The Kursaal Congress Centre (San Sebastian) will host the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) from 2-4 May 2013.
On the occasion of the World Autism Awareness Day, the Kursaal Congress Centre was lit up in blue, as with numerous emblematic building around the world. This charitable initiative, sponsored by the Endesa Foundation, will continue until the end of the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), scheduled to be held at the centre from 2-4 May 2013.
San Sebastion and Kursaal are revving up to host IMFAR, an annual meeting that congregates over 1,500 researchers for all over the world. This is the first time that the meeting will be held on the European Continent and in a non-English speaking country. The only time that it has been held outside North America was when London hosted the meeting in 2008. In this way, San Sebastian reinforces its position as a major scientific event destination, hosting world-class events such as IMFAR, which will be attended by the world’s top researchers in autism.
According to current international diagnostic criteria, autism is more frequent than is usually thought. Top studies have shown that the disorder affects one out of 88 children aged eight years old. For this reason, many countries have implemented special plans geared to combating autism, and a large investment has been made to gain a deeper understanding of this disorder, treat it, and, eventually sometime in the future, cure or prevent it (something that is still impossible to achieve at the moment). IMFAR is a scientific meeting attracting the world’s top research teams in autism, pushing forward the boundaries in its treatment and bringing hope to a large number people and families.
IMFAR 2013 will be chaired by the San Sebastian-based child psychiatrist, Joaquin Fuentes Biggi, head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at the Gipuzkoa Polyclinic and research consultant for Gautena (Guipuzcoan Association of Autism).
Kursaal supports the World Autism Awareness Day
