Welcome from AKIA President
Dear Colleagues,
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It is an honor and a privilege to serve as President of AKIA for 2023 – 2025. The AKIA (Association of Korean Immunologists in America) was established in 2013, is dedicated to promoting scientific interactions between immunologists in USA, Canada, and Korea. We currently have more than 50 independent investigator members from academia, industry, and government institutes. Since 2014, AKIA has been organizing biannual symposiums: La Jolla (2014), Bethesda (2016), Ann Arbor (2018), virtual (2020), and New Haven (2022). The AKIA meeting continues to offer a great opportunity for members to connect and share their exciting new scientific progresses. This year (2023), AKIA celebrated our 10th anniversary at Washington DC. The meeting was a great success with two excellent keynote speeches and additional session presentations. In addition, AKIA as an assembly of Korean immunologists working in North America, we have been catalyzing interactions between KAI (Korean Association of Immunologists) and AAI (American Association of Immunologists) by cohosting Guest Society Symposia at the annual AAI meetings since 2014. Further fostering interactions between AKIA and KAI, we have joint symposium sessions at the annual KAI meetings in Korea.
With respect to the organization, the previous council members (Dr. Woong-Kyung Suh (President, Montreal Clinical Research Institute), Dr. Ae-Kyung Yi (Vice-President, University of Tennessee), Dr. Seungmin Hwang (Secretary, VIR Biotech), and Dr. Sun Jung Kim (Treasurer, Northwell Health/Hofstra University)) deserve huge credit for putting place outstanding leadership during the challenging time with COVID-19. It is my distinct pleasure to work with the newly elected council members, Drs. Michael Cho (Vice-President, Iowa State University), Eun Lee (Secretary, Virginia Commonwealth University), and Sun Jung Kim (Treasurer, Feinstein Institute of Medical Research). We hope to bring new visions to make AKIA more accessible and approachable coupled with reinvigorating scientific engagements with resources necessary to support the activities. As we look ahead, I strongly believe that AKIA has so much to be proud of and our best is yet to come! I extend my warm invitation to Korean immunologists working in USA or Canada to join AKIA. With kind regards, Minsoo Kim, PhD President, AKIA Dean's Professor, University of Rochester Medical Center |
Minsoo Kim, PhD
President, AKIA |
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AKIA is approved by IRS as a 501c non-profit (tax-exempt) organization, and donations are tax deductible. |