Dear Subscriber,
We are pleased to present the Autumn 2020 news updates from the European Society of Biomechanics. In this newsletter, we summarized the main activities of the ESB in the last three months although, like many things, still heavily influenced by Covid-19. As usual, all members are welcome to actively contribute information to this newsletter and to the ESB website in general. Let me know of anything of general interest, scientific articles, advertisements, upcoming meetings or particular items of discussion.
Michele Conti, Chair of the Publication Committee
From the President
We’re half way through December. Typically a time to make plans for the Christmas break and to reflect upon the year that has passed. Even so this year. Most of us would have planned to see family and friends during the Christmas break, but such visits will have to be cancelled, or will be very limited at best. Due to the corona pandemic things are different than other years, very different, and even that is an understatement. If you would have told me one year ago that I would be living under curfew in Belgium, I would have declared you crazy; yet, it is being a reality for two months now. Many social activities have been put on hold already for much longer. And also our scientific life has been impacted: labs closing down, working from home, teaching to a screen instead of an auditorium filled with students. I’m not telling anything new when I say that 2020 has been a tough year in many aspects.
But we’ll get through this, also as a Society!
One thing you can look forward to in 2021 is an exciting ESB meeting! The Milan team with captain Francesco Migliavacca is working hard to ensure that ESB2021 will be THE place to present your latest biomechanics work! Hopefully, ESB2021 can be held as planned in the university buildings in Milan. The organizers are keeping a close watch on how the corona/covid-19 situation is developing and will modify the structure of the conference if needed. It might mean that instead of an onsite meeting, ESB2021 will be online only, or maybe a hybrid solution. Plans are already being developed and a final decision will be made early 2021. Bottomline: there will be a meeting and it will be a good one! Hence, submit your latest work before the deadline of January 31!
And did I tell you that you can look forward to social events at ESB2021? If there is one thing we have come to realize this year it is the importance of social interaction. On site, there will be many opportunities to meet colleagues and have a good time. But in case the event will be online we will make sure to include moments and activities where you can interact with your colleagues.
One other thing to look forward to and enjoy is … science and scientific research! As researchers we have the privilege to be doing that on a daily basis. It’s the fuel that keeps us going. Indeed, in a survey by Nature in 2019 ‘intellectual challenge’ was the most important aspect by far that PhD students enjoy about doing a PhD. Often time it’s a long journey, but each day we can take the first step. Every day we can dream about developing this novel biomechanics tool or discovering this amazing mechanobiological pathway, and dream of new horizons; or to put it in the words of Star Trek’s captain Picard “to boldly go where no one has gone before” 😉. While science forms the very heart of our Society I want to emphasize that scientific research is done by humans, you. Be sure that through awards, scientific dissemination, and many other existing and novel actions ESB will continue supporting you!
I wish you a merry Christmas and all the best for 2021! Take good care of yourself. And of each other, especially in these days.
Harry van Lenthe, ESB President
Meeting News
Next ESB Congresses
26th Congress of the ESB (ESBiomech2021) in Milan
A message from the local Organizing committee of Milan 2021:
Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce the 26th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB 2021) to be organized in Milano, Italy, on July 11-14, 2021. www.esbiomech2021.org. |
The congress will take place at the Politecnico di Milano – its main campus is located in downtown Milano and close to the heart of the city, easily reachable through the Milan public transportation system. Milano is the most active and modern city in Italy, with a clear vocation to the European culture. It offers a wide variety of enjoyable cultural and artistic landmarks. Given the uncertain public health conditions due to the current pandemic, if an in-person congress is not possible, an online format is foreseen for the conference. Information on the final format of the congress will be given in due time. The pre-courses and welcome reception will take place in the main Campus on Sunday. |
Politecnico di Milano is one of the most outstanding technical universities in Europe, ranked 1st in Italy. Established in 1863, it is the largest school of Architecture, Design and Engineering in Italy, with two main campuses located in Milan, the heart of fashion and design industries and the venue of Expo 2015, and five more campuses around the Lombardy region. In particular, Politecnico di Milano boast a large group of researchers active in the biomedical engineering fields and in Biomechanics in particular, which makes Politecnico one of the leading universities in Italy in the biomechanical fields. |
We are very grateful to Profs. Federica Caselli (Università Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy), David Steinman (University of Toronto, Canada) and Nico Verdonschot (Medical University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands), who agreed to deliver Keynote Lectures. Perspective and Keynotes selected from the 2020 submissions are posted on the congress website. |
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION Abstract for podium presentations (both in-person and online) and posters can be submitted online through the congress website by January 31st 2021. Further information and templates are available at Abstract submission page. ESB21 Local Organizers |
Future Congresses
- ESBiomech2022 In 2022 the 27th Congress of ESB will be held in Porto, Portugal. The congress will take place at the Alfandega Porto Congress Center, situated in the heart of Porto’s historic city centre, from 26-29 June 2022. The congress chairs are Joăo Manuel R.S. Tavares (University of Porto), Paulo R. Fernandes (University of Lisbon) and Renato Natal Jorge (University of Porto). The ESB 2022 will present an exciting scientific programme incorporating all the traditional ESB sessions but also bringing new activities. The main theme of the ESB 2022 will be Biomechanics: Innovation, technology and societal impact. There will be many networking activities planned for students and delegates. We are looking forward to welcome you to ESB 2022 in Porto!
- ESBiomech2023 In 2023 the 28th Congress of ESB will be held in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The congress will take place at the MECC Convention Center, situated just outside the city center, from 9-12 July 2023. ESBiomech2023 will be jointly organized by three renowned universities in close proximity to each other: Eindhoven University of Technology, KU Leuven, and the University of Liege.
- ESBiomech2024 In 2024 the 29th Congress of the ESB will be held in Edinburgh, UK. More details will be provided in future communications.
