GoKawiilRatko Magjarević was president of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering for two terms and has been globally recognized for his contributions to the field of biomedical engineering.Credit: Krunoslav Jurčić
The first scientific society, named Accademia dei Lincei after the European lynx (Lynx lynx), was established in Rome in 1603. In the following years, similar societies were founded across much of Renaissance Europe, including the Royal Society in London, which continues to wield substantial global influence today. Now, most scientific societies are organizations of researchers, run by volunteers, that promote and advance scientific knowledge in their field of interest. They provide a structured platform through which researchers can network, share their research findings and collaborate with each other.
But modern scientific societies are under threat. Because many rely on membership fees and journal subscriptions to raise money, they are especially vulnerable to the increasing proportion of networking that is done virtually, without the need for a facilitator, and the push for research to be published through an open-access model. Both of these trends were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey of 66 societies found that most are unable to sustain their charitable activities, such as public outreach, with their publishing revenue alone.
Ratko Magjarević, an electrical engineer at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, served two terms as president of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) in 2012–15 and 2022–25. The IFMBE has an estimated 120,000 members from more than 80 affiliated organizations. As a result of his society work to enhance international scientific partnerships, Magjarević was recognized by the Senate of Colombia for his global contribution to the development of biomedical engineering in 2014 and was awarded a distinguished service award by the IFMBE last year. Magjarević spoke to Nature about how to run a scientific society in a way that provides networking and publicity opportunities for scientists.
What was your first experience with a scientific society?
As a graduate student in the 1980s, meeting in person was the only way to network. In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, and to be visible as a researcher who did not come from the United States or western Europe, but instead from a country with fewer resources and a less-established scientific community, I needed a platform to let scientists from other universities know about my work.
The first scientific society I joined was the Croatian Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics Society (abbreviated in Croatian as HDBIMF). I was just finishing my PhD studies in electrical engineering at the University of Zagreb.
Joining the HDBIMF allowed me to interact frequently with members of the society from diverse academic backgrounds who I wouldn’t normally come across as an engineer, including physicians and physicists. The society provided networking opportunities through seminars, retreats and annual meetings. As an early-career researcher, the interactions that these events facilitated helped me to build influence in my field.
They allowed me to find some early interdisciplinarity in my research as well. I was invited to participate in several projects that focused on electrically stimulating people’s skin and muscles for pain relief and to improve rehabilitation outcomes after injury, as well as to activate the heart muscles.
What are the benefits of joining scientific societies?
... continue reading