Invitations Refused 1977

Date:
1976-1977
Reference:
PP/CRI/E/2/16
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Invitations Refused 1977. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/175
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES BERKELEY • DAVIS DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE THE CENTER FOR THE HEALTH SCIENCES LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90024 21 December 1977 Dear Colleague: I would like to inquire about your possible interest in partici pating in a small-group conference, ideally 15 to 20 people, in conjunc tion with the Sixth International Congress of Biophysics, to be held in Kyoto, September 3 to 9, 1978. I am writing in the hope that either you had planned to attend this Congress, or that this invitation will entice and enable you to do so. We would contemplate to do this for a weekend in a pleasant location in Kyoto or nearby, and this could be the weekend just before or just after the Congress. Please refer to the questionnaire. I am, at the same time, broaching this idea to Professor Fumio Oosawa, who is the Secretary General of the Congress. In conceiving this meeting, I was led by several considerations. Let me first explain that I am Chairman of the Commision on Muscle for the In ternational Union of Physiological Sciences, and that this Union hopes to broaden my mandate into that of an Inter-Union-Commission. In this func tion I am holding several small-group meetings on diverse subjects of muscle fibertype specialization and the like. The proposed meeting would have the specific aim of addressing ourselves to a specialized muscular function, one which is closely coordinated with perceptual functions of the eye and their processing, and one which, furthermore, has independent voluntary initiation as well as remarkable activity during sleep, or prior to birth, when neither perception processing nor conscious volition is in play. It should be a fascinating task for a small group of people coming from different sides to this problem to try to view the whole complexity and its components. In order to achieve this, I am making use of the experience gained at the Szeged meeting, where there were no formal presentations, but topics were discussed in round table sessions under a section chairman. In this case, I hope the group to be small enough to meet as a unit throughout. However, as at Szeged, I would consider a few keynote speakers to intro duce broad topics. As such, I would propose colleague Yarbus for an intro ductory talk—perhaps the preceding evening when we all got together—^and specific introductions by perhaps four others. I invite suggestions in that regard as to persons and topics.