ILANIT/FISEB is a federation of 34 Israeli societies of experimental biology. ILANIT’s conference is held every three years in Eilat, with attendance by researchers and students. This conference, to be held in February 2020, is the culmination of the most exciting research performed in Israel in many disciplines.

The idea to create FISEB was proposed by members of the Israeli Society for Biochemistry and discussed during the years 1993-1995. Specifically, the Secretary of the Israel Society of Biochemistry during these years was Prof. Yosef Yarden, and the President was Prof. Meir Wilchek. Prof. Yarden and other members of the Society felt that the time had come to establish a federation of all Israeli societies of experimental biology.

This turned out to be a major challenge because several societies felt endangered. Eventually, an agreement was reached through which the autonomy of the individual societies had been secured. Another challenging question was how to run a society and organize the first national conference with no members and no membership fees? This issue was resolved by the enthusiasm of commercial sources who were ready to support the conference through the foundation of an impressive, scientifically- oriented commercial exhibition during the conference.

This was complemented by contributions from other institutes and companies. The critical moment, according to Prof. Yarden’s recollections, was the decision of the late Prof. Rami Rahamimov to lead the Israeli Society of Neurosciences into FISEB. Next, the Societies elected Prof. Michael Sela as the 1st President of ILANIT and Prof. Rami Rahamimov as President Elect. The first meeting in Eilat (1996), which was chaired by Prof. Varda Rotter and colleagues, was extremely successful and determined some of the principles that were followed ever since: (i) Major support for students who present posters. (ii) No reimbursement for speakers and session chairs. (iii) The overall scientific structure of the conference (parallel sessions, plenary lectures).