To open my remarks for this issue of the newsletter, I had hoped to begin with a note of enthusiasm for our upcoming conference in Białystok. Alas, this was not to be. In February, together with our hosts from the University of Białystok, we decided the risks to public health and the possibilities of another lockdown were still too great. After having to cancel the 2020 conference planned for Chicago, postponement of the Białystok conference to June 2022 came as an obvious disappointment.
Like many of you, we also grieve personal lossesin our case, the passing of our fellow board member Rachel Feldhay Brenner, a distinguished scholar of Polish and Jewish Holocaust literature, and of our former board member and renowned cell biologist, Zbigniew (Zbyszek) Darzynkiewicz. We honor their memory by recognizing their out-standing contributions to their fields and the many efforts they devoted to the work of PIASA.
On a more positive note, we continue to remain active in other ways. We selected the new recipients of our various awards (see page 2) and plan to recognize them by hosting or co-hosting webinars and virtual conversations in their honor. And, in the year of the pandemic our membership numbers are up, visits to our revamped web-site have doubled, readership and submissions to The Polish Review continue to grow, and we have received very positive feedback following publication of the first issue of our newsletter.
In closing, I hope that as you read or scroll through this issue you will share my impression that PIASA, well into the eighth decade of its existence, is an organization of renewed vitality and purpose.

― Robert Blobaum, PIASA President