Letter from the Presidents

Dear NO Enthusiasts,

We are incredibly excited to officially begin our term leading the NO Society for the next two years.

First, we’d like to thank Dr. Phil James, our outgoing President, for his commitment and service to the Society. Phil led the Society into a new era with democratic elections of officers and transparency in leadership.  With the help of Mark Crabtree, they organized a highly successful and memorable international meeting in Oxford.  Our goal is to build upon this momentum and further revitalize the NO Society.

Although it has been over 30 years since the original finding that NO is an endogenous gaseous signaling molecule, the number of publications revealing new insights into NO signaling continues to increase each year. Additionally, it is now apparent that crosstalk exists between NO and other gasotransmitters which has greatly expanded the diversity in NO research and attracted new audiences.  As such, the field of NO chemistry, biology, and physiology is not only alive and well, but also growing. Hence, we believe that the NO Society, which was founded in 1996, should also grow and evolve to meet the demands of this continually progressing field.  

In the coming months, look out for changes to the NO Society website- we hope to make this a much more dynamic and interactive forum with the goals of helping members of our Society and the greater NO community to stay informed on the latest in NO research and happenings.   A main focus is to implement initiatives and have resources that will cater to and assist young investigators in their careers ensuring that the field continues to thrive well into the future.  All of this will be in addition to organizing the next international NO meeting to take place May 10-13, 2020 in Chicago USA. We’re dubbing this meeting “ChicagNO” and it promises to be a great scientific program and networking event– please mark your calendars!

Finally, while we have many ideas, the goal of the Society is to support its members.  So please let us know what you think and if you have any ideas for the Society.  We are always happy to hear feedback and get more members involved. We look forward to working with our stellar Board to serve the Society.

Sincerely,

Sruti and Douglas

Letter from the Outgoing President

Dear Nitric Oxide Society Member,

This has been an exciting couple of years for our Society.

Building on the good work put in place by my predecessors Andy Gow and subsequently Dennis Stuehr, we have made several step-changes to our Society to safeguard its future success.

We elected our Society Board, who have been tireless in supporting me and the activities and aims we set in place 2 years ago.

We re-vamped our new look web pages (www.NitricOxideSociety.org). This is something we want you to be a part of so take a look and let us know if you wish to contribute. One aspect we certainly want to improve is to support our members’ needs and foster the education and training of new investigators in the NO field.

We re-built links with some of our associated Societies. NO2018 hosted a superb SFRRI session, and sessions  supported by the BHF and BSCR. We need to build on these and links with SFRBM .

And to Oxford 2018…

I forged what I suspect will be a life-long friendship with Mark Crabtree, Conference Chair. Only those who have undertaken this task will appreciate the skills, time, and effort needed to complete this task with dignity, whilst maintaining sanity, a profession and family! With this in mind, Keith Channon and Amrita Ahluwalia provided the back up and strength that safeguarded the meeting and kept us grounded over 2 years. A big thank you both and to all who contributed.

Our Oxford meeting was a huge success by any metric. Attendance at the meeting increased, membership of the Society increased, and critically we ensured attendance and participation by young investigators. We brought together several of our related Societies and groups making the most of the interaction (whilst appreciating the difference). Importantly, Oxford yielded a much needed profit to the Society that will pump-prime the Chicago meeting.

Sincere thanks to Natasha Dougal (Wheldon Ltd) without whom the past 2 years would have been simply unmanageable. Her professional approach and patience in organising was a constant and was the back bone of our Oxford meeting.

I am keen the Society builds from here and goes from strength to strength. With Sruti and Doug at the helm there is little doubt this will happen. I will be staying on the Board in an advisory capacity and we will soon put out a call for new Board members (so make sure to nominate and vote).We want membership of our Society to have tangible benefit. The NO Society is yours, so step up and be an active part of it!

See you all in Chicago (if not before).

Sincerely

Philip