Following the Elections last summer the new Officers and Council members were instated at the ESPCR Annual General Meeting held during the 5^th Scientific Meeting at the Hofburg Congress Centre in Vienna organized by Professor Hubert Pehamberger and Professor Klaus Wolff. The General Assembly took place on Saturday, October the 22^nd 1994 and, when Professor Bengt Larsson took over the Presidency of the ESPCR from Professor Giuseppe Prota, it marked the end of an era begun nearly a decade earlier.

Giuseppe Prota had held the position of President for the first ten years of the Society with great distinction. The Society was formed in 1985 in response to widespread support for a proposal that had been raised and debated at the European Workshop on Melanin Pigmentation meeting held in Murcia. In the wake of these discussions a constitution was drawn up and an Italian version prepared by Marco D'Ischia was duly sworn before the official notary in Naples on (11 December 1985) by a triumvirate consisting of Giuseppe Prota, Patrick Riley and Natale (Pino) Cascinelli as representatives of the transitional Executive Council of which Giuseppe Prota was elected Chairman and Patrick Riley Secretary/Treasurer. Giuseppe Prota immediately set to work to arrange the highly successful 1st Scientific Meeting of the ESPCR which was held in Sorrento on (11 October 1987) at which he has elected to the Presidency, a post which he occupied until October last year.

His Presidency spanned a most interesting and successful period in the history of the ESPCR. It has included not only the infancy of the Society with its rapid growth and extending influence but also the sometimes turbulent years which have seen the birth of our societies who followed our lead - the JSPCR and PASPCR - and the subsequent formation of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies of which Giuseppe Prota is the current President. We now possess truly international and democratic organizations devoted to pigment cell research which have continued and extended the highest traditions espoused by that distinguished vanguard of pigment cell researchers including Myron Gordon, Vernon Riley, Tom Fitzpatrick, Aaron Lerner and many other giants in the field.

Many of these achievements have sprung from the energy and enthusiasm infused into the ESPCR by Giuseppe Prota and as token of the appreciation of the Society for his long and distinguished service as President a commemorative plaque was presented to him on behalf of the Society on his retirement from the Presidency of the ESPCR. In making the presentation, at the General Assembly, Patrick Riley praised Professor Prota's vision, inspiration, commitment and dedication and his boundless energy in founding the Society and in steering it safely into calm waters; the very existence of the ESPCR will be his enduring monument.

P. Riley's short speech at the ESPCR General Assembly in Vienna.

From left to right: P. Riley, G. Prota, S. Pavel (the newly elected Secretary) and B. Larsson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A moment of emotion ...