| Type | Nonprofit organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 Beijing, China |
| Location | Beijing, China (international) |
| Key people | Jean-Marc Jallon, President Yan Xie, Secretary General |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Focus | Zoology, science |
| Method | Communication, research, coordination |
| Website | www.globalzoology.org |
The International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS) was founded to encourage research, education, and communication in zoology. The society includes both individual scholars, and professional organizations. It particularly tries to increase the availability of research resources and enhance cooperation between different branches of zoology.
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To summarize from Francis Dov Por's "The Road to the International Society of Zoological Sciences"[1] "Zoology ... was among the very first disciplines to build an international organization. Congresses of Zoology started in 1889 on the initiative of the Société zoologique de France on the occasion of the International Exposition in Paris. Congresses were then held at regular intervals and attendance increased from congress to congress, from a few tens in Paris and in Moscow to 700 in Budapest in 1927. The London Congress set a target of 1000 and in Washington the number reached 2500.
The Congresses were also growing in complexity, resulting in part because of the emerging specialization of different fields of zoology. In London in 1958 there were eight to nine daily parallel sessions. In Washington an attempt was made to organize symposia instead and there were no less than 29: the problem of unifying subjects became more important than the numbers of participants.
The Washington Congress decided that the Board of the Division of Zoology of the newly founded IUBS, would assume in the future the role of the 'Comite Permanent' and would be responsible for ensuring the continuity of Zoological Congresses. This did not work and the new International Congresses of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (ICSEB) took over the role of the Zoological Congresses.
A gallant effort was made in 1972 by Vaissiere and French colleagues to convene a XVII International Congress of Zoology in Monte Carlo. However, attendance was poor and the proceedings were never published. A long hiatus then began. An international focus became the problem of vanishing species. Instead, what followed in the next two decades was the vanishing of zoology from the international academic agenda. The names of university departments and research centers were rapidly changed in order to avoid use of the word 'zoology'.
With the aid of modern communications and technology a reunification of the fractured specialties of zoology became possible. The concept of an integrative zoology, synthesizing data and results ranging from molecular biology to behavior, gained wide acceptance. The XVIII International Congress of Zoology was held in Athens in Greece in August 2000. The symposium program of the Congress presented a cross-zoological picture of the many levels of zoological inquiry, both horizontal and vertical. Attendance in Athens was far from the incommunicable thousands in the last congresses, but was considered by all as an unmitigated success.
Subsequently, the IUBS approved the (re)formation of an international zoological body (the ISZS) as proposed by Zhibin Zhang, John Buckeridge and Francis Dov Por in Beijing in 2004, and an Executive Committee was elected and charged with organizing International Congresses of Zoology and providing a global voice for zoologists."
The ISZS has over 700 individual members and 80 institutional members. Institutional members include national zoological organizations, universities, non-governmental organizations and academies of science. ISZS is managed by an international Executive Committee.[2] The current President is Jean-Marc Jallon (France). Immediate Past Presidents include: John Buckeridge (Australia) and Dov Por (Israel).
Meetings of the International Congress of Zoology have been held every four years, but with gaps and irregularities.
International Symposia of Integrative Zoology are held between Congresses, and provide a more intimate avenue for zoological exchange and research networking. They commenced in 2006 and are heavily supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Integrative Zoology is the official journal of the ISZS and published jointly by Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons and the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is a quarterly, peer-reviewed and multidisciplinary journal publishing original research, reviews, essays and opinion pieces on the zoological sciences. The Editor-in-Chief is Zhang Zhibin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Honorary Editor-in-Chief is John Buckeridge of RMIT University.
The ISZS coordinates and funds a number of multidisciplinary programs. Currently, the society is undertaking an international research program titled 'Biological consequences of global change'.