We are happy to announce that ICNC 2016 will start on Sunday afternoon, May 1st at 15.00 hr. with a Memorial Symposium in honour of Jean Aicardi. All delegates are warmly invited to attend this pre-symposium that is included in the registration fee. The symposium will be followed by the opening ceremony and welcome reception.

How some concepts evolved:
Memorial Symposium in honour of Jean Aicardi

Jean Aicardi, a clinician, clinical investigator and educator, left us on 3rd August 2015 at the age of 88. He was a pioneer in child neurology who contributed significantly to the description of several neurological entities including Aicardi’s syndrome in 1969; Aicardi-Goutières syndrome in 1984; Rett syndrome (together with Bengt Hagberg); alternating hemiplegia of childhood and others. He published 259 articles in major international peer-reviewed journals, more than 120 chapters in books and authored or co-authored three internationally recognized books.

A tireless clinician and teacher, he will also be remembered as the mentor of more than 100 child neurologists all over the world. His clinical ward rounds will remain unforgettable to all of his students and fellows. He was the one who taught us “that a major part of examination, and one too often neglected, consists of watching spontaneous activity of the child … the best manner of assessing CNS function but also behaviour”.

Professor Aicardi had a passionate life-long commitment to child neurology and clinical epileptology. He served as the 6th President of the International Child Neurology Association; it was in Buenos Aires, during the 6th ICNA congress (1992), co-organized with Natalio Fejerman, that he delivered a lecture on “Child neurology at the end of the century: a new world and its challenges”. Two years later in San Francisco, together with David Stumpf, Darryl De Vivo and Michael Johnston, Jean Aicardi organized a joint meeting of the ICNA with the American Child Neurology Society and gave a remarkable lecture on the “Perspectives on Childhood Epilepsies” at the Presidential symposium.

The Memorial Symposium at the opening of the ICNC 2016, organized by some of his students and close friends, can only cover a minor part of his tremendous contribution in the field of child neurology. Evolution of our knowledge on the topics to be discussed is the demonstration of his strong belief that in this era of ubiquitous technology, careful observation of clinical signs and symptoms and their correct interpretation, remain as essential as ever.

Chairs: Emilio Fernandez-Alvarez (Spain), Alexis Arzimanoglou (France)

Neuronal migration abnormalities in child neurology
Alexis Arzimanoglou (France)

Infantile Epileptic Spasms
Helen Cross (UK)

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome: a model for clinical impact on basic research
Ingeborg Krägeloh-Mann (Germany)