I was delighted
to see so many DIZ members manifestly having a good (and of course
productive) time in my natal city, San Diego. We even got to see
real-world environmental science, meeting during exceptionally rainy
weather in facilities that are textbook examples of floodplain
development. The real flood, fortunately, was one of fascinating
titles, more than one could run to when heavily ballasted with
comidas Mexicanas. As always, there also was a plethora of
interesting symposia to further augment our desire to be in multiple
places at once. Every year I marvel at the breadth and depth of
SICB, and the capabilities of the rising generation(s) of biologists.
Thank you all for making these such good meetings!
Last spring you
elected a new Program Officer, Amy Moran. She'll be taking office
soon, which will give her something to with all those idle hours that
come from having a new baby around the house. Be nice to her and
observe all the deadlines so she doesn't need to discipline you!
This spring DIZ
chooses a new chair-elect, and the hard-working DIZ nominating
committee (Pat Reynolds, Bruno Pernet, and Shea Tuberty, chaired by
Susie Balser) has presented a slate of highly competent candidates (a
change that could drastically alter the effectiveness of the office).
Please review their credentials and vote!
Penny Barnes,
whose energy and dedication often have left me feeling tired, will be
handing the P.O. reins over to Amy Moran. Penny is to be thanked not
only for helping to shape the program, but also for arranging the
very pleasant AMS/DIZ/DEE/TCS social, which was exceptionally well
attended and, by all evidence, enjoyed. Penny, a thousand thanks!
Sara Lindsay is
another who has given yoepersonly service. For many years she has
chaired the Best Student Paper/Poster Committee, a really
labor-intensive post. Many, many thanks, Sara! Once again we had an
impressive array of really good presentations; the future of
integrative biology is in good hands! Please see Sara's announcement
of the winners from the San Diego meetings. In this context, the
SICB Program Officers collectively have suggested that all divisions
with Best Paper awards delete the requirement for membership in that
division. Since divisional membership is so fluid anyway, they
suggest simplifying the process by allowing students to compete in
whichever division seems most appropriate to their presentations. We
will soon have a web-based forum to discuss this and other proposed
changes to the divisional bylaws.
Thanks also
(indeed, double thanks) to Ben Miner, who has been serving as the
Graduate Student/Postdoc representative. He too is stepping down and/or
up; he has consented to assume Sara's role as Best Paper Committee
Chair. I am pleased to announce that Scott Nichols (postdoc at UC
Berkeley) has accepted appointment as Ben's successor.
The Libbie
Hyman Award last year went to Heidi Weiskel, who spent time at Friday
Harbor Labs. Her experience epitomizes what the award is all about.
With her permission, I quote, "I returned from Friday Harbor so
thrilled about zoology and getting out in the field with these
critters and tromping around in the mud that I returned to Davis and
switched my degree focus from policy to marine ecology. Done. Friday
Harbor was a brilliant experience, and I am grateful to you and Amy
both, along with the selection committee, for awarding me the
scholarship." We wish Heidi the very best as she forges on in a
new direction!
This year's scholarship winner is Rafael Rosengarten, a first year graduate
student in the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale
University. Rafael is interested in neuromusculature and myogenic
differentiation in lower metazoans, and embryology of Placozoa. The Hyman
Scholarship will help him participate in FHL's embryology
course this coming summer.
Plans are afoot
for a SICB digital library that will be a rich source of teaching
tools. The first module will be "biomechanics", and is under
construction. Trish Morse is serving as the point person.
Hello fellow
students and postdocs. The San Diego meeting is behind us, and I
would like to extend the Division's thanks to all the graduate
students who worked to make this meeting such a success. I would
also like to congratulate Constance Rogers-Lowery for winning the
best student oral presentation, Ted Uyeno for winning the best
student poster presentation, and Sarah Berke for winning the Adrian
Wenner Strong Inference Award. I encourage all undergraduate,
graduate, and recently graduated (< 1 year) students to enter
these competitions in 2005. The next meeting will be held in
Orlando, January 4-8, 2006.
To ensure SICB
continues to consider the needs of graduate students, I encourage
comments and suggestions for improving future meetings. In
particular, I am interested in whether people would like to have a
livelier social. In New Orleans a band played at the social, and the
Student/Postdoc Committee is considering having a band at the social
each year. Please email suggestions to me at bgminer@ucdavis.edu.
Good luck with your studies and research!
