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I am honored to have been elected President of INNS for the years 2009 and 2010. It is a privilege to serve a Society with a long history and great achievements.

INNS has built its membership and reputation with the efforts of many leading researchers, some of them served as Presidents and members of the Board of Governors. I would like to acknowledge their hard work and leadership and particularly the contribution of the first INNS President (1987-88) Stephen Grossberg and my predecessor Fred Ham (2007-08).
INNS is a professional home for many academics, researchers and practitioners from all over the world who work in the areas of brain science, neuroscience, brain information processing, cognitive science, brain-like computing, neuroinformatics and bioinformatics, neural network models and systems, applications in science, engineering, business and other areas. New research topics have recently emerged, such as nero-genetic modeling, mental development in robots, quantum and field information processing.

We have worked in a close collaboration with a number of professional societies and organizations such as the European Neural Network Society (ENNS), the Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS), the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, the Asia-Pacific Neural Network Assembly (APNNA). Our vision is to continue the development of INNS as truly international, interdisciplinary and inclusive society. The openness and the welcoming spirit of INNS is reflected in our policy to build and support topical SIGs and regional chapters, especially in the fast developing regions of the world, and to foster close and productive relationships with other professional societies, especially in the areas of neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

Jointly with ENNS and JNNS, we publish through Elsevier Science one of the premier journals in this area - Neural Networks. This journal will continue to publish state-of-the art publications under the co-editorship of leading scientists. Our tri-society Newsletter, published in 2 volumes per year, will continue to inform our members about global and regional activities and scientific news.

In collaboration with the IEEE CIS we co-organize the premier conference in the subject area – IJCNN, the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks. The IJCNN proceedings are published by IEEE.
The society values and rewards the contribution of its members. INNS offers a recognition and progression scheme from student, affiliate and regular members, to Senior Members and Members of the College of Fellows. The society presents prestigious Awards annually, such as the Hebb Award, the Helmholtz Award, the Gabor Award and the Young Investigator Award.

Our goals to understand the information processes in the brain and to create more powerful brain-like machines for solving complex problems of the 21st century are very challenging indeed, but I am sure that with the joined efforts of all INNS members we will make a significant progress in the years to come.

Nikola Kasabov, President of INNS