Division of Ecology and Evolution (DEE): 1999 Fall Newsletter
This Newsletter by Section
- Message from the Chair and the Secretary
- DEE Candidates for Election
- DEE Officers
- DEE Election Ballot
Message from the Chair and the Secretary
Sally Woodin and Linda Walters
We are looking forward to the 2000 SICB Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, January 4-8. The list of symposia is very exciting, and DEE is either the sponsor or the co-sponsor of three: "Antarctic Marine Biology," "New Approaches to Studies of Marine Plant-Animal Interactions" and "An Integrative Approach to the Studies of Terrestrial Plant-Animal Interactions." The breadth of SICB is clearly growing with an increasing presence of plant people. The symposia for Chicago in 2001 are taking shape, and now is the time to be thinking about symposia for Anaheim in 2002. DEE serves as a home for the diverse array of ecologists and evolutionary biologists; hopefully, the symposia will reflect this.
As you know from the abstract submittal form, contributed papers will be grouped by topic rather than by division, but the ties to DEE are obvious in at least five of the eight major topics. Grouping by topic will hopefully reduce the number of conflicts for attendees. Come to the division business meeting and tell us what you think of this system.
We will be electing two officers, a program officer and a chair-elect. Nominees for program officer are Brian Helmuth and Sandra Romano. Nominees for chair-elect are Mary-Alice Coffroth and Cathy McFadden. Please print out the ballot below and cast your vote by November 29. The new officers will be introduced at the DEE business meeting in Atlanta.
We will also be awarding long-overdue prizes to the best student presentation winners from the 1999 Denver Annual Meeting at the division business meeting. Wendy Reed (Iowa State University) and Greg Farley (Florida State University) will each receive $100 and a certificate for their outstanding Denver presentations. Students, please sign up for this year's judging! Faculty and post-docs, if you would like to help judge presentations for DEE, please contact Linda Walters (secretary). It is a very good way to support the division and SICB. It looks wonderful on the community service portion of your annual evaluation and c.v., and it doesn't take up too much time. Last year, each judge was responsible for three to five talks. Thank you in advance and see you in Atlanta!
DEE Candidates for Election
Candidates For Chair-Elect
Mary-Alice Coffroth
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, SUNY at Buffalo.
Education: B.S., Biology, College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1976; M.S., 1981, Ph.D., 1988, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.
Professional Experience: Postdoctoral research, SUNY at Buffalo, 1988-89; NSF Biotechnology postdoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, 1990-92; Research Assistant Professor, Biology, SUNY at Buffalo, 1992-present; Assistant Professor, Biology, SUNY at Buffalo, 1997-present; Research Associate, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 1997-2000.
SICB Activities: Member, SICB Nominations Committee, 1997; Best Student Paper Competition judge, 1997-98.
Other Memberships: International Society for Reef Studies, The Oceanography Society, Society for the Study of Evolution and Western Society of Naturalists.
Research Interests: Population structure of marine invertebrates, population dynamics and ontogeny of marine symbioses.
Goals Statement: SICB provides an excellent venue for interactions across many subdisciplines and is especially good at providing opportunities for graduate students participating and integrating into the Society (socials, luncheons, best paper award, etc). It will be important to continue to recruit new members and encourage graduate student participation. I would like to see SICB continue to make the meetings accessible (financially) to both graduate students and researchers from small colleges. My specific goals for DEE would be to continue to guide DEE in the direction that recent leadership has taken -- namely to encourage the involvement of other ecological and evolutionary groups to increase the participation of ecologists and evolutionary biologists in the Society.
Catherine McFadden
Current Position: Associate Professor of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, Calif.
Education: B.S., Biology, Yale University, 1982; Ph.D., Zoology, University of Washington, 1988.
Professional Experience: Postdoctoral work, Zoology, University of California, Davis, 1988-89; NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship, Port Erin Marine Laboratory, University of Liverpool, 1989-90; Barbara Stokes Dewey Assistant Professor, Biology, Harvey Mudd College, 1991-96; Research Associate, Zoology, University College Dublin, 1994; Associate Professor, Biology, Harvey Mudd College, 1996-present; Research Associate, Invertebrate Zoology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 1998-present.
SICB Activities: Member of ASZ/SICB since 1985; Best Student Paper Award: Division of Invertebrate Zoology, 1986; Best Student Paper Award: Division of Ecology, 1988; Best Student Paper Competition judge, 1998.
Other Memberships: Society for the Study of Evolution and Western Society of Naturalists.
Research Interests: Ecology and life history evolution of clonal marine invertebrates, genetic structure of marine invertebrate populations, molecular systematics of alcyonacean soft corals.
Goals Statement: As a member, I have valued SICB equally for its support of research interests that straddle boundaries between traditional disciplines, and for the support SICB has shown to me over the years, first as a graduate student, and most recently as a faculty member at an undergraduate teaching college. As chair, I would work to ensure the qualities that have kept me returning to SICB continue to be strengthened and safeguarded. I would like to see DEE continue to broaden its membership by sponsoring more symposia designed to break down the zoology/botany barrier and to emphasize the ecological similarities among plant and animal communities. I am also concerned by the high costs of membership in the Society and the escalating cost of the Annual Meeting, and will work to make sure that SICB remains one that is friendly and affordable to graduate students and to others who lack large research and travel budgets.
Candidates For Program Officer
Brian S. Helmuth
Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Marine Sciences Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Professional Experience: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Station, 1997-99; Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, 1999-present.
Education: B.Sc., Biological Sciences, Cornell University, 1989; M.S., Marine Biology, Northeastern University, 1991; Ph.D., Zoology, University of Washington, 1997.
SICB Activities: Member and presenter since 1991.
Other Memberships: American Malacological Union, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Ecological Society of America, Paleontological Society, Sigma Xi and Western Society of Naturalists.
Research Interests: My research and teaching interests focus on the use of biomechanical, hydrodynamic and thermal engineering approaches to study the physiological ecology and community ecology of marine invertebrates. By explicitly measuring and modeling the interactions between organisms and their environment, my work attempts to bridge the perceived gaps between biochemical, physiological and ecological levels of study. To this end, my most recent research has centered around the interactive effects of coral morphology and water flow and light capture, and on the thermal biology of intertidal invertebrates. In principle, however, my approach applies to a diverse suite of organisms and environments.
Goals Statement: SICB is one of the best forums for exchanging ideas across a broad spectrum of biological questions. As program director of DEE, my primary goal will be to draw upon the diversity of SICB's members for contributed talks and posters and to support symposia that promote interactions among researchers working in otherwise disparate fields of inquiry. In particular, I will attempt to bring together younger researchers with those who are well established. I am also very interested in exploring the ways in which teaching and research may be productively combined.
Sandra L. Romano
Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Marine Laboratory, University of Guam.
Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983; M.S., 1989, Ph.D. 1995, University of Hawaii, Manoa.
Other Memberships: Society for the Study of Evolution, International Society for Reef Studies, Society for Systematic Biologists, The International Association for the Study of Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera, and the Association for Women in Science
Research Interests: Evolutionary ecology of marine invertebrates, molecular systematics of cnidarians -- particularly scleractinian corals -- and coral reef conservation biology.
Goals Statement: I value SICB for the opportunities it provides to interact with scientists with a broad range of interests. SICB meetings have been a tremendous resource for intellectual stimulation as well as professional development. As program officer, I would strive to promote multidisciplinary approaches to integrative biology in symposia and contributed paper sessions.
DEE Election Ballot
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