International Society of Biomechanics
Gold sponsor

ISB NOW

I clearly remember writing my last blog and thinking that I was writing words of support during a World situation that, despite its catastrophic results, would be short-lived and temporary and that our lives and work would have returned to normal by now. How wrong I was. It is now apparent that we cannot see the end of this and we do not know what the final consequences will be. There is not one of us that has not been and is not still affected by the Covid-19 virus. Regretfully some will have lost family or friends and my deepest condolences go out to you who have suffered such tragedies. All of us have had our daily routines and scientific plans disrupted. Many national and international conferences, at which we had been looking forward to absorbing new biomechanical knowledge and presenting our own research results for an inquisitive and educated audience, where students could be inspired by top biomechanists, all of them have been cancelled or postponed. Research visits to collaborators and laboratories around the World have been cancelled or disrupted. International travel has in an astounding manner ground to an unprecedented halt. 

Of course this is not how I imagined my first year as President of ISB, and I would be lying to say it is not frustrating. But that doesn’t help! We all need to get through this together, stay positive and supportive of one another. The forced restriction of extensive mobility also opens up new opportunities. Our university has in the last weeks had a phenomenal learning curve in innovatively producing teaching material and student examinations and conducting meetings and scientific collaboration on digital platforms. Internationalisation has in a unique manner fascinatingly increased due to a heightened acceptance of talking to two-dimensional, digital versions of each other. Some conferences, for example the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK) congress, are moving to completely digital platforms and it will be exciting to see the results of this! I assume many others will do likewise.

At the same time planning of the XXVIII ISB Congress in Stockholm 2021 is progressing well. Hopefully all international travel will be possible again by then and it can be a festive occasion where we can all meet our international friends again, maybe for the first time in a painfully long time.

Please take care and be nice!

Toni Arndt (ISB President) 

 field  kayak
In these times of reflection and restricted travel it is fitting to gain a greater appreciation of the beauty of the World closer to home. A field of flowering rape on a bike ride, a kayak trip with my wife on a local lake.