Dr. Tailoi Chan-Ling, one of our past council members, felt that a worthwhile goal of ISER would be to host special activities at our biennial meetings to facilitate the advancement of our female attendees. With encouragement from the Executive leadership of ISER, and Janet Denlinger, WISER (Women of ISER) was born.

WISER held its inaugural event at our San Francisco meeting in 2014, where 26 Women of ISER joined together for a wonderful Thai dinner followed by drinks in the lobby of the conference hotel. Discussions covered areas of interest for female early career researchers, including funding, juggling family with a demanding workload, space issues, how to break out of the shadows of PIs, visa problems, relocating for jobs with competing demands of a partner, how to be more involved with the leadership of ISER, advice on how to find post-doc and academic positions, moving into industry etc. What was special was that advice came from the senior investigators who attended that evening, but also from each other.

WISER continued to hold highly successful dinners and over the years tapped on the energies of key principal investigators including Professors Patricia D'Amore, Suzanne Fleiszig, John Ash, Frank Lovicu, Ilene Gipson, Erica Fletcher, Justine Smith and Luminita Paraoan, to name a few. Notwithstanding any of these highly memorable events, some of the highlights over the years include: participation of the first male PI joining us (Professor John Ash at the event in 2015 organised by Dr Mary Kelly), alongside the growing acknowledgement that in many ways, similar issues can also be faced by male early career researchers; the inspiring joint WISER-Eye to Eye event at the Tokyo 2016 ISER Welcome Reception, creating a most valuable opportunity to meet peers right at the beginning of the meeting (with overflowing food and liquid beverages thanks to the superb negotiating skills of the local organizer, Professor Takeshi Iwata); and most recently the record breaking 60+ participants dinner in the balmy Gold Coast in 2023.

Over the years WISER and the early career researcher functions have welcomed and benefited greatly from the dedication and involvement of researchers from diverse backgrounds, sharing not only the passion of discoveries in eye and vision science, but also that of contributing to growing and consolidating an inclusive and rewarding research culture. WISER continues to be most grateful to all those taking steps to create opportunities for development and to sponsor women where merit warrants it.

WISER looks forward to gatherings at all ISER Biennial Meetings with numerous networking and training opportunities for the women and early career researchers of ISER.

For any further information on WISER activities, or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Prof. Luminita Paraoan (Luminita.Paraoan@edgehill.ac.uk).