Welcome to the ISSBD 2010 congress !
On behalf of the University of Zambia, the multidisciplinary Local Organising Committee and the International Scientific Programme Committee, I am delighted to invite you to Lusaka in July 2010 for the 21st international congress of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD).

Since its foundation in 1969, the ISSBD has held its biennial congresses on five continents. It is a truly international organisation with more than 1,100 members in 60 countries. Its main objective is to promote systematic research on human development throughout the life-span. The University of Zambia is greatly honoured by this opportunity to host a world-wide gathering of developmental researchers, and we hope to make your experience an intellectually enriching and socially agreeable one.

The invited programme, of which details are published on this website, includes a slate of 48 distinguished researchers, based in a wide range of countries around the world, and their lectures and symposia will address a wide range of topics within the broad area of behavioural development. We expect that the prospect of learning from them at first hand about their latest research findings will attract to the congress a broad spectrum of developmental researchers from around the world.

The combined participation of these invited speakers and more than 500 other contributors whose proposals, submitted on line, have since been accepted will make for an exciting academic forum for established researchers and students. We expect it also to attract the interest of a wide range of service professionals and policymakers within Zambia. With the assistance of the African Research Advisory Panel set up last year for the congress, we hope this will also apply to other countries in Africa.

For those of you coming to Africa from further abroad the congress will offer an exciting opportunity to interact with scholars from all around the world, to share your own research findings, and to learn at first hand about the circumstances of human development in this region, some of which are universal to our species, while others are unique to the region. In addition to scientific deliberations, the Lusaka congress will offer an introduction to various aspects of Zambian society, through social interaction with academics and students in the leisure periods, informal exploration of the city of Lusaka, organized visits to Zambia?s many tourist destinations, small group, familiarisation visits to sites of special interest to specialists in various fields of behavioural development research, and various manifestations of traditional and modern culture at the congress venue and the gala dinner. Details of these various opportunities are presented on the relevant pages of this website.

Zambia is a country of great scenic beauty, and Zambian society prides itself on the warmth of its hospitality, and its traditions of tolerance, peace and democracy. The University of Zambia (UNZA), founded in 1965, is committed to a vision of service and excellence. Our Local Organising Committee brings together scholars from UNZA?s Schools of Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Medicine, and is assisted by an African Research Advisory Panel comprising African developmental scholars based in ten different countries on the continent. We look forward to welcoming you and learning from you in July 2010, and to the formation of lasting relationships of collegiality and friendship arising from the experience of the congress.

Robert Serpell
Professor of Psychology, University of Zambia
and ISSBD 2010 Congress Convenor