SMI President's Message

As the year draws to a close, I’d like to thank the many members of the Society for your continued support of and participation in the many programs that have continued from the Society. We had 1,000 participants in the live broadcasts of our 2021 webinar series, with many more members continuing to watch the on-demand recordings available through your member login on the SMI website. We also launched our first-ever virtual Principles of Mucosal Immunology course this past July with over 200 participants. Our journal, Mucosal Immunology, saw many exciting articles published this past year, including a number of fascinating articles by SMI members, some of which are highlighted below in this newsletter. We also saw our first Editor-in-Chief transition in the history of the journal, with Brian Kelsall, MD stepping down this past spring and Benjamin Marsland, MD taking the helm. On behalf of the Board and the members I would also like to thank the team at Acumen for their professional support for the society through some challenging times this year.

I’m also excited to look forward to the Society plans for 2022, including our much-anticipated return to in-person events with ICMI 2022 which will take place 16-20 July, 2022 in Seattle, Washington, USA. The program of invited speakers is available online now, and abstract submissions are open now for those interested in presenting at the Congress. After the success of the 2020 and 2021 programs, we will be continuing our webinar series in 2022 – watch for announcements in early 2022 to join us for those live sessions. The 2022 cohort for the Society’s mentorship program application information will also be forthcoming in the next month or two and we encourage you to consider applying to join this highly impactful program.

With the return of ICMI next year, we will also have a number of board positions on the ballot for the 2022 elections. If interested in getting involved with the work of the Society, we encourage you to consider nominating yourself for one of these positions. For those looking for a way to get involved but unsure of the commitment to a full board term, we will also be issuing a call for volunteers to join our various committees. These committees do crucial work for the Society and are a great way to build relationships within the Society’s leadership and also further the work and programs of SMI.

We wish you all a wonderful end to 2021 and start to the new year.

Kind Regards,

Michael McGuckin, PhD
SMI President