I strongly endorse Gunter Valet's suggestions about support for Eastern European scientists working in our field. Last year I was invited to talk at a meeting organized by the Polish Cytometry Society. I got a strong impression that the restoration of democracy, free scientific interchange, and economic development are somehow linked, and that is possible for organizations such as ISAC to make a contribution, even if the monetary cost is trivial compared to defence spending. The organizers of the ISAC Sam Latt conference, being held in Toronto next June, are attempting to address this issue as follows: 1) We have kept the costs as low as possible, and we are attempting to raise funds to provide travelling fellowships. Support for young investigators from Eastern Europe was specifically mentioned in an NIH grant that we have submitted requesting support for this meeting. 2) We will be making extensive use of the World Wide Web before, during, and after the meeting. In addition to making all abstracts available, we will be able to show actual data, and allow discussion of results via the web. We hope that in this way people who are unable to attend will still be able to participate in the meeting. Of course, this emphasises the point that Gunter makes about the need to improve electronic communications to Eastern Europe. David Hedley Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital Toronto
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