We are pleased to announce that once again this year, Kazan Law is a major financial supporter of the worldwide conference held by the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (iMig) an international group of scientists, doctors, researchers, and academic experts who devote their lives to trying to understand, cure, and prevent mesothelioma. iMig was started in 1991, and since that time has had regular meetings, the 14th of which will be held this May in Ottawa, Canada, featuring participation of over 500 delegates from all over the world. We continue our unbroken string of providing major financial support since the meetings in Chicago (2006), Amsterdam (2008), Kyoto, Japan (2010), Boston (2012), Capetown, South Africa (2014), and Birmingham, England (2016).
In addition to our major general support and sponsorship of the particular conference activities, we are especially proud that in 2006 we suggested and offered to fund the establishment of the Young Investigator Award Program, recognizing academic work from five of the most promising young researchers presented at each conference. The awards were first given in 2008, and have become a tradition at every conference since that time. This year, five young scientists will receive these awards.
For the fifth consecutive conference, we have had academic papers accepted after undergoing the rigorous scientific peer review process, with abstracts published in the proceedings of the conference or related medical journals. We are the only American law firm so honored; our work focuses on issues at the intersection of law and medicine, which we think would be of interest to iMig scientists. On several occasions we have been asked to present talks at conference sessions, including a keynote address during the Kyoto Conference. Again, this year, I will be presenting a poster session, based on our accepted abstract, at two open sessions during the conference.
The iMig conference is a great opportunity for me to visit with medical and scientific friends from around the world with whom I have been working for many years. The panel discussions and academic presentations are always interesting, and the conference is always great fun. I hope to be posting regular updates on interesting developments to our Facebook and Twitter feeds, so drop by and take a look.