The Society right from the beginning was founded in a spirit of internationalism, of conjoining researchers and scientists from different European countries and overseas, from clinical and experimental research and from various disciplines. The ESSR, formerly the ESES -European Society for Experimental Surgery -was founded the 17th February 1966 near Nancy, France. In the past it was felt that the term 'experimental surgery' was more and more inadequate to describe the complexity of research in surgery. At the General Assembly in Salzburg, May 16th 1974, it was decided to change the name of The Society to 'European Society for Surgical Research' - ESSR. The Society has now 697 members from 43 different countries all over the world.
At that time this basic concept -namely to bring together surgeons and engineers, immunologists and biologists and so forth -was outrageously new and effective. Today the concept still is valid, but the large number of specialist meetings, concentrating just on one or two topics, seem to threaten the acceptance of a Society that covers all aspects of surgical research. However, it has to be emphasized that The Society has several outstanding features, that are not shared by any other research society: Besides the multidisciplinary, multinational and -sometimes - multilingual aspects, probably one of the most distinctive features is The Society's stress on youth and the promotion of young researchers. There are age limits not only for the president and the General Committee (45 years) but also for the most prestigeous award of the Society, the Walter- Brendel-Award (45 years). There are a varying number of Young Researcher Awards per year (age limit 30 to 35 years) and finally the Student Award, especially for undergraduate researchers presenting their work at the annual meeting.
More information: www.essr.info
ESSR General Committee