During the next General Assembly that will be held during our upcoming 18th Conference of the ESB in Lisbon, we shall have to elect a number of new members to the Council.

Gabriele Dubini, Dominique Pioletti, Gwendolen Reilly and William R. Taylor completed their first term. Gwendolen Reilly and William R. Taylor intend to stand for re-election.  José Manuel Garcia-Aznar and I have served two full terms, and thus must step down.

Hence, six Council seats in total are up for election. The Council thus invites any regular member in good standing to present himself or herself as a candidate to serve on the Council of our Society.

Our Society considers gender equality as an important aspect in the life of our community; we would particularly encourage female candidates for this position.

Those who are interested should send their full length CV, a 200-word CV, and a small picture all in electronic format to the Secretary General before 1 May 2012.  All candidates will be posted on the Society web site so that all members can consult them. Candidates will also be presented by the President right before the election ballot at the forthcoming General Assembly held in Lisbon on July 2, 2012.

The President of the European Society of Biomechanics
Damien Lacroix

As it is usual in this time, the ESB Council announces the Awards Programme for the next ESB Congress in Lisbon.

Please, remember the dealines are very close.

All the current ESB Awards are:

• Huiskes Medal for Biomechanics (Deadline: December 1st 2011).
• S.M. Perren Research Award (Deadline: December 1st 2011).
• Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics (Deadline: December 1st 2011).
• Clinical Biomechanics Award
• Student Award
• Poster Award
• Travel Award (Deadline: March 15th 2012).

The international foot and ankle biomechanics community (i-FAB) is an international collaborative community of all people related to foot and ankle biomechanics.

i-FAB aims

• to connect people working in the foot and ankle biomechanics domain regardless of discipline, sector and location
• to promote integration of research activities
• to accelerate research developments
• to create coordinated community wide activities
• to build international activities to address common research challenges.

Any ESB member interested in i-FAB can get more information at www.i-FAB.org

Special issue of Interface Focus – The Virtual Physiological Human

Royal Society Publishing has just published an issue of Interface Focus – The Virtual Physiological Human organised by Peter Coveney, Marco Viceconti, Vanessa Diaz, Peter Hunter and Peter Kohl.
Straight to the issue…
See RSFS Publishing for further details or you can go straight to the issue contents. The print issue is available priced £49.00. You can order this online via the above web page or, alternatively, you can contact debbie.vaughan@royalsociety.org

Thank you to all members who took part in our recent membership survey the report on the survey findings can be found here:

ESB members survey2010

Computer Aided Engineering Training program from EnginSoft
EnginSoft SpA, Corporate Member of the ESB, has launched a CAE Training and Recruitment Initiative.

EnginSoft received an overwhelming response from applicants from all over the world for the first Training Course in February 2009.
We encourage anyone interested in the initiative, to now register online for the September 2009 Course !
Please visit www.enginsoft.com/academy

The initiative is dedicated to the next generation of simulation engineers – also in Bioengineering as one of the top future sectors – and will help to provide a young and highly skilled expert workforce for EnginSoft and its partners in Europe.

This initiative represents a unique opportunity for University Graduates, PhD students and post docs, to acquire knowledge and expertise in the most modern CAE Computer Aided Engineering and VP Virtual Prototyping technologies available on the market today.

The Initiative encompasses :

• A 3 month Intensive Training Course in CAE and VP Virtual Prototyping.
• 1st Course: Start February 2009 in Northern Italy.
• Registration through easy CV submission until end of November 2008.
• The Course will be conducted in English by EnginSoft experts and Professors from esteemed universities.

Content: various CAE and VP disciplines, applications, software and a broad range of topics related to the same. Theoretical and hands-on training – project work, also on-site, with industry and research institutions. After the 3 month Course, attendees will be offered project work with an EnginSoft or partner office, in Italy or Europe (various countries).

The Course, accommodation during the Course and travel to and back from Italy will be carried by EnginSoft.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or require further details about the Course. For more information, please visit: www.enginsoft.com/academy
Or email: b.leich@enginsoft.it

Four new council members were elected at the European Society of Biomechanics Annual General Meeting 2008 and two members were re-elected. The new council unanimously elected Ralph Müller as the new president of the ESB and several members took up new posts within the council.

The new council members are: Gabriele Dubini (Chair of Education Committee), from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Dominique Pioletti (Chair of Membership Committee), from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland, Gwendolen Reilly (Chair of Publication Committee), from the University of Sheffield, UK and William Taylor (Chair of Student Committee) from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. Damien Lacroix (now Secretary-General) and Jose-Manuel Garcia Aznar (now Vice President and Chair of Awards Committee) were re-elected.

New posts were taken up by Marco Viceconti who stepped down as president and will now act as the key contact for liaison with other societies, Hans Van Oosterwyck who becomes treasurer and Peter Zioupos who becomes chair of Meetings Committee.