Introduction to Guest Editors

In reproductive medicine, one of the greatest advances has been in the field of cryobiology and, in particular, the cryobiology of human reproductive tissue and cells.

This issue, entitled ``The Cryobiology of Assisted Reproduction: Gametes and Gonads,'' was organized by our two guest editors, Drs. S.L. Tan and Roger G. Gosden.

Dr. Tan is the James Edmund Dodd Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill University and Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief of the McGill University Health Centre. Dr. Tan is an internationally recognized infertility expert and a pioneer in the simplification of in vitro fertilization. He founded the London Women's Clinic and the McGill Reproductive Center and led the team that produced the world's first air transport in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection pregnancies. His team is a pioneer of the use of in vitro maturation of human oocytes for the treatment of infertility. Dr. Tan has published six books and over 200 original scientific papers and review articles. He has been on the editorial board of nine medical journals and is regularly invited to speak at national and international scientific meetings. He is a member of the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology Expert Advisory Panels on Reproductive Medicine and Ultrasound, and he is the recipient of the CFAS-ESHRE Exchange Speaker Award for 1998. He received the 1999 Resolve Award from the National Infertility Association of the United States for outstanding contribution in the field of ultrasound. He has also been awarded the Howard Eddey Gold Medal by the Royal Australian College of Surgeons and the MRCOG Gold Medal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Roger Gosden began his research in 1970 in Cambridge under the IVF pioneer Robert Edwards. After postdoctoral fellowships in Cambridge and Duke University, he joined the University of Edinburgh Medical School. In 1994, he moved to the University of Lees as Professor of Reproductive Biology and, in 1999, joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, McGill University, Montreal as Research Director. He is now the Scientific Director and Howard and Georgeanna Jones Professor of Reproductive Medicine at The Jones Institute, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia. Roger Gosden has a wide range of interests in reproductive science and women's health but is perhaps best known for his work on oocyte biology, ovary freezing, and transplantation.

This issue on the cryobiology of gametes and gonads will serve as an excellent review for student practitioners in reproductive medicine in this rapidly progressing field.