Esmeralda Vizzi is a Professor of Virology at Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas (IVIC, Venezuela), Head of Laboratorio de Biología de Virus (2011-present), and Chief of Centro de Microbiología y Biología Celular (2019-present). She got her Biological Science degree, MSc and Ph.D. in Microbiology from Università degli Studi di Palermo- Italy (1988, 1992 and 1998, respectively. Postdoctoral fellow, at Baylor College of Medicine (2001), member of Sociedad Venezolana de Microbiología, Ordine Nazionale dei Biologi Italiani and World Society for Virology. Editorial Board for SALUS (Universidad de Carabobo), Experimental Results (Cambridge press) and hoc reviewer to numerous international indexed journals. She has led projects and published more than 32 manuscripts in the field of gastroenteritis viruses and SARS-CoV-2, genetic disorders related with hereditary diseases, and numerous abstracts in different international conferences.
What she has offered to the WSV?
- Member of the Membership Review Committee WSV
- Participated in the first WSV online conference in June 2021 and WSV2023 in Latvia
Candidacy and agenda 2024-2026
Since 2018, I have taken part in the WSV as a member of the Membership Review Committee, contributing to feeding the network of scientific collaboration and resources offered by the WSV, and recruiting colleagues from my country and others. I have participated in evaluating the credentials and trajectory of numerous applicants to be part of the WSV, in order to include as many virologists as possible. It has been hard work, but at the same time enriching which has given me the chance to interact directly with many people and appreciate the enthusiastic wish of the young people to join as members. Probably WSV needs to show more information on the web page and social media about the minimal requirements to attract new virologists to join. I hope to continue making my best for the WSV
I think that WSV should publish more often news and provide accurate information about topics of interest as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The broad experience of many of its senior members could contribute to addressing new spaces for debates, forums and meetings, which would help to establish collaborations and partnerships with other world related societies. I think that each one should promote that local societies know the WSV and push to create a link with the web page, in order to increase the visibility of the WSV.
I personally think that I could promote the interaction of WSV with different local societies in my country, through meetings. We could attract more scientists to join the WSV by continuous divulging the WSV activities and promoting scientific discussion about current topics, offering scholarships or waivers to people from countries with fewer resources to facilitate participation in the meetings, to make it more attractive to be part of it.