innovation AveNEW collaboration; eSCAMPS (UK) for student initiatives; and The Pistoia Alliance for emerging companies. We continue to look for additional opportunities to strengthen this important part of our mission.
We heard your plea to have a ‘group’ rate that allows your entire lab to benefit from SLAS’s online education, networking, connections, webinars, mentoring and more while accommodating the usual ebb and flow of members in and out of your lab. We responded with the Lab Membership category, and have seen impressive growth in this category.
With the challenges of the year, we didn’t miss a beat with our focus on helping students and early career professionals take advantage of member benefits including conference and other event activities (we were thrilled to see so many students take advantage of our free registration offer for SLAS2021 Digital). SLAS always has known that investing in our future is the right thing to do for SLAS and for life sciences.
Member Meet-Ups, job board, Special Interest Groups, CONNECTED, awards and grants, Mentor Match – the list of SLAS member benefits and resources goes on and on!
Of course, it is what YOU do for the SLAS community that allows us to do more for you. Volunteerism is strong, but we continually look for new faces to bring new ideas and energy to the Society. We encourage you to get involved.
SLAS instituted the SLAS Fellow program in 2016 to recognize those who provide countless hours and overwhelming energy to SLAS and are the backbone of SLAS’s incredible strength. Congratulations to these 2022 SLAS Fellows:
Manuela Beil-Peter
Analytik Jena GmbH
Sabrina Corazza
Axxam Spa
J. Colin Cox, Ph.D.
Seer
Melissa Crisp, Ph.D.
Eli Lilly and Company
Rose Gonzales, Ph.D.
Pfizer
Kamran Honarnejad, Ph.D.
Fraunhofer ITEM
Eberhard Krausz, Ph.D.
Evotec
Andreas H. Luippold, Ph.D.
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG
Andrew Napper, Ph.D.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Yohann Potier, Ph.D.
Tessera Therapeutics
Terry Riss, Ph.D.
Promega
Mariafrancesca Scalise, Ph.D.
University of Calabria
Andrea Weston, Ph.D.
Pfizer
Mary Jo Wildey, Ph.D.
Merck
Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to the hardworking members of the SLAS Membership and Engagement Council – it is these fine folks who identify and empower SLAS committees to respond to community needs. Thank you to 2021 members:
Eberhard Krausz, Ph.D., ChemBioCon - Chair
Kenda Evans, Ph.D., Agilent - Vice Chair
Michelle Arkin, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco - Board Liaison
David Jennions, Ph.D., GRAIL
Jörg Kutter, Ph.D., University of Copenhagen
Amanda Lembke, Amgen
Mariafrancesca Scalise, Ph.D., University of Calabria
Erik Werner, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
SLAS. It’s a special group. Thank you for all you do.
