Dear Colleagues,

 

I am writing you on the heels of a successful and fun AGE Annual Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. To our knowledge, this was the largest AGE meeting to date. We now have our sites on Anchorage, Alaska. When considering our meeting location, there is a lot to think about. I have spent a fair amount of time in Alaska and thought the members of AGE would appreciate what Alaska had to offer. To that end, we have planned for the meeting to run a little earlier from May 11^th – 14^th. The slightly earlier timeframe is to take advantage of cheaper hotel rates to help alleviate concerns over the price of travel. We also intentionally ended the meeting mid-week in hopes that you all will take advantage of sticking around through the weekend to explore some of the amazing outdoors that Alaska has to offer.

            The theme of our meeting is “New Frontiers in Aging Research”. We have several exciting topics planned including: Parental Aging Effects, Re-evaluation of Aging Treatments, the Aging Extracellular Matrix, Environmental Perception and Aging, and others. As with previous meetings, we will have a whole host of activities including Poster Session Reception/Mixers, Poster Pitches, Data Blitz, NIH roundtable, and other great opportunities for networking and career development. We will continue our focus on trainees with several trainee events and awards. Please keep an eye out for upcoming travel awards. Finally, we will keep an eye on recent meeting feedback to deliver an experience that fits the evolving needs of our membership.

            I came to AGE from a non-aging research background. It can be intimidating entering a field that is different from the one you trained in. However, this note comes to you in my role as AGE President, which shows you that AGE is a welcoming to people of all training backgrounds. In fact, aging as a research discipline can only thrive with new voices. This philosophy reaches beyond just research as AGE strives to be inclusive of all backgrounds. Science thrives when there are many perspectives and voices. Please invite all trainees or scientists you know with an interest in the basic biology of aging to our meeting.

            We look forward to seeing you in Anchorage, Alaska in May 2025. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or concerns, please reach out to members of the organizing team.

 

Benjamin Miller, PhD FAAA

President of the AGE