Visits and Conferences

This Section deals with visits, lecture-tours, scientific congresses and symposia 1948-1979. Chain was in great demand and received many invitations to attend, present papers, chair sessions, provide introductory or concluding remarks, or to participate in the organisation of conferences as a committee or panel member, or as editor of the published proceedings. He was a cosmopolitan, enjoying travel despite the discomforts of asthma and respiratory difficulties, and accepted many of these invitations which he usually combined with visits to research institutions or laboratories, or to friends.

The material is consequently heterogeneous, and may vary from a single letter of invitation to a full account including preliminary arrangements, invitations sent out to speakers, drafts for speeches or major papers delivered by Chain, letters of thanks or congratulation and the like, extending over several years. Many of the undated lectures and papers in G.126-G.155 were almost certainly given at conferences, but cannot be identified precisely (but see G.64, G.89).

The presentation is chronological as far as possible. At the end of each year is placed a folder or folders of miscellaneous invitations or correspondence for which no further identifiable material can be traced. Some of these represent declined invitations, but some refer to conferences which Chain may have attended for which no other evidence survives in this collection. For conferences on penicillin, see B.73-B.84, B.86-B.88, B.90. For conferences organised by Chain at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, see C.79-C.101. For conferences organised by societies and organisations, see E.11-E.17, E.44, E.45-E.52, E.64, E.65, E.73-E.75, E.83, E.132, E.149-E.155, E.165, E.167-E.169, E.198, E.202, E.205, E.206, E.207-E.210, E.223, E.233, E.234