Conference Registration

Bursary Application Opportunity

On behalf of the late Jim Cummins, we are offering £500 to European, and £750 to non-European early career researchers, as a contribution towards registration or travel costs, to attend Spermatology 2026. 

Bursary: To cover registration or travel costs. £500 for Europeans, £750 non-Europeans. A limited number of bursaries are available.

Eligibility: Currently studying for a PhD or within 5 years of having obtained a PhD and not in a permanent role. Those already registered can still apply.

Jim was born in Abbottabad in the Hazara District of India (now Pakistan) during the Second World War in 1943. In 1947, at the partition of India and Pakistan, the family moved to Ireland where his father Patrick (a medical graduate of University College, Dublin) hoped to take up medical practice. Sadly, post-war Ireland was badly depressed and that was not to be. In 1953 his father moved back to India to work in Assam on tea plantations and then took up a job as a ship’s surgeon with the Shaw Saville line on the Australia/New Zealand/UK run. The family (mother Christian, sister Eileen) and Jim moved to Dorset, where he completed his high school education in Wimborne. Jim received a BSc in Zoology (external) from the University of London in 1966, then an MSc in Reproduction and Embryology from the University of North Wales in 1967. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Liverpool under Professor Tim Glover in 1970. He had post-doctoral positions in Vanderbilt University (1970–71) with Professor Marie-Claire Orgebin-Crist and the University of Hawaii (1971–72) with Professor Ryuzu Yanagimachi (where he met his wife-to-be, Erlene Chun). In 1972– 1977 he was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, with Professor Bob Averill. From 1977–1988 he was a Senior Lecturer/Reader in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Queensland, Australia, with Professor Tim Glover. From 1989–1991 he was Scientific Director of PIVET Medical Centre in Perth, Western Australia. From 1991–2013 he taught Veterinary Anatomy, Human Biology and Reproductive Biotechnology at Murdoch University in Western Australia, where he currently has an Adjunct position and contributes to lecturing and laboratory demonstrating. He has been a member of SRB since 1975; served on the Committee from 1982–1984 and 1991–1995 and was Honorary Secretary from 1984–1986.

Jim Cummins was a profound figure in the field of reproduction and Spermatology, having a long lasting impact as a scientist and teacher. 

"Jim experienced firsthand the benefits of participating conferences and recognised the importance for scientists in the start of their intellectual and professional journeys, to have such experiences. He really enjoyed nurturing and encouraging younger scientists and students. He loved teaching! He wanted to extend that opportunity to someone early in their own career journey. Jim had himself been encouraged by his own professor to attend conferences, to meet with many other scholars at conferences." - Erlene Chen, widow of Jim Cummins. 

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