Anyone can chair a session as long as they have sufficient and relevant clinical experience. The chair should be able to put the presented work in context and have a good understanding of the methodology and limitations of any study presented.

Anyone can chair a session as long as they have sufficient and relevant clinical experience. The chair should be able to put the presented work in context and have a good understanding of the methodology and limitations of any study presented.

This is not true at least for Turkey.In my country Associate and Assistant Professors frequently chairs domestic and International meetings.As far as I know the same is true for the American College of Surgeons meetings. Professor Cemalettin Topuzlu M.D.,F.A.C.S Başkent university ,Faculty of Medicine,Department of Surgery,Ankara,TURKEY

The designation of the chair does not matter as far as he/she can conduct the session properly and has enough knowledge about the presented work to be able to moderate and answer any questions by the audience. In my country Pakistan, scholars ranking Assistant Professor and Associate Professor do chair a session if they have expertise in the work which is scheduled to be presented in that particular session. However, in such cases, care is taken in selection of co-chair and secretary of the session to keep order in the ranks!

Professor not necessarily has a job in University.The true Professor should be the capacity to teach and should have sufficient and relevant clinical experience and able to moderate and answer any questions Anyone can chair a session if he(she) has sufficient expertise in the topic of the conference.

Respected Dr. Nelson Elias, Dr. Muhammad Ayub, Dr. Cemalettin Topuzlu and Dr. Dominic Power

Thank you so much for your contributions. As a organizing secretary in several reputed medical conferences. I select chairpersons according to the CV which shows their contribution and knowledge in that field not designation. If some senior researchers like you people can comment on this topic then i can come up with a solution and proceed my journey for the neglected researchers. Which will help a good scientific culture in the future.

Good thought Brijesh.

I agree with all . A Chair person should have sufficient and relevant clinical experience, aware of the research studies in the domain of the topic, methodology and interpretation of results. We should add that his expertise would abort irrelevant scientific discussion, refuses the audition of misinterpreted results and badly constructed design of study. Such expertise in the research studies and discussion organization might be (or might not be) more prominent in associate and assistant Professors.

A Chair person shoul have a relevant experience pn the field, independently by the academic role

You are mistaken. There is no such restriction.

Dear Ravi Seethamraju,

There is some rule like this in Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal. Here we have few good Assistant and Associate professors who used to go for chairing a scientific session but institution is not providing the leave travel facility for them because of their designation. Only professors are allowed for the same. How to change this misconception? We cannot take make aware the Human Resource people, who are not from the medical research back ground. So, there should be a general law for these all.

Thank you for all contributions. Today I learned about this.

Its a very good question Brijesh Sir

In my opinion it depends on the conference organizers and the scientific committee to appoint chairperson. Equal chance should be given to everyone irrespective of their designation.

I fully agree that Associate and Assistant Professors can Chair scientific sessions. The underlying issue here is not the professorial level but extent of expertize that a faculty member of an educational institute has. Chairing a session involves in-depth understanding of subject under discussion. Sometimes a Professor may not have that much understanding of a given subject under discussion. The scientific committee organizing the session should consider the expertize of an individual before inviting to chair a session. Professorial level may be secondary to some extent.

The chair of a session should have the opportunity to read and review the papers before the meeting so that they are able to lead a useful and meaningful discussion. A person's academic rank as such therefore is not directly relevant. However the chair should have be respected by the audience and rank might influence that.

It is not mandatory that only prof. only has to chair scientific session in a conference. Recently, even Assistant prof (readers) also many sessions in XIth National IAFO (Indian Association of Forensic Odontology) conference held at Gateway Hotel Taj, Vijayawada, AP from 21st to 22nd Sept.

Most conference organizers had the notion that you have to be a professor before you can chair a conference session but this is NOT so. Eligible persons are those who are verse in the session topics/themes and can coordinate the session scientifically and with considerable expertise. They may be professors associate or assistant professors. I chaired a session at the World Stroke Congress in South Africa in 2006 as an Assistant Professor.

Following what most respondents have said: there are no restrictions as long as the person possesses the right skills to facilitate a discussion at a conference.

I suspect that there is a story behind this question! Certainly faculty at any level who have the expertise can be knowledgeable to chair a session. A good session chair has enough depth of knowledge to be able to understand the questions (and rephrase them if necessary) and to ask relevant questions in discussion. The objective is to give the audience the best possible learning experience, and that often means commenting on or elaborating on the presentation. But being knowledgeable is not the only or even the main issue. Much of the effectiveness of being a good session chair is time management and discipline. A good session chair has to be firm but friendly in making sure that everyone has a fair time allotment and that speakers are recognized, properly introduced, and have the opportunity to answer questions. It is hard to do this without the status and security that come from a senior position.

Junior faculty, who have not established their reputation, may feel threatened by speakers or people in the audience who are senior to them, or may feel insecure about making a mistake. Often they over-compensate and come across as arrogant or overly rigid, because they work too hard to keep control. Other times, they come across as weak or defensive. Neither image is good for their reputation.

Like anything else, skills to chair a session (or other types of meetings) have to be learned and should be taught in graduate school. The junior faculty member should be coached by mentors whenever possible, should practice at local and intra-institutional meetings, and should not be given this responsibility at national meetings until they are comfortable and ready, and then should be encouraged to do it at more and more important meetings.

Last month I saw an extreme example of this, when a graduate student chaired a scientific session at an international meeting. It was painful to watch.

Tee, you are correct. I agree with these comments. The earlier these skills are taught in graduate schools the better. Even the acts of poster and platform presentations should be taught. Great comments!

Dear colleagues:

I attended many Annual Conferences of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology and several other international scientific meetings and I've never observed a Session Chairman who did anything but reminding speakers that their time is to end and then telling the auditorium that only 2 questions can be asked (choosing quite arbitrary whom to give this opportunity to).. It is a very important function (otherwise these events would be impossible) but to manage efficiently has a Chair really to have all the merits described above? I wonder.

It is very pleasant, however, when he (or she) is a well known scientist, this fact enhancing the importance of the event and satisfaction of having attended it - but who would ask if he/she is a full Professor or an Associate Professor or no Professor at all?

Regards

Professor Boris A. Katsnelson, MD, Dsci

A honored scientist of the Russian Federation

Who, alas, was but twice a Session Chairman

and thinks that his professorship neither bettered nor spoiled his performance.

 How about a PHD student chairing a session in an international conference? 

Dear friends, is this problem of a real practical interest? Can anybody refer to a precedent? I wonder.

In fact, chairing an important Conference  is (a) to  keep it in order (and to do it one should have  some experience and  acknowleged standing  - both correlate with scientific degrees; (b) to upgrade one's self-concept - some people really need it even though they have the highest possible degrees.