? ? The Teratology Society was founded in 1960 with its first annual meeting held in 1961. The Society was formed to foster exchange of information relating to congenital (birth) defects including their nature, cause, mechanism and prevention. From June 28-July 2, 2008 the Society will hold its 48th Annual Meeting in Monterey, California. The Society members and meeting attendees historically come from a diverse professional background including basic and clinical scientists from the academic, industrial and government research sectors. This rich and scientifically diverse mix of professionals, meet in an informal setting that encourages open exchange of ideas and the latest experimental findings. From its inception, the Teratology Society has understood the importance of encouraging and mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows and has included fostering education and training as part of its strategic goals. The Annual Meeting Agenda includes events and session to encourage student and postdoctoral fellow participation. For the 2008 Annual Meeting, the Teratology Society Council has developed a new mentoring program. This new program will give students and postdoctoral fellows an opportunity to have a lunch meeting with a specific leader in the Society. The event will be structured so each mentor will have small group to facilitate the participation of each attendee. In addition there will be one platform session which highlights the research of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This platform session is comprised of talks competitively selected from the pool of abstracts submitted for platform presentation by students and postdoctoral fellows. Those students and postdoctoral fellows whose abstracts are not submitted or selected for this session are included in other platform and poster sessions throughout the meeting. During the poster sessions, abstracts presented by students and postdoctoral fellows are marked as such in order to encourage interaction between the presenters and the members of the Society and meeting attendees. ? ? The Teratology Society recognizes that the student and fellows are the future of both the Society and the scientific discipline. Involving the students and fellows in the science by providing them an opportunity to present their research, interact with some of the leading scientists in the field, and form relationships that they will carry throughout their career is vital to field of birth defects research. Many of these students and postdoctoral fellows rely on travel awards to assist them in offsetting the financial burden of attending the meeting. Without funding such as this, many would not be able to take advantage of the rich exchange of scientific information and new ideas generated at this scientific meeting. In this proposal, the investigators are requesting funds to defray part of the cost of travel awards. Travel awards will be granted to students and postdoctoral fellows presenting their research findings at the 2008 Teratology Society Annual Meeting. ? ? ? ?
