Invitation 

Join us in Sydney in December for our Annual Scientific Meeting

We would like to welcome you back to the Harbour City for our 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia, which will be held in Sydney from Tuesday 1st to Thursday 3rd December.

It is fitting to meet in Sydney, as we have experienced a large growth in Council members from New South Wales. This reflects the great work in blood pressure being done in the Premier State. It is also a good time in the context of our preparations for hosting the 2012 ISH Scientific Conference in Sydney.

As always, the Scientific Program will be headlined by our named lectureships: Professor Frans Leenen from the University of Ottawa as our RD Wright Lecturer, Professor Michael Cowley from the Department of Physiology at Monash University as the Austin E Doyle Lecturer and Dr Alex Brown from the Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute as the Colin I Johnston Lecturer for 2008.

There will be a special Workshop on Tuesday 1st December focusing on environmental influences in cardiovascular disease. This will include sessions on fetal programming, early life factors and the adult environment, with special attention to indigenous Australians.

The ASM will highlight the terrific work of our student and early postdoctoral members, with special sessions and a range of valuable awards including the Student and Early Career Investigator Awards that will allow one of our young stars to travel to Britain for the BHS Meeting and another to the AHA High Blood Pressure Research Council Conference in 2010. There will also be travel grants available to support younger members to attend the meeting in Sydney.

We are also looking forward to taking a trip on a Harbour ferry and then a Sky Safari cable car ride to the Conference Dinner which will be held at Sydney’s famous Taronga Zoo on Wednesday 2nd December.

Again we are pleased to say that abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2009 Meeting in Sydney will, subject to approval by authors, will be eligible for publication in Hypertension.

To share in all of these opportunities, and to take advantage of the lower members' ASM registration costs, we'd especially encourage students to join the HBPRCA for free as Student Members (www.hbprca.com.au).

Sydney 2009 will be another terrific meeting for the HBPRCA.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Stephen Harrap          Geoff Head          Kate Denton
President                    Secretary            Program Secretary