RE: 2007 End of year message from Purdue

Dear Paul,
Thanks for 'kicking some butt'. You are right in stating that for an overwhelming majority, cytometry is flow cytometry & for a majority of these, flow cytometry requires lasers & fluorescent probes. It is up to us, to dispel these myths at every opportunity we get. 
I am one of the 1.2 billion Indians, you alluded to in your year end message. This list has been an invaluable resource for me to solve my problems & the turn around time for useful responses has been amazing. Many a times I have found answer to my queries by simply searching the archives. Reading the Purdue mails has become a habit for me for the past 9 years & one that I hope to continue forever! Thanks for starting & supporting this great resource over the years. 
I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the work done by Awatar Krishan in promoting flow cytometry in India. His workshops have become increasingly popular & the opportunity to learn from the 'Stars of Flow Hall of Fame' like Mike Ormerod & Scott Cram is	treasured by many of us. In addition Krishan also successfully lobbied to lower ISAC membership rates for countries like India & hopefully this will give a boost to ISAC membership in these countries. ISAC is the first (and probably the only) professional society I know of that has such tiered membership rates. All of us wish to do good, but few of us actually get up & do it. Krishan is one such person, who along with wonderful people like Vincent Shankey, Bill Telford & others has helped the spread of flow cytometry in India. 
I congratulate the current leaders of ISAC for recognizing the need to spread cytometry in countries outside the US, EU & Australia & applaud their efforts to make the society truly International.
 
Wishing all my fellow 'Flowers' a Happy 2008.
 
 

