Jan Parker-Thornburg and Carlisle Landel, from ISTT, at the 60th AALAS meeting, Denver, CO, USA, November 8-12, 2009
Jan Parker-Thornburg (ISTT Council Member) and Carlisle Landel (ISTT Secretary) attended the 60th National AALAS meeting representing ISTT, as an AALAS affiliate organization. The meeting took place at the Colorado Convention Center, in Denver, CO, USA, on November 8-12, 2009. AALAS stands for the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, an organization dedicated to laboratory animal research and the care and humane use of laboratory animals. It also provides considerable educational resources via its online AALAS Learning Library. This library provides a learning resource that is used for laboratory animal technician education and certification and/or for documenting the training of research personnel.
Colorado Convention Center. The giant blue bear looking through the windows is a bit of whimsical public art.
The annual meeting is aimed primarily at workers in the field: students, laboratory animal technicians, veterinary staff, animal facility managers, and regulatory personnel. There is a limited scientific poster session, mostly again dealing with animal care and welfare, and one session (usually) devoted to some overarching scientific theme (in this year’s case, diabetes). The rest of the meeting sessions involve workshops or sessions devoted to animal welfare, regulatory compliance, public education, biomedical research, medicine or methodology, and facility design, management or operation. There were several thousand attendees. The 60th National AALAS meeting also featured a very large vendors’ exhibition hall with hundreds of exhibit booths. ISTT had one of these booths in the section reserved for affiliate organizations.
Long’s Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park. Jan and Carlisle were able to do some sightseeing.
Manning a booth in the exhibit hall, Jan and Carlisle answered questions about ISTT, fielded queries about potential sponsorship from vendors at the exhibit hall, and even registered some new ISTT members. The ISTT booth also served as an informal meeting place for current ISTT members attending the 60th National AALAS meeting. ISTT looks forward to solidifying its partnership with AALAS.
