Faridah Moosdeen It is with great regret that we report the death on 30 January 2009 of Faridah Moosdeen, one of the leading figures of the International Society of Chemotherapy (ISC) over the past 20 years. Faridah was born in Malaya in 1949 and received her Bachelor and Masters degrees in Science from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. In 1975 she went to Vietnam to study for the Diploma in Medical Microbiology at the Pasteur Institute in Saigon. She came to the UK in 1982 to study at the Department of Medical Microbiology at the London Hospital where she was awarded a PhD and passed the MRCPath examination. In collaboration with the late Professor David Williams she carried out significant research, publishing a number of papers on bacterial resistance mechanisms. On her return from England Faridah was appointed to an academic post in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at the Universiti Kebangsaan in Selangor, Malaysia. From 1995 until 1997 she was Professor of Microbiology at the Medical School of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. During her time in the Caribbean she studied infections in patients with sickle cell disease and published on this topic with Graham Sergeant, a world authority on haemoglobinopathies. Faridah was one of the founders of the Malaysian Society for Infectious Diseases and Chemotherapy (MSIDC) and also of the Western Pacific Society of Chemotherapy (WPSC). The first Congress of both Societies was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1989 and was organised by Faridah together with her local colleagues. She became Secretary General of the WPSC in 1989 and continued in that post until 1994. Faridah made major contributions to the International Society of Chemotherapy. From 1991 until 1999 she was Honorary Treasurer of the Society and from 1999 to 2005 was Executive Director, establishing the ISC office in London where she documented the history of the ISC and organised its publications and memorabilia. She was responsible for the organization of the ISC’s two-yearly Congress in several continents. In 2005 the ISC awarded Faridah Meritorious Membership of the Society. Faridah’s last few years were clouded by cancer. In spite of this she carried on as normal, refusing to become an invalid, travelling to meetings and corresponding with colleagues and friends. She never complained and bore her illness with great bravery. Kurt Naber President, International Society for Chemotherapy & Cancer, Germany Victor Lim Immediate Past-President, Western Pacific Society of Chemotherapy, Malaysia