) The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), created from the merger of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and The Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is the only international non-profit professional association devoted to the promotion of research and education in all applications of magnetic resonance in medicine, biology, and related fields. Members include clinicians, physicists, engineers, biochemists, chemists, and technologists. The ISMRM is, at present, the only society that combines both basic and applied disciplines, including clinical research, to best serve medicine and science. This merged society was founded in 1994 and has now reached a membership of over four thousand. Scientific meetings are held annually with every third year's meeting located outside of North America. In 1997, the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia from April 12-18th. An attendance of over four thousand scientists, physicians and students is anticipated. This proposal requests funds to support, in-part, educational stipends for meritorious students and postdoctoral trainees from the U.S. whose abstracts are submitted and accepted through the regular peer review process of the Society. The amount of each award will be 70 percent of the anticipated travel cost for a particular student, with the remaining 30 percent being provided by the student's supervisor. The Society has earmarked an amount of $125,000, derived from unrestricted corporate donations, for the support of this program. Of this amount, fifty-eight percent, or $72,500, has be reserved for students from the U.S. This amount is sufficient for 74 awards, but we anticipate that 104 young investigators from the U.S. will qualify for awards. This proposal requests supplemental funds in the amount of $29,295 from NIH to allow 30 additional awards. In the context of limited funding from peer reviewed, industrial and clinical revenue sources faced by many research laboratories, the requested support has become critical to stipulate young investigators to actively contribute their research and help bring together established researchers and students in this rapidly evolving field of medical research. Of the 223 students who qualified for travel stipends for the previous meeting of ISMRM, we were able to fund only 180 or 81 percent. The support requested herein is vital to our efforts to support as many students as possible for the upcoming meeting.
