Documents: History of the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America
Posted Apr 26, 2007 - 02:45 PM
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During the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) meeting in Salt Lake City in 1985, Dr. Andrew T. Chen and Dr. Hsiao-Chen Chang walked to the banquet dinner of the society. Andrew asked Hsiachen whether she would like to meet the rest of the fellow Chinese American geneticists who came to the meeting. Hsiachen answered in affirmative and they rounded up all the Chinese American geneticists they saw and managed to sit next to each other- two tables. They enjoyed the friendship so much that they arranged to meet in Philadelphia again in 1986. During the Philadelphia meeting, the idea of forming the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America (ACGA) was agreed upon and Andrew was elected the first president. He was charged with writing the bylaws and the ACGA was incorporated in Georgia, USA in 1987.
The ACGA is a non-profit organization formed by a group of American geneticists of Chinese ethnicity but its membership is open to individuals of all races and ethnicity. One of the missions of the Association is to facilitate the interaction between the US genetics community and their colleagues in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The organization is supported by membership fees and donations. Included in its memberships are clinicians and researchers in the field of genetics including but not limited to molecular and biochemical genetics, plant and mammalian genetics, developmental biology, cytogenetics, clinical and medical genetics, genetic counseling etc. from academic, research, clinical and industrial organizations. The current membership is over 500. The organization is governed by an executive office headed by the President and under the supervision of a Board of Directors elected from active members. Its past presidents include Professor Yuet-Wai Kan (1989) (University of California, San Francisco, USA), Professor Savio LC Woo (1990) (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, USA), Professor Lap-Chee Tsui (1991) (Hong Kong University), Professor Yuen-Tsong Chen (1996) (Academica Sinica, Taipei), Professor Ethylin Wang Jabs (1997) (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore), Professor Jin-Xiong She (2003) (Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia), Professor Li Jin (2006) (Fudan University, Shanghai), to just name a few. Election of officers and annual meeting are held every year during the annual meeting of the ASHG.
In the last few years, in addition to the annual meeting, ACGA had co-organized a number of international conferences with other organizations. These include the Society of Chinese Biologists in America (SCBA) International Symposium in Hong Kong in 1990, the International Congress of Genetics in Beijing in 1998, the SCBA International Meeting in Hong Kong in 1999, International Conference on Medical Genetics in 2004 co-organized with Peking University School of Basic Medical Science, Chinese Society of Medical Genetics, and Fudan University School of Life Sciences, the International Symposium of Genomic Medicine in 2005 co-organized with Fudan University, and the International Congress of Global Chinese Geneticists in 2006 co-organized with Peking University Center of Medical Genetics.
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