Vivek Tanavde 

Bioinformatics Institute
Singapore

> Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:43:46 -0500> From: jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu> To: cytometry@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu> Subject: 2007 End of year message from Purdue> > Beware, the end is nigh!> No, not an apocalyptic prediction - but 2007 is definitely coming to an > end. Not before time I would say - it’s been a busy year. But I have > some strong words to end the year and I am going to say them!! Of course > you don’t have to read them!> > Cytometry is now 40 years old and it’s been sort of decaying a bit. What > do I mean? I am amazed at how conservative and frankly boring the field > has become. Why? It’s time to move to the 21st century folks. I'm > getting older and frankly, its time to kick some butt as my younger > colleagues often say. We talk so much like it is the same old cytometry > it has always been. Wake up people - times are changing - look at all > these new small companies trying to stick their noses in "our" field! > True we need to do the core work and do it well, but lets not forget > that fundamental tools of cell analysis are changing and if we don't > keep ourselves up-to-date and educated on what's happening....before we > know it, a new field will emerge and we will be like the old electron > microscopists who are still wondering what happened ......> > I know most of us work in the field and like what we do, but I think its > time to open up a little and try to do some serious integration of our > field. It’s not happening very effectively on the most part I would say. > Cytometry is about integration of the tools of the field into the vast > reaches of biological problems that we can contribute to solving. > Cytometry is about advancement of the field, that means always looking > ahead. ISAC will soon be the International Society for Advancement of > Cytometry – a 21st century Society not a 20th century Society.> > Cytometry is not flow cytometry!! Let’s not kid ourselves about this > folks. Cytometry is about measuring cells - however you do it - and flow > cytometry is just one component of many. I understand that it may be the > only tool some of you use - I don’t want to take away from that or > de-emphasize its value or importance. But, we so often hear people talk > about our field only in context of just flow cytometry. Recently, when > we polled the ISAC community on changing our name from "analytical > Cytology" to Advancement of Cytometry" we received comments like "hey I > don’t do flow cytometry, so why are you reducing the breadth of the > field?" Ouch - they think "cytometry" means "flow cytometry". We have a > long way to go before we convince the community that we cover all > aspects of cytometry. And let’s also remember the growing membership in > India and China – (that’s half the worlds population right there) – it’s > high time we paid much more attention to these countries as a field. > Awtar Krishan can’t be the only person to drive cytometry training and > education for 1.2 billion Indians can he? Well he has been up to now. > Who is taking on the mantle of training and education of cytometry in China?> > So here's the scoop. That's one of the reasons why the Purdue Web portal > is going to change. We tried to make the change this past year, but > there were too many other things happening here to achieve it. But come > middle of 2008, I am resolved that you will see a huge difference in the > Purdue site. It’s been the default cytometry communication portal now > for many, many years. We have focused on good clean fun with cytometry - > quality, timely, simple - no spam. Many people like that actually. The > portal is almost overwhelming for us – 22,000 daily page requests with > over 2 Gigs daily download. In 2007 alone, downloads of 208,000 > powerpoint files, 233,000 PDF files, 8800 movies, 38,000 word document > files. The education pages and the Cytometry Discussion Archive are the > most hit for sure. Over 125,000 distinct files from our portal were > accessed in 2007.> > But all good things must come to an end. Come July 2008, the usual > Purdue web portal may well be no more. It will be replaced with > something entirely new. Hopefully most will find it more useful and > relevant - some will not like it. Maybe we will be able to make everyone > happy....ha!..C'est la vie. Some of you will be beta testers and > advisers I hope.> > So my best wishes to all in the cytometry field for 2008. Regarding the > past year on the discussion list, its been lively, with an average of 7 > messages per day with 754 different individuals submitting at least one > message. 139 messages had at least 6 responses. There were 1205 unique > subject lines. Subscribers came from 64 top level domains. The usual > bunch of suspects answered lots of messages and Marty Bigos seems to > have too much time as he answered the most (thanks Marty!!). Tragically, > the second most prolific responder was Randy Fisher who passed away on > December 5. Randy's responses were always short, to the point and > accurate. It hurts to lose one of our own, particularly when it's one of > our most active members. But that’s the point isn't it. For many years > to come, we have the value of Randy's hundreds of suggestions over the > years archived for the many new people who enter our field. Many of you > probably never actually met Randy - but I bet most of you feel you knew > him. One of the mysteries of the web I suppose. Our condolences to > Randy's family - perhaps they didn't know how many people knew Randy > "electronically" - but we all did. You know we are a small field when it > comes to the big world of science so when we lose one person, the entire > field morns.> > To end 2007, let me make a big plug for a program we began at the 2006 > ISAC congress. Gary Durack from iCyt and myself started a small > not-for-profit charity called "Cytometry for Life" in response to > Stephen Lewis' compelling plea for some low cost CD4 devices. Our field > has done a lot of talking about this, but only a few people have really > tried to do anything practical. Well, folks we have all been doing > cytometry for a very long time - it's time to do something. "Cytometry > for life" (http://www.cytometryforlife.org) is working hard. We have > made tremendous progress in just one year. It would be great if you all > decided to jump on board and play a small part. You can give money, > advice, moral support, talk to your politicians, community health-care, > charities, whatever. But get involved as be recognized as the cytometry > community to solve this problem of bringing low cost, portable devices > to the 65% or more of African's who don’t live in the cities and towns > where current CD4 technologies are available. Our goal is to work in > areas not being served by current technologies. We have heard these > calls before, but folks we have to deal with this problem - it's your > problem if you call yourself a "cytometry" person. Email me if you can > help - consider donating to the program, let's make it work. By the end > of 2008, I want to be telling you that the program is getting to people > who need this desperately. Help us achieve that for 2008.> > I hope many of you got hold of a copy of our new double DVD set > “Cytometry – 60 years of Innovation” – if not ask your local rep from > virtually any company in our field. It might give you a good sense of > how strong the foundation in our field really is. I will see many of you > at the 2008 congress in Budapest. I know some of you think its going to > be expensive so I took several hours myself and created a webpage for > the cheap ones out there so you have no excuses not to go... > (http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/flowcyt/cheapflights1.htm).> > It's been a privilege to serve for the past 19 months as President of > ISAC. I will gladly pass that hat to Bob Murphy in May. ISAC is alive > and well - membership is growing daily. I would not be surprised to see > us top 2000 by the end of the Congress in May. I know that about 60% of > the members of this list are NOT ISAC members. Perhaps you should > consider joining the Society that keeps many of you in business? > http://www.isac-net.org/> > My best wishes for you all in 2008 from Purdue> Paul> > -- > J. Paul Robinson> SVM Professor of Cytomics> Professor of Immunopharmacology & Biomedical Engineering> Director, Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories> President, International Society for Analytical Cytology> > Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories> Bindley Bioscience Center> 1203 West State Street> Discovery Park, Purdue University> West Lafayette, IN 47907-2057> Ph (765) 494 0757; Fax (765) 494 0517> email: jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu> www.cyto.purdue.edu> > Join ISAC - www.isac-net.org> > Change lives today - www.cytometryforlife.org> 

-- End --