Dear ISCA Members Worldwide,

On behalf of the ISCA board, I am sending all best wishes for a Happy an d Prosperous New Year 2019!

As we enter 2019, it is maybe useful to look back and remind ourselves o f memories of past events like the successful INTERSPEECH 2018 in Hyderabad , India (the first time a major speech conference has taken place in India) , and to look forward to our next INTERSPEECH 2019 taking place in Graz, Au stria (https://www.interspeech2019.org/; that's Austria, Austria, Austr ia!) . The full paper submission deadline is approaching on March 29, 2019 and we all very much hope to see you in Graz this September 15-19, 2019!

I will also add there are a number of Special Sessions & Challenges which have been recently posted for you to consider in your submissions, so please check these out (the Interspeech-2019 Organizing Committee has rece ived many applications and these are the final selections, which will help shape the technical program for IS-19):

https://www.interspeech2019.org/program/special_sessions_and_challenges/

January is also the time for nominations for ISCA Fellow! Please conside r nominating one of your colleagues who has made significant contributions to the field of speech communications – including science and technol ogy domains! Nomination forms and information is available at this location :

https://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/honors/fellows

We are also encouraging you to consider hosting/inviting one of our ISCA Distinguished Lecturers: Prof. Takayuki Arai (Professor, Sophia University , Japan)  and Dr. Daniel Hirst, (Directeur de Recherche Emeritus, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, France) to visit your university to give a talk! We especially encourage schools or regions which may not have as man y visitors/conferences in the field of speech communications to send a requ est. More information is located at:

https://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/distinguished-lecturers

(if you wish to be considered for an ISCA Distinguished Lecturer, the de adline for nominations is Jan. 31st (this week!)

Also, the ISCA Board has been working to strengthen our commitment to di versity, which includes gender, ethnicity, regional, and science/technology . With respect to gender, ISCA is announcing a new initiative for WomenNspe ech (https://isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/diversity?id=264) which we are hopeful will help those organizing workshops/conferences, those seekin g to expand educational support based on Distinguished Lecturers, and final ly those involved in either faculty search for recent graduates or awards r ecognition. Please check out the newly released ISCA website for more infor mation!! (and contact info!).

Finally, we welcome all comments and feedback – as the ISCA Board is here to serve and enhance the speech communication society through our m embership. The ISCA Board encourages you to get involved and actively engag e in the various discussions on how to further improve our association.

My best wishes for a productive, safe, and prosperous year 2019!

John Hansen, ISCA President