Let me begin by thanking JSBi for the opportunity to inform its membership of what is happening within the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). I sincerely hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful interaction between the two organizations.

On January 21 I officially took over as President of ISCB from Russ Altman. My elected term is for one year. Joining me as elected members of the ISCB Executive Committee are:

Michael Gribskov (USA) Vice President (gribskov@sdsc.edu)
Anna Tramontano (Italy) Vice President (Anna.Tramontano@uniromal.it)
Barbara Bryant (USA) Secretary (bryant@mpi.com)
David Rocke (USA)Treasurer (dmrocke@ucdavis.edu)

Our science is in a rapid state of growth and our platform for the coming year centers around serving our membership in this rapid growth phase. Regional groups, including JSBi are proliferating and ISCB has a role to play in fostering their development and yet at the same time doing everything we can to have our science be represented in a unified way to governments and society worldwide. As I write this I an attending the International Conference on Bioinformatics 2002 in Bangkok to understand the needs of this region and how ISCB can foster regional groups. What is clear is there is a huge future for bioinformatics in this region but they also have some of the same problems that plague all geographic regions, most notably insufficient trained personnel and yet a large number of scientists wishing to be trained in bioinformatics. In coming months we will be proposing initiatives to assist regional groups get established and to flourish as well as establish a more active educational program. I have asked Anna Tramontano to lead our regional affiliate's effort and Michael Gribskov to begin working on an educational program. The first step in both cases is to understand the scope of what is out there. We will shortly be making available an improved Web site at http://www.iscb.org which will include details of these efforts as they begin to unfold. Contributions to that Web site can be sent via email to admin@iscb.org

Accompanying rapid growth is a more diversified science and the need for special interest groups (SIGs) to affiliate with the society in ways not dissimilar to regional groups. SIGs are an active and vital part of the Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology (ISMB)conference, the official conference of the society, and a variety will be represented at this years conference in Edmonton Canada (http://www.ismb02.org/). I have asked Barbara Bryant to foster the development of formal relationships between the SIGs and ISCB.

Clearly these efforts require a professional and well organized society office, beyond that provided by the Executive Committee who are all volunteers with over demanding scientific jobs. A professional office requires funds and I have asked David Rocke as our new treasurer to explore fund raising opportunities, particularly through interactions with corporate partners.

In short we have a demanding agenda this year which can gain from a very close interaction with JSBi in which I know we share common goals. Our Executive Committee, our Board and our membership looks forward to this interaction and I encourage the membership of JSBi to contact us with ideas for joint initiatives.