Previous Fertility Conferences

Fertility Conference 2022

We hope that the tremendous success of Fertility 2022 last week has enthused you all. What a start to the New Year it was with 784 attendees from 34 countries! Some reflections below for all:

The 4 days started with the SRF Satellite day! The SRF Early Career researchers symposium was a staggering success with Piero Vitelli, delivering another interactive and inspiring session on networking and career progression. The standard of the SRF Post-Doctoral programme prize session was once again ‘off the scale’ and our congratulations to Jorge Lopez-Tello (University of Cambridge) for his presentation on “The imprinted Igf2 gene in the mouse placental endocrine zone regulates maternal metabolism with impacts on fetal nutrient supply and growth”. Our two extraordinary SRF New Investigator lectures were delivered by Jane Fenelon (2020 winner) and Antonio Galvao (2021 winner) and, our strong links with the SSR were further demonstrated through the exceptional lecture delivered by Sue Hammoud (SSR/SRF 2020 winner). The final prize lecture in the session was the Reproduction Journal prize delivered by Shinnosuke Suzuki on RA responsiveness in mouse late progenitor spermatogonia. This was equally impressive and brought us to the AGM and the award of the Societies highest accolade: the Marshall medal for outstanding contributions to fertility and reproduction. We were delighted to bestow this honour on Professor Michael Roberts and our congratulations to Michael for his remarkable career achievements.

Another key highlight of the meeting was without a doubt the Anne McLaren lecture delivered so clearly and elegantly by Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith. Anne’s presentation on “Epigenetic mechanisms – models and mechanisms” was a real tour-de-force on such a critically important topic: a true honour for the SRF! Later that same day, it was the turn of those starting their careers: the PhD students competing for the SRF student PhD student prize.  They certainly didn’t disappoint and our congratulations go out to our joint first prize winners Atalie Scrivener from Manchester University and to Meaghan Griffiths from Monash University in Australia.

Our electronic posters were not only of an exceptional standard but also fully integrated into the meeting. With 198 posters available to review, there were 6698 poster views! Our congratulations to the SRF poster prize winner, Hannah Morgan (University of Nottingham) and to our runner up Lin Yin (Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, China).

Looking across the meeting, our congratulations go out to the recipients of the two other eponymous award lectures: the BFS Patrick Steptoe Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Silke Dyer (Matters of life: ART in Africa in the context of Global reproductive health) and the ARCS Bob Edwards Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Daniel Bryson (human embryology: past, present and future).

Update and short paper sessions were crammed with fascinating papers of interest to all our delegates, regardless of Society, and this has become the hallmark of our joint society meetings. The full programme ultimately lead to our traditional debate which saw Professors Jorma Toppari (University of Turku, Finland) and Richard Sharpe (University of Edinburgh, UK), so elegantly and politely debate the motion that the chemicals in the environment have contributed significantly to declining male reproductive health: another hot topic in the scientific and clinical arenas. The final plenary of the meetings is traditionally something very special and this year was no exception.  We were honoured indeed to listen to the expertise and experiences of Professor Aris Papageorghiou as he presented on “Fetal surgery: operating on the world’s smallest patients”.

We hope everyone enjoyed the conference and will be in touch again soon regarding our 2022 Sex in 3 Cities lecture and with updates on the World Congress of Reproductive Biology.

Please don’t forget to complete the feedback form when you get it, which will help us with planning Fertility 2023 in Belfast (11-14 January).

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 2022!

Prof. Richard Lea (Chair SRF)

Dr Suman Rice (Programme Chair SRF)

SRF Award winners 2021 (Presented at Fertility 2022)

Marshall Medal Award –  Professor R. Michael Roberts, University of Missouri, USA

Distinguished Scientist (Anne McLaren) Award – Professor Ann Ferguson-Smith, University of Cambridge, UK

New Investigator Exchange Lecture – Dr António Galvão, Research Scientist, Babraham Institute, University of Cambridge, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research, PAS, Olsztyn, PL

Post-doctoral Prize – Jorge Lopez-Tello, University of Cambridge, UK

SRF PhD Prize Session Joint First Place –  Meaghan Griffiths, Monash University, Australia and Atalie Scrivener, Yangling, China, Centre de recherche du CHUM (CRCHUM), Université de Montréal, QC, Canada

SRF Poster Prize – Hannah L Morgan, University of Nottingham, UK

Stewart Rhind Writing Prize – Chien Lin (Stefany) Soh, University of Edinburgh, UK

For full details of 2020 SRF awards that were announced at the Fertility 2021 please go to the specific award in the Grants and Awards section.