Endorsed meetings by the ESB
- 13th International Conference BIOMDLORE 2021 21-23 October, 2021 ilnius/Trakai (exact venue and place TBA), Lithuania (https://www.biomdlore.lt) ESB members will receive a 20% reduction on registration fees.
- Biomechanics 2020, post-poned to 8-10 September 2021, Warsaw, Poland (https://biomechanics2020.wum.edu.pl/en) ESB members will receive a 20% reduction on registration fees.
- 5th Virtual Physiological Human Summer School post-poned to 7-11 June 2021 Barcelona, Spain (https://eventum.upf.edu/46693/programme/5th-barcelona-vph-summer-school.html) ESB members will pay the same reduced registration fees as VPHi members (150 euros instead of 250 euros for the whole week).
Other meetings
- BioMedEng21 6-7 September 2021 Sheffield, UK(https://biomedeng20.com/)
- 2021 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C 2021)14-18 June 2021 Vail, Colorado, USA (www.sb3c.org)
Enrico Dall’Ara, Chair of the Meetings and External Affairs Committee
Dieter Pahr, Chair of the Meetings WebPortal Committee
ESB Awards at the 2021 ESB conference
Whilst the deadline for the Huiskes Medal has now closed and nominations are being scruitinised by an Award Panel, the deadline for the 2021 Best Doctoral Thesis Award and the 2021 Student Award is the 31st January 2021, to coincide with the closing date for abstract submission for the yearly ESB Congress.
We are thus very much looking forward to receiving your applications here – please do refer to the respective details on the website though (Best Doctoral Thesis Award, Student Award) to ensure compliance with the relevant award regulations for an application to be considered.
Markus Heller, Vice President of the ESB and Chair of the Awards CommitteeESB Education and Student Committee
- Visualization of 3D medical image data
- Labeling of anatomical structures in 3D images both manually and semi-automatically
- Loading, editing, and saving segmentation files
- Rotating and landmarking 3D images
- Using the ITK-SNAP distributed segmentation service
The recordings of all webinars can be seen by subscribing to the ESB You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ESBiomech
Mark in your calendar!
Upcoming webinar: Making the most of your microscopy images with high-content image analysis in CellProfiler
Tuesday 26 January 2021 16-17 CEST
Microscopy images are coming to be recognized as the rich and quantitative data source that they have been since the advent of the digital image; many excellent image analysis tools now exist to help researchers find objects of interest in their data and extract measurements of images and/or objects. This webinar will discuss one such tool, CellProfiler (https://cellprofiler.org/), which places an emphasis on making reproducible workflows to capture large measurement suites from many images. It will also discuss the value of the large measurement sets that it can create, both for exploring desired phenotypes with supervised clustering in tools like CellProfiler Analyst and for the range of unsupervised dataset exploration techniques we call morphological profiling.
Social Networks
Don’t forget to check our social networks where we post the latest news and job offers:
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ESBiomech/)
- Facebook students (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ESBiomech.Students/)
- LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4257919)
- Twitter (https://twitter.com/ESBiomech)
Contact us (https://esbiomech.org/student-section/) if you have any job to be advertised.
Aurélie Carlier, Chair of ESB Education and Student Committee
Treasurer’s Report
By the time of this newsletter, more than 50% of our members are in good standing. Thank you to all who have paid and are contributing to a financially healthy society. Such a financial health is chiefly important for the continuous support of the ESB activities, which include among others, several major awards that promote excellence and collaborative research within our community.
For those who have pending payments, please consider this message as a gentle reminder to log onto the esbiomech.org webpage to pay your dues.
PayPal is the preferred method of payment as this is quick and easy (Payment via PayPal updates your membership status instantaneously). Alternatively, it is possible to pay by bank transfer (please do not forget to include your surname and payment ID to ensure your payment is not lost). Importantly, only members in good standing qualify for a reduction in the registration fee for the ESB2021 conference in Milano. Other benefits for members in good standing include the participation to the ESB Awards and journal subscriptions /publication fees at a reduced cost. Remember that given the perturbations of the ESB services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, all paying members (Active, Students and Corporate), in good standing in 2020, will have their 2021 membership automatically covered.
Should you need a receipt of payment, you can download this document directly from your own individual member page. After logging onto esbiomech.org and navigating to your member page, you will find a list of all your payments and individual links to produce printable receipts. If you require a specific address on the invoice for reimbursement (i.e. your business address), just update your personal details to include the correct address as your primary contact. You may also include an alternative address with your profile and choose at any time to which address your correspondence will be sent.
Jérôme Noailly, ESB Treasurer
ESB National Chapters & External Affairs News
edited by Mark Thompson, Chair of the Membership Committee Enrico Dall’Ara, Chair of the Meetings and External Affairs Committee
ESB National Chapters
Italian ESB Chapter no news from the ESB Italian Chapter.Spanish ESB Chapter no news from the ESB Spanish Chapter.
Austrian ESB Chapter
Affiliated Societies
Virtual Physiological Human institute (VPHi)Société de Biomécanique
Portuguese Society of Biomechanics
Danish Society of Biomechanics
Polish Society of Biomechanics
Hellenic Society of Biomechanics
- Prof. A. Arampatzis, Head of the Department of Training and Movement Sciences and Spokesperson of the Berlin School of Movement Science at the Humboldt-University Berlin
- Prof V. Baltzopoulos, Head of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences of the Liverpool John Moores University Both of them are highly resected colleagues with an international profile and are also about to be appointed honorable/life-long members of the society, at our upcoming conference in October 2021.
- Prof V. Baltzopoulos and Prof. A. Arampatzis will assist the HSB’s board in raising awareness concerning its activities and disseminating the society’s output over the next years.