The 31st Conference "Biomaterials in Medicine and Veterinary Medicine" was held on October 13-16, 2022 in Rytro. The event was organized by the Polish Society for Biomaterials (PSB) in cooperation with the Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics at AGH (WIMiC AGH). This year's meeting was accompanied by the celebration of the Jubilee of the "Engineering of Biomaterials / Inżynieria Biomateriałów" journal. The Organizing Committee was chaired by Prof. Elżbieta Pamuła (President of the Polish Society for Biomaterials, Vice-Dean for Science, WIMiC AGH). More than 130 people from Poland and abroad participated in the meeting.
During the opening ceremony, Prof. Elżbieta Pamuła introduced the participants to the history and current activity of the "Engineering of Biomaterials" journal, which has been published continuously for 25 years by the Polish Society for Biomaterials. The meeting was attended by a special guest Prof. Stanisław Błażewicz – co-founder and first Editor-in-Chief of the journal, PSB Honorary Member. The first issue of the long-awaited, by the technical and medical community, journal - "Inżynieria Biomateriałów" was released in 1997. Since 2007, the journal has been published under the new English-language title "Engineering of Biomaterials" and edited by the late Professor Jan Chłopek. In 2020, the position of the Editor-in-Chief was taken by Prof. Elżbieta Pamuła, who has been the thematic editor for many years. The journal is published in quarterly, initially in two language versions – Polish and English, while currently, due to the international character of the journal, the papers are published only in English. The journal is included in the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education journal’s list (20 points). In recent years, a number of activities have been undertaken to increase the journal's visibility on the international arena, as well as to improve the quality of published articles and to introduce a new, improved publishing policy. On the occasion of the Jubilee of the journal, a competition for the best paper published in 2022 was announced, in which the main prize is a free participation of one of the authors in next year's PSB conference in Rytro.
As part of the scientific program, participants listened to two plenary lectures. The first lecture on "Polyelectrolyte and Protein Assemblies for The Design of Functional Thin Films and Materials" was delivered by Prof. Christine Dupont from UCLouvain in Belgium. With the second lecture, entitled "ERC Individual and Synergy Grants", presented by Dr. Christine Courillon from the European Research Council Executive Agency (Brussels, Belgium), participants had the opportunity to learn how and when to apply for research grants financed by the European Research Council (ERC); evaluation criteria were also discussed.
During the conference, three lectures sponsored by this year's exhibitors were also presented, i.e., Polbionica (Prof. Michał Wszoła), CeCert (MSc Konrad Łuźniak) and PureClinical (MSc Ilona Korczak-Cegielska on behalf of MSc Adam Sobantka). The conference program included 36 oral presentations, 80 poster presentations, and 16 Rapid Fire presentations. The winner of the Best Poster and Rapid Fire Competition organized under the auspices of the Young Scientists Forum of the European Society for Biomaterials was MSc Mateusz Bartniak from the Lodz University of Technology. The winner received a prize funded by the sponsors – CeCert and PureClinical.
The conference program also included engaging social events – a regional Welcome Reception at the cottage bar "Nad potokiem", an adventurous trip to Stary Sącz – visiting the Monastery of the Poor Clares, the Pope’s altar and a walk in the treetops, i.e., the forest pier at Miejska Góra, and, above all, a Gala Dinner with live music, where the 25th Anniversary of the Engineering of Biomaterials Journal was celebrated.
More information about the conference are available at: http://www.biomat.agh.edu.pl
