Official Programme

WELCOME MESSAGES
Message from the IASSIDD President-Elect, Dr. Philip W. Davidson
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
On behalf of the many people who have worked on planning
the 15 th World Congress, welcome to Melbourne! We hope
you like the meetings and this wonderful city.
The guiding force behind our planning efforts has been to
foster partnerships and collaborations across the globe to
undertake research in our field that can be translated to
policies and practices that improve the lives of people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities. To that end, the
program has some features that we hope moves us all closer
to that goal. We have included 23 separate topical tracks
that reach across many scientific disciplines and
methodologies. We have tried to adopt strategies that are
designed to engage presenters and attendees in dialogue. We have made a
special effort to embrace participation on the scientific program by self-advocates.
And we have tried very hard to engage scientists and self-advocates in developing
countries and regions of the world where the majority of the global population
reside.
I am very interested in hearing from you both while we are here in Melbourne and
afterward, about how we did.
So enjoy and cheers!
Yours sincerely,
Philip W. Davidson, Ph.D.
IASSIDD President-Elect and World Congress Chair
Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Psychiatry
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
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