Season’s greetings from a state and place in which it is becoming increasingly difficult to find one’s home office mouse underneath all the holiday cards and wrapping paper, and in which delicious smells from the kitchen are beginning to draw one’s attention away from the screen!
Sustainability is the word of the hour and the overall theme of this Newsletter and I urge you to start out by reading our President’s inspiring words on how to align one’s professional and private life with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the same spirit, she is bringing us metaphorical light as part of her very personal holiday message, which I am certain will do all of us good, independent of our hemispheric location. Speaking of light, I was equally impressed by the luminary in behavioural medicine interviewee of this issue, who has outlined so brilliantly how our work in behavioural medicine may extend the level of the individual and communities and affect the immense challenge that is climate change. Please go to page 15 to learn more about William H. Dietz’s seminal research, which has extensively influenced our current understanding and management of obesity. I can also highly recommend to read the start of a new series about our ISBM member’s research activities on climate change, this time with stellar contributions by Shigeru Inoue from Japan and Piroska Balog from Hungary.
The end of the year is certainly a time in which many people look back, and some of our Board Members have kindly summarised some of the most important achievements of ISBM in 2022. Learn more about new colleagues joining Michael Hoyt on the Editorial Board of the IJBM and about exciting recent Special Issues launched by our Journal in the Editor-in-Chief’s update. Find about a financial breakthrough we had as a Society in Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin’s gripping report on page 12. Finally, make sure not to miss what INSPIRE, ISBM’s ever-growing Early Career Network has been up to in recent months, and make sure not to miss any of their innovative formats in the future by signing up as a member!
There is certainly already a great deal of excitement among the members of our Society about the upcoming ICBM 2023 in Vancouver. Apart from the fact that anyone who has read the interview with William H. Dietz in this issue of the Newsletter will be delighted to hear that he will be one of our keynote speakers, there are many more reasons to attend. For instance, the ICBM 2023 meeting will witness inaugural meetings of several newly founded Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Make sure you do not miss which existing SIGs you might want to join and which have yet to be founded (maybe by you?) on page 9! Moreover, the conference will be a formidable opportunity to network both hori-zontally and vertically. INSPIRE, the ever-growing Early Career Network of ISBM, has put forward a call for mentors of future international mentees as part of their renowned Health and Behaviour Collaborative Award (HBICA) programme. From what I hear from past mentors and mentees, I cannot recommend joining this programme highly enough, and to use the ICBM 2023 for an initial in-person or virtual mentor-mentee meeting!
I would like to close by saying how much I have enjoyed to connect with all of you in compiling this issue of the Newsletter and how proud and grateful I am for being part of this vibrant Society.
Have a lovely holiday!
