The 2026 Society for Cryobiology election will be held November 2nd - November 16th. This election cycle will elect 3 members to the Board of Governors for a term beginning January 2027 and ending December 2029. 

 Dear Members, 

I am honored to begin my term as President of the Society for Cryobiology. Having been a member of the SfC for over 25 years, and having served the SfC in multiple roles over that time, it is a privilege to now help guide an organization that has impacted my own career.

I would first like to sincerely thank Prof. Allison Hubel for her leadership and stewardship as President. Allison worked diligently to strengthen Society operations, governance, and continuity. I intend to continue these efforts and build upon the substantial progress made during her term. The Society is in a stronger position today because of her efforts.

The SfC has long been a unique and intellectually diverse scientific home, spanning fundamental cryobiology, plant and animal systems, gametes, tissues and organs, hypothermic storage, cryopreservation, cryoablation as well as other clinical and translational applications. This diversity is a strength, but it also places a responsibility on us to ensure that the Society remains cohesive, relevant, and visible across the broader scientific and biomedical landscape.

Looking ahead, my focus as President will be on reinforcing the SfC’s role as the scientific leader in cryobiology while expanding its engagement and impact beyond our traditional base. Advances in biotechnology, regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy, organ preservation, and cryo-based clinical therapies increasingly rely on cryobiological principles, yet the Society is not always the first place external communities look for leadership or guidance. We can, and should, change that.

This will require thoughtful growth: supporting our core scientific disciplines while strengthening connections to industry, clinical translation, and emerging applications of cryobiology. Done well, this approach benefits all members by increasing visibility, opportunity, and long-term stability for the Society without narrowing its scientific scope.

I encourage every member to remain engaged - through meetings, committees, publishing in Cryobiology, and open dialogue about how the SfC can best serve the scientific community. I welcome your ideas and look forward to working together to advance both the discipline of cryobiology and the Society itself.

Thank you for your continued commitment to the Society for Cryobiology. I am excited about what lies ahead.

With best regards,
John M. Baust, Ph.D.
President
Society for Cryobiology

The 2025 Society for Cryobiology election will be held November 17th - December 1st. 

The Royan Institute's 8th symposium on Applied Cryobiology Engineering took place on February 27, 2025, in Tehran. Presentations were given by local and international speakers from Iran, Canada, and Australia.
 
Read the full report here.

View Program.  

The key topics of the symposium included: 

The Society for Cryobiology 2024 election will be held October 14-28, 2024.

	The 7th Cryobiology Symposium was held by Royan Institute, under the scientific secretary of Dr. Rouhollah Fathi (Associate Professor of Royan Research Institute) and Executive Secretary Mrs. Pegah Shayegh (PhD student of Developmental Biology) on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. Due to this year's interdisciplinary cooperation, this symposium was named "CBE: CryoBioEngineering Symposium". A total of 900 students, researchers, and experts benefited from the scientific programs of the CryoBioEngineering symposium.
Educational Deputy		ACECR

 

The nonprofit, Revive & Restore, will be funding a fresh initiative to preserve tissue samples from one-quarter of all threatened and endangered mammal species in the USA. Only 14% of the 1700 USA endangered species have already been cryopreserved. Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will collect the samples; the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and cloning company, ViaGen Pets & Equine will perform the cryopreservation, genome sequencing, and cell line creation. These cell samples will be stored in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national repository for cryopreservation. Read the full article

Starting in October 2023, Tokyo women aged 18 to 39 can get subsidies of up to ¥300,000 to cryopreserve their eggs for future pregnancies. They must attend information sessions and participate in follow-up government surveys. Initially, they can get ¥200,000 for cryopreserving, with an additional ¥20,000 yearly for up to five years, by updating the government on the eggs' status. This data will help shape future policies. Tokyo will support companies offering Cryopreservation Leave. Moreover, the government will subsidize fertility treatments—like artificial insemination using frozen eggs—up to ¥250,000 per session for six sessions for married or de facto married women under 43. Read the full article

2023 Election Results

I am pleased to announce the following winners of the 2023 Society for Cryobiology election:

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 election.

Thank you to the Nominating Committee, and to all candidates who stood for election. 

A stunning article in Science (Vol 380, Issue 6652; June 2023) featured a dozen Society for Cryobiology members including, Joseph Sushil Rao, Sebastian Giwa, Mehmet Toner, John Bischof, and Society President, Greg Fahy. The article focused on Dr. Sushil Rao at the University of Minnesota and the first successful transplant of vitrified, nanowarmed rat kidney. Using a mixture of cryoprotectants and iron particles, the kidney was cooled to -150°C and then rewarmed using a magnetic coil that flipped orientation 36,000 times per second. The recipient rat lived for 30 days with the transplant organ and the process was successfully repeated with four more rats.

The Society for Cryobiology 2022 election will be held October 2 - 16, 2023.

Congratulations to former Society president (2016-2019), Prof. Dayong Gao on his appointment to President-Elect of ISBER! 

Congratulations to Prof. Boris Rubinsky, the recipient of the 2023 H.R. Lissner Medal!

2022 Election Results

We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2022 election for 3 Governor-at-Large roles for the term January 2023 - December 2025. These results are in no particular order: 

Society for Cryobiology Past President (2018-2019) and Fellow Prof. Dayong Gao, and two of his group members Dr. Shen Ren and Dr. Zhiquan (Andy) Shu were recently interviewed by Forbes about the future of cryobiology. Prof. Gao leads the University of Washington's Center for Cryo-Biomedical Engineering and Artificial Organs in Seattle. 

The article offers an overview of the history of cryobiology, cryonics, and cryogenics, as well as a glimpse into the future of cryobiology research. 

The article touches on the work of deceased cryobiology giants such as Peter Mazur and Stanley Leibo.  Also mentioned are current Society for Cryobiology President Greg Fahy, and Past Presidents Jason Acker (2018-2019) and Adam Higgins (2020-2021), as well as Society Fellows John Bischof and Bill Rall, and long time members and current and former Governors Boris Rubinsky, Kelvin Brockbank, and Gang Zhao.  

Read the Full Article - Note the verbatim interview starts approximately half way down the page. 

The Society for Cryobiology 2022 election will be held November 1st - 14th, 2022.

Sometimes the world can seem like a cruel and dismal place. With issues like climate crisis, world hunger, and rising income inequality, to name a few, we can be hard-pressed to put a positive "spin" on the future our children & grandchildren will inherit.

Space Ice Crystals - no one knows how they are formed and Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov on the International Space Station (ISS) just snapped a photo of the first ones forming on a window. The window in question is most likely in the Russian module of the ISS so further information is limited and we can only speculate.