DOI at the IUIS Beijing 2019 Congress
The Division of Immunology (DOI) made a strong contribution to the IUIS 17th International Congress of Immunology held in Beijing from 19-23 October 2019. Eighteen members of DOI attended the massive meeting with Professor Clive Gray, Dr Nadia Ikumi and Dr Tiroyaone Bogale making Symposium presentations.
Symposium speakers Prof Clive Gray, Dr Nadia Ikumi and Dr Tiro Bogale
The DOI members represented South Africa and the University of Cape Town at the heavily attended meeting. They spent the week attending talks, making presentations and manning the IUIS 18th International Congress of Immunology stand. The upcoming congress will be held in Cape Town in 2022 and Head of Division Professor Clive Gray is spearheading the ground-breaking meeting.
IUIS 2022 Cape Town stand
DOI members
We asked DOI member and attendee Lorna Gcanga to share her thoughts on IUIS Beijing 2019 meeting:
IUIS Beijing 2019 Congress
The congress was very well organised with a record-breaking attendance of more than 6,000 participants. It was very busy and crowded in some venues because of big numbers. The talks were very interesting and informative. The congress meeting kicked off with a triple bill of Nobel prize winners which was very exciting to attend their keynote lectures (Cape Town needs to bring in all the big guns in 2022) as it was really impressive. During our poster sessions we got to interact with many researchers from similar fields who offered constructive criticism and advice. Then you had your odd people who came to just take pictures of your poster without even engaging with you. Something I noticed that I did not like from the congress was the lack of women representatives in major talks. 0/3 women Keynote speakers, 1/6 women plenary speakers and 6/49 women major symposium, totally unacceptable and I hope the Cape Town organizers will commit to reverse this.
The DOI at the Congress
We were like a big family, cheering each other on our respective talks and poster presentations. We absolutely stood out because we were sincerely having fun and enjoying each other’s company. The IUIS 2022 CAPE TOWN booth was our meet up spot where we would catch up and the days talks and discuss interesting talks that we attended. We also went out for dinner as a Division which ended up being a dinner for all South Africans attending the congress. That was really a fun night where we dined to Chinese cuisine.
DOI Dinner
Some of the highlights
Definitely the Nobel Prize winners Keynote speakers. Another important highlight was witnessing Professor Faith Osier officially taking over the reins as the IUIS president. This was an inspiring moment as she is the first African female to be in this position. It’s an inspiring story to many young female researches especially those of colour to see someone like them ascend to the highest position in the IUIS. Anything is possible if we believe and work hard enough. Another highlight was Prof Clive Gray introducing Cape Town as the next organizers for the 18th IUIS Congress at the closing ceremony, Tiro Bogale wowed the crowd singing to my 'African Dream' as she ushered Clive to the podium. It was a moment filled with chills and goose-bumps as we cheered and ululated. What a moment for us and we felt so proud to be African and representing our country and continent.
Prof Clive Gray introducing Cape Town 2022 Meeting
Dr Tiro Bogale singing to introduce Cape Town 2022
DOI adventures outside the Congress
We tried different restaurants every night and the food did not disappoint at all. We went to see the Great Wall of China which was 1.5 hour drive from the city. The wall was everything we thought it would be and more, so majestic. It was definitely one of the highlights for many of us. We also visited the forbidden city which you probably need the whole day because it was so big. It has 980 buildings and covers 1, 614, 600 square. We did not know this until we got there and obviously, we could not finish the whole city as some people had to rush back to the conference to present their posters. However, some of us went after the conference so we had much time to go around the forbidden city. A few of us went bar hopping in very, very suspicious looking building only to be surprised with elegant bars with refreshing cocktails. There were three bars we went on the 8th, floor, 9th and 12th floor and it was truly a wonderful experience. Shopaholics had the time to go to some markets for shopping where they got bags, makeup, clothes, souvenirs and much more at very nice prices (if you are good at bargaining). We went for walks at the Olympic Park where saw the notorious Bird's nest stadium (which is in the Top 10 best Olympic stadiums in the world), Water Cube (National Aquatic Centre) which looks like an ice cube with the lights on in the evening and also we saw the Olympic Torch which is really mesmerizing with the lights on in the evening.
Great Wall of China
Forbidden City