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In recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of in vitro toxicology, in particular with respect to development, implementation and validation of alternative toxicity test methods, and for his substantial contribution to the FRAME Research Programme:

Dr. Richard Clothier is the recipient of the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award for the year 2010

Richard Clothier substantially contributed to the field of in vitro toxicology by developing alternative assays for replacing animal toxicity testing, e.g. Neutral Red Uptake (NRU) and Neutral Red Release (NRR) tests for basal cytotoxicity, the Fluorescent Leakage assay, Alamar Blue (Resazurin) metabolism test for toxicity and many others.

Dr. Clothier, as an expert in national and international trials, significantly contributed to the further advancement of the acceptance of alternative assays for toxicity through his commitment to a number of studies including;- FRAME  study in 1983-1986, the  EC/HO and COLIPA international validation study on alternatives to the Draize eye irritation test, EU/COLIPA  international validation study on the in vitro 3T3 NRU test for phototoxicity, ECVAM/ICCVAM assessment of the NRU assay for measuring of basal toxicity and others. For many years Dr. Clothier collaborated with Björn Ekwall on the Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) programme aimed at the evaluation of ability of in vitro basal cytotoxicity assays to predict human acute systemic toxicity.  R. Clothier is one of the scientific leaders of the integrated EU sponsored ACuteTox project, and is responsible for the generation of basal cytotoxicity component of the in vitro database and contributed to its vitro-in vivo evaluation of the data.

R. Clothier was a co-founder (1983) of the FRAME Alternative Laboratory (FAL) at the University of Nottingham, in the Medical School, and was a director of the FAL from 1997 to 2005.  He was promoted to Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham in 1985, to Reader, in Cellular Toxicology, in 1993 and became Associate Professor in 2005. R. Clothier has been a FRAME Trustee since 1983.

Ada Kolman, PhD, Assoc. Professor
President of the Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation
Stockholm, 2010-01-11
Sweden

The  ESTIV Executive Board will be partly renewed at the next General Assembly meeting  at ESTIV2010 (2-4 September 2010, Linz, Austria).

• If you are committed to the principal objective of ESTIV which is to improve the knowledge and mechanistic understanding of adverse effects of chemical compounds at the cellular and subcellular level,
• if you want to take up an active role in this European scientific forum
• if you are prepared to commit time to your society
• if you are active in in vitro toxicology research
• if you want to strengthen the links between European initiatives and in vitro toxicology in your own country

You are invited to express your interest for being nominated as a member of the Executive Board  of ESTIV and send a brief statement of your qualifications and experience before May 15, 2010to:

Dr.  Greet Schoeters at: greet.schoeters@vito.be. 

Ideally the Board should represent a balance of youth and experience, gender, industrial and academic viewpoints.
During the ESTIV2010 congress the ESTIV General Assembly will elect the new members of the Executive Board.
If the number of nominations exceeds the number of vacancies a postal ballot of the ESTIV Membership will be held during the General Assembly at ESTIV2010.

To encourage active participation of undergraduate students in scientific fora and to stimulate exchange of information among students, ESTIV will provide 5 travel bursaries of 250 Euros each.

Students who do not yet have a Ph.D and who submit an abstract  are eligible for travel bursaries and should indicate this when they register at the congress web site.

Recipients of the bursaries will be chosen on the basis of  the submitted abstracts. Winners will be informed before June 30, 2010.

In addition to the bursary, as a recipient you  will get the opportunity during the student session of ESTIV2010 to present your current results in a nutshell and to introduce your institute and its in vitro toxicology-related activities in a 10 minute presentation.

You will  acquire experience of presenting the very essence of your results/work orally to an international audience.

The student session aims to provide the students with a clear and concise insight into in vitro  toxicology areas that they are not (yet) familiar with and to obtain information about in vitro toxicology in  different institutions around Europe.

In recognition of  excellence and to encourage young researchers for active dissemination of their work,    ESTIV and Elsevier present following awards:

• Award of the European Society for Toxicology in Vitro and Elsevier Young Scientist Award for the best oral presentation at the ESTIV2010 congress. The award includes  a one year subscription to “Toxicology in Vitro” , the  official journal of ESTIV,   and 500 Euros.
• Award of the European Society for Toxicology in Vitro and Elsevier Young Scientist Award for the best poster presentation at theESTIV2010 congress. The award includes  a one year subscription to “Toxicology in Vitro”, the  official journal of ESTIV,   and 500 Euros.

In addition to receiving the specific award, recipients are honored at the Awards Ceremony during the closing session of ESTIV2010 (September 4, 2010). The ESTIV newsletter and the ESTIV web site will report  on their work.
Young investigators are students which  are working towards a  Ph.D. You should indicate whether you are eligible for the young investigators award, when you  register for the congress.