Dear ISSOL Members–

What a pleasure it was to finally be able to get together again in person in Quito this summer. The joint meeting with IAU-Astrobiology was a great success, with good attendance, lively debate and fantastic collegiality. We thank our hosts at USFQ again for such wonderful support.

As the origins of life continues to grow as a field of intense scientific study and public interest, this is an excellent time to consider how we can best support and spread the word about our organization, ISSOL, which has kept this field alive and organized for almost half a century. The study of the origins of life has been invigorated in the last few years with exciting new findings in chemistry, astronomy, geology, physics, planetary science and biology, among many other disciplines. Every week results are published in the scientific literature that offer novel important insights into how life may have arisen on Earth and whether it is common in the Universe.
As discoveries are moving so quickly, this is the perfect time to think about how to energize our Society so as to most effectively foster our research, the education of the next generations of scientists in our fields, and public outreach about the nature of our work and discoveries.
Though ISSOL can trace its deepest roots back to the 1950’s, the Society formally incorporated in 1973. When ISSOL formed, there were relatively few professional scientists who thought the origins of life was a legitimate area of study. Presently, multiple national public and private funding agencies support this research enthusiastically. In the intervening years, ISSOL helped keep origins of life research alive and vibrant through the good will efforts of its members. Four and half decades after its founding, ISSOL members continue to try to understand this question, and we welcome new generations of colleagues from all career stages, countries and disciplinary backgrounds. As we grow as a society, let’s make an effort to form an ever more inclusive membership community for all scholars who share our curiosity and enthusiasm for understanding this most fundamental scientific question.
To help the ISSOL community grow as we prepare for the next meeting in Paris in 2026, I would like to ask you to join ISSOL or renew your membership if you haven’t already. I’d also like to ask you to encourage your colleagues and collaborators interested in the field to join ISSOL. As a non-profit professional scientific society, ISSOL membership dues are almost exclusively used to support the attendance of young researchers at the triennial meeting.

To become more involved in the ISSOL community, please consider self-nominating for governing position, nominating researchers for recognition for various ISSOL awards, and joining to discuss origins at other regional meetings.

And please check in to the ISSOL website and Twitter account (@ISSOL_society) for news and updates! We always welcome feedback for ideas of how to make our society thrive and be most useful to its members.
I am thrilled to be part of our extremely interdisciplinary and international ISSOL community.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in person at the Sorbonne in Paris in 2026!

Jim Cleaves

ISSOL President
October 26th, 2023