Welcome to
ISMB 2003
Finishing touches
are being put on the program of the 11th international conference
on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, to be held at the
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia
from 29 June to 3 July 2003.
At ISMB 2003
youll experience an exciting program of tutorials, keynotes,
papers, posters, technical demonstrations and commercial displays
in a modern world-class venue next to Brisbanes South Bank
parklands.
This years
meeting features an especially high standard of content, as unprecedented
numbers of submissions required an especially rigorous selection
by our international Program Committee under Co-chair Gene Myers.
On June 29th,
we will present 15 half-day tutorials taught by internationally
recognised leaders in diverse areas of computational biology and
bioinformatics. These 15 were selected from a highly competitive
field of 48 proposals.
Our eight keynote
speakers including 2002 Nobel Prize winner Sydney Brenner
will take us to the forefront of both computational sciences
and genomic biology. Our original intention was to invite four biologists
and four computational scientists. But boundaries are
fuzzy in computational biology, and its more accurate to see
our eight keynotes as positioned at various points along the gradient
between computation and biology.
Our 35 long
and 13 short papers were selected from among an unprecedented 350
submissions. Full details (including abstracts) are now available
on the conference website: www.iscb.org/ismb2003.
Again this year,
ISMB continues to be supported by leading companies in computation,
software, bioinformatics services, publishing and related industries,
and by leading educational and research institutions. Our conference
website carries information on our sponsors, trade exhibition and
demos.
Five Special
Interest Groups (BOSC, Bio-Pathways, Text mining, Bio-Ontologies,
and WEB03) will meet just before ISMB 2003, on 27 and/or 28 June.
For more information, follow the SIG link on the conference website.
INFORMATION
UPDATE
The submission deadline for posters has now been extended to 19
May 2003. Posters submitted after that date will be accepted (if
theres still roomand the Brisbane Conference & Exhibition
Centre provides a LOT of room) but your abstract may not be included
in the abstract book. As of today we have almost 400 poster submissions.
Information
on visas, air travel, special air fares (see below for more information),
airport transfers, car rentals, and local transportation has now
been posted at: www.iscb.org/ismb2003/trans_visas.shtml
Don't miss out
on the Early Registration Discount! The deadline is May 23, 2003.
SARS
We all have heard the old Chinese malediction, May you live
in interesting times. These are certainly interesting times
in which to hold a major international conference! As the conflict
in Iraq began to subside, the SARS situation began to intrude more
and more into the headlines.
The World Health
Organisation website (www.who.int/csr/sarscountry/en/)
provides updates, six days a week, on probable SARS cases in all
countries. As I write (12 May 2003) the WHO website says that there
have been cumulatively 4 probable cases of SARS in Australia, all
of whom have recovered.
The Australian
Department of Health and Ageing website (www.health.gov.au/sars.htm)
states: Since the WHO health alert, Australia has intensified
its disease surveillance capacity with information to hospitals,
health workers and General Practitioners about symptoms to look
for and infection control procedures to undertake if presented with
a potential suspect case of SARS. While a number of patients in
Australia have been placed under investigation after presenting
with symptoms of the disease following recent travel from Asia,
no cases of SARS have been found in Australia.
The website
of ICIAM-5 (www.iciam.org), a
major international mathematics conference that will convene in
Sydney the week after ISMB-2003, also has a range of useful information
about travel to Australia, information about the four cases (all
of whom, according to the site, recovered before April 17th), and
links to other websites with SARS information relevant to travelers.
A major international
agricultural trade fair and exhibition has just ended in Rockhampton,
a few hundred km north of Brisbane, with large delegations from
overseas and (according to the press) a record attendance of more
than 50,000 over the 8-day event. The XIX Genetics Congress in Melbourne,
scheduled the week after ISMB-2003, so far has more than 2100 registrants.
Websites and
reports in the press assure us that there is a greater chance of
being struck by lightning (1 in 5.3 million per year in Australia)
than contracting SARS while transiting through an international
connections area. Nonetheless, registrants from Europe who may be
concerned about transiting through e.g. Singapore should be aware
that excellent connections to and from Brisbane are available through
Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Brunei, Manila, the
Gulf via Perth, and other routes. Travelers from North America will
normally connect through Sydney or Auckland.
Please watch
the conference website for information and announcements.
LOCATION
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia's "Sunshine
State," is Australia's only subtropical capital city. Sophisticated
yet friendly, Brisbane is a year-round city that enjoys warm, bright
summers and clear, mild winters. Brisbane itself is the perfect
place to relax and enjoy the best of Australia. A wide range of
restaurants, theatre, museums, galleries, parks and wildlife areas
(not to mention Steve Irwins Australia Zoo) awaits. It is
also the perfect jumping-off point for a tour to the Great Barrier
Reef, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, or the fabulous Aussie
Outback. Tropical rainforest, white sand beaches, offshore islands,
sailing, and mountain hiking are but a few of the opportunities
waiting for you. For more information: www.ourbrisbane.com
and
www.queensland-holidays.com.au.
Queensland is
also Australias Smart State, with a burgeoning
biotechnology industry and several bioinformatics firms. Consider
spending an extra day to visit the world-class research facilities
at e.g. the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology,
Griffith University, and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.
ACCOMMODATION
Room blocks have been reserved in Brisbane for ISMB 2003 at special
conference rates. Conference attendees can book online via the accommodation
web site: www.iscb.org/ismb2003/housing.shtml
AIR TRAVEL
Corporate Travel Management (CTM) has been appointed the official
travel agency for the 11th International Conference on Intelligent
Systems for Molecular Biology. CTM offers special flexible/changeable
conference airfares at up to 40% discount in economy class on Qantas
services or the best Internet or published airfares available on
Qantas and Virgin Blue Airlines. Quotes can be requested via our
travel page: www.iscb.org/ismb2003/trans_visas.shtml
AFFILIATED
EVENTS
In addition to the Special Interest Group meetings, note the First
IECA Conference on Systems Biology of E. coli (just before
ISMB 2003, June 23-25 in Tsuruoka, Japan) and the World Genetics
Congress (just after ISMB 2003, July 6-11, 2003 in Melbourne, Australia).
As well, the Fifth International Congress on Industrial and Applied
Mathematics (www.iciam.org) will
convene in Sydney from July 7-11. Follow the links on the ISMB 2003
website for information about these and other affiliated events.
Mark Ragan
Chair, ISMB-2003 Local Organising Committee
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