Felice Petraglia
Felice Petraglia, MD
SRI President, 2008-2009
The main 2008 – 2009 Presidential objective was to increase the international image of the SGI and historically, the first SGI Annual Meeting was held outside North America: Glasgow (UK), still carried out in the most recent years.
The internationalization process started by President Challis and his Council some years before, and reached the zenith on March 18-21, 2009, the Annual Meeting held in Glasgow (UK), a decision committed years before and strongly sustained by the various Presidents and Councils. The meeting was particularly successful in terms of international participants (from 32 countries) and the record in abstract submission was reached (1,052). International were also the recipients of the SGI Awards (John Challis, Fiona Lyall, Jane Norman, and Bart Fauser). The success leas to new membership recruitment and the SGI Forum on Inflammation and Reproduction (Siena, Italy, June 30 – July 2, 2008) and the third international SGI Summit on Preeclampsia (Sendai, Japan, November 12-14, 2009), were both strong messages that the society was recognized as international.
The interaction with other scientific societies all over the world was another contribution to the international growth of the SGI: SMFM, SSR, ACOG, ASRM, ESHRE, and RCOG.
During my tenure as president of the SGI, the process of making the SGI an “all-year Society” was pursued by asking all members to devote “everyday one minute to SGI”. A monthly Present’s Newsletter was mailed associated with an artistic representation of reproduction, thereafter collected in a paper (Human reproduction in art: from myths to history) published in Reproductive Sciences (2010, 17:711717). Furthermore, the impact factor of Reproductive Sciences further increased broadening the value of the society and contributing to the present global SRI.
It was a pleasure to move the pivot and even more pleasure to see the SRI make these and subsequent advances without losing its scientific edge and its effect on young scientists.