key: cord-338606-6nk2ij20
authors: Abdel-Moneim, Ahmed S.; Moore, Matthew D.; Naguib, Mahmoud M.; Romalde, Jesus L.; Söderlund-Venermo, Maria
title: WSV 2019: The First Committee Meeting of the World Society for Virology
date: 2019-12-19
journal: Virol Sin
DOI: 10.1007/s12250-019-00189-y
sha: 
doc_id: 338606
cord_uid: 6nk2ij20

The World Society for Virology (WSV) was founded and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the United States in 2017. WSV seeks to strengthen and support both virological research and virologists who conduct research of viruses that affect humans, other animals, plants, and other organisms. One of the objectives of WSV is to connect virologists worldwide and support collaboration. Fulfilling this objective, virologists from fourteen countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East met on 25–27th August 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden at the Karolinska University Hospital for the first Committee Meeting of WSV. This meeting included compelling keynote and honorary speeches and a series of 18 scientific talks were given encompassing a diverse array of subjects within virology. Followed by the scientific session, a business session was held where multiple aspects and next steps of the society were discussed and charted out.

The World Society for Virology (WSV) was founded in 6 May 2017 and incorporated on 14 December 2017 as a non-profit organization, in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America. The overall mission of WSV is to strengthen research on viruses affecting humans, animals, plants and other organisms. The WSV's main objectives are to connect virologists worldwide, to provide educational resources, and to support a network of scientific collaboration among virologists, with a goal of helping members to advance their careers and to obtain funding, resources, and recognition for their achievements. WSV also collaborates with other international organizations and virology societies (Abdel-Moneim et al. 2017 ).

The first committee meeting of the WSV was supported by the Swedish Research Council and organized at the Karolinska University Hospital (KUH), Stockholm, Sweden from 25 to 27th August 2019. It included a series of presentations in different fields of virology and also panel discussions of the future plans of the WSV, including the first WSV virology congress.

Following the welcome dinner on 25 August, the meeting kicked off on 26 August. with an introduction and welcome message from Prof. Kristina Broliden, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine Solna Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden. This was followed by the presentations of the two keynote speakers: Prof. Anna Martling, Dean, KI and Prof. Anna Färnert, Head of Division for Infectious Diseases, KUH, on the current and perspective work of KI and KUH. This was followed by a group picture (Fig. 1) , a picture of the honorary speakers with meeting chairman (Fig. 2) and a series of presentations. The first presentation was delivered by Prof. Ahmed S. Abdel-Moneim (Taif University, Saudi Arabia and Beni-Suef University, Egypt) who outlined the origin of the WSV, the stages of foundation, and the recruitment of volunteer teams for different committees. He also outlined the expansion of the WSV from the few early members to the current 920 members from more than 80 countries. He also paid homage to the late Managing Committee Member, Prof. Michael G. Rossmann (30 July 1930-14 May 2019; Purdue University), and acknowledged his role in attracting scientists to join the WSV (Fig. 3 ).

In the scientific session, there was a series of presentations on different topics of virology:

Emerging and Re-Emerging Viruses In the session break, promotion videos for WSV were recorded in many different languages (WSV 2019).

On 27 August, in the morning session, Ahmed S. Abdel-Moneim presented the current and future plans of the WSV, after which Matthew D. Moore presented the steps that need to be taken to register WSV as a non-profit organization with 501(c) (3) status. Following these two presentations, a series of sessions concerning the future plans for WSV were conducted. The board members discussed the WSV Bylaws and the election of WSV officers. The Bylaws draft and the election criteria and rules have since been approved after extensive modifications. The election is planned to start in the end of-November 2019, when an election call is submitted to all WSV members. Other different topics were also thoroughly discussed, including online training, webinars, partnership with national and international societies and organizations, creating WSV educational resources, and determining the suitable time and place for the first WSV congress.

Sciences, Leeds, UK, Prof. Sayed F. Abdelwhab, Department of Microbiology, Minia University, El-Minia, Egypt.

The WSV 2019 came to a close with summary remarks and honoring Kristina Broliden by a plaque for her great effort to host a successful meeting. This was followed by a tour of KI.

Launching a global network of virologists: The World Society for Virology (WSV)

WSV (2019) World Society for Virology

The First Committee Meeting of the World Society for Virology

The following committee members that were unable to join the meeting in person in Stockholm, and had participated with advance suggestions and ideas: