I am honoured to have been elected the new chair of the International Symposium on Bilingualism, at the latest business meeting that took place in Edmonton, Canada, last June. The entire steering committee was renewed this time, and I took over from Ad Backus and for the next four years. I look forward to supporting the ISB community and to helping the organisation of this very important conference in the field of bilingualism. I am copying below the official announcement by the outgoing chair, Ad Backus, who I would like to thank for a successful term. See you all in ISB13 in Warsaw, July 2021.
Also, scroll down for some pictures from this year’s ISB, where our lab had five presentations!
Dear colleagues,
At the ISB conference at Edmonton, the Business meeting featured elections for new positions on the Steering Committee. This committee has the task to secure the next venue and to guard the mission of ISB. Christos Pliatsikas has been elected Chair, taking over from Ad Backus, and Merel Keijzer will take over from Mila Schwartz as Secretary. They will be in the committee for four years. Lourdes Ortega, Pia Lane and Tamar Degani will be Consulting Members for the next two years. Normally, there are two such members, but given how votes were distributed it seemed better to include three members this time. The final members are the organizers of the last and the next symposium: Elena Nicoladis and Magdalena Olpińska-Szkiełko. I thank the departing members Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin, Mila Schwartz, Virginia Yip, and Monika Schmid for their invaluable service, and hand over the baton to the new committee, in which we can have full trust, I’m sure. See you all in Warsaw in 2021.
Best wishes
Ad Backus
Our lab in ISB12:
Toms talking about the effects of bilingualism on the structure of the hippocampus
Vince talking about how individual experiences in bilinguals module brain function
Sergio talking about the effects of bilingualism on metabolite concentrations in the caudate nucleus
Christos talking about… well.. bilingualism and the declining brain
We are getting unnaturally excited by hippocampi recently!
Vince, Adel, Ludo, Christos, Sergio, Toms- a nice Reading family photo!
The sunglasses gang!
Proper diner breakfast to kick start the day!
… and some karaoke (now a lab tradition) to finish the day!