Dear zinc biologists and ISZB members,

I am delighted to announce that Richard Dyck has been elected as the new President-elect. I wish Richard all the best for the next 6 years serving on the board of directors.

Taiho Kambe has been elected as the new board member and will manage administration of ISZB together with other board members, and support initiatives of the President.

Congratulations to both Richard Dyck and Taiho Kambe, and welcome on board! I am sure they will bring new ideas that will support our society.

At the same time, I would like to say my many thanks to Lothar Rink in his role as the past president. His experiences and suggestions were always helpful for me to manage the society as the President. Again, thank you Lothar for all that you have done for the society until now.

I also thank Imre Lengyel for his hard work as a board member. Imre will now finish his term. It has been my great pleasure to work with Imre, whose contributions to the committee, especially for his engagement in the membership committee and in the organization of MetalZOOM deserve special notice. My discussions with him and his ideas were always highly beneficial and stimulating.

Finally, I would like to thank Taiho Kambe in his long-standing role as secretary. Not only I, but all the Board were always amazed by Taiho’s talent as the secretary to support the President’s tasks for the administration of the society. Now we welcome him on the Board and look forward to the new ideas that he will bring to help shape the society.

Well, I am realizing that time is flying so fast that my official act as the President is now ending, and that I am feeling my happiness to pass my baton to the next President, Samantha Pitt. I am pretty sure that Sam will do a great job with her initiative and leadership, and that her term will be more active under less restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Sam and I have already worked together over the last years, so there will be no gap of administrations for the Society.

I will continue contributing to the society as past President for the next two years, and I hope that I can support Sam as past president just like Lothar did for me.

Lastly, I would say to you all let’s think zinc more and more!
And, see all of you in Mexico at the next ISZB-meeting.

Best regards,
Toshi

Toshiyuki Fukada, PhD
(7th President of ISZB)