Message from the Student Awards Committee Chair
Sara Lindsay
Thank you to
all of the students and judges who participated in the DIZ Student
presentation competition at the meeting in San Diego. There were
many wonderful presentations, and I really enjoyed seeing the
diversity of research DIZ students are involved in -- keep up the
great work! Constance Rogers-Lowery won first prize in the oral
presentation for her talk titled "Antibody-mediated immune
response of fish during development of acquired resistance against
larvae of freshwater mussels." Joseph Spagna was the runner-up
among the oral presentations; his talk was on the "Contribution
of a distributed foot to running performance in arthropods."
Ted Uyeno took first prize among the poster presentations with his
work on "The function of cephalopod buccal mass musculature."
Beth Davis was the runner up for the best poster; her presentation
was on "Predicting potential distributions of invasive land
snails via ecological niche modeling." Sarah Berke, who spoke
on "Behavioral balancing acts: energy and mortality trade-offs
in young decorator crabs," was the winner of the Adrian Wenner
Award for Strong Inference. Congratulations to all! Students should
hear soon from Tom Wolcott with more details about your awards.
Thank you again to all of our dedicated judges -- I've enjoyed
working with you over the last four years. I encourage you to help
Ben Miner next year when he takes over the reins as chair of the DIZ
student award committee.
Wormly,
Sara Lindsay
Message from the Editor of Invertebrate BiologyPatrick D. Reynolds
Greetings to all DIZ
members! Invertebrate Biology, the journal of the American
Microscopical Society and the Division of Invertebrate Zoology,
celebrates 125 years of continuous publication this year. The
year also sees considerable change at the journal. As I write, the
first issue of Invertebrate Biology with Blackwell Publishing,
v.124, no.1, winter 2005, was published on March 10 and has been
mailed. This marks the culmination of over two years' work on the
direction of the journal, and we are pleased to have reached this
point of the transition. Those who subscribed in 2004 will receive
the first 2005 issue gratis, along with information on how to
subscribe for the year, which includes membership in AMS. Hardcopy
renewals have also been mailed to all 2004 subscribers. Please
support your journal by subscribing or renewing your subscription
(and membership in AMS); this can be done online at
<http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/IVB> (you will find a link
to the left for "membership"; institutional subscriptions
under "subscribe/ renew").
We are excited about
the changes in our journal. While you will notice a cover make-over
and some minor stylistic changes within, the most significant change
is that articles in IB will now also be published online
through the Blackwell Synergy system. All subscribers will receive
access upon renewal, but you can view the current issue free at
<http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/IVB> (upper right for link
to online content). While we have worked through many aspects of
production during the transition, I welcome your comments on any
aspect of the journal in this new phase of its long history.
Starting with this
volume, greater support will be given to authors. There will be no
page or color plate charges (the latter with editorial approval). We
hope that this will encourage submissions, particularly of studies
requiring color illustrations such as those using confocal and
fluorescence microscopy - but of course IB publishes on all
aspects of the biology of invertebrates; recent issues include
phylogenetics, behavior, physiology, neurochemistry, and development,
to name just a few subdisciplines. Additionally, a pdf file of the
published article will be provided to authors for personal posting
(hardcopy reprints can still be purchased). Finally, we also now have
online submission and review at
<http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/invbio>. Please consider IB
for your manuscripts!
There will be a
considerable increase in the number of online
databases and service providers that index and provide access to IB,
with a more international reach. We anticipate that this, along with
online publication, should further enhance the citation rate for the
journal (which is already quite competitive; feel free to contact me
for more information on this or any aspect of the journal).
Despite all these
changes, we are pleased that Invertebrate
Biology remains one of the lowest-priced journals in our field to
both individual and institutional subscribers. Rates for individual
subscribers for 2005 is still only $38, students $19; institutional
subscriptions start at $166.
In a separate
initiative, we have joined JSTOR, the Scholarly Journal Archive. The
scanning of the entire back run of IB, to the first volume in
1880, is proceeding apace, and we expect all issues, up to 5 years
prior to the current issue, to be available online later this year.
Thank you all for your
support of the journal, especially those who have reviewed or
submitted manuscripts. I look forward to continuing to work with you.
Sincerely,
Pat Reynolds
preynold@hamilton.edu
Minutes of the 2005 Annual Business Meeting
Thomas Wolcott
(DIZ Chair) opened the meeting by approving the minutes of the
previous year's meeting. Chair Wolcott announced the results of the
Program Officer election: Amy Moran will be the next DIZ Program
Officer.
Chair Wolcott
solicited nominations for the next Chair of DIZ, and sought DIZ
members to join the nomination committee. Ben Miner, former Graduate
Student - Postdoctoral Affairs Committee Representative, has now
become the Student Awards Committee Chair. Chair Wolcott requested
nominations for a new Graduate Student - Postdoctoral Affairs
Committee Representative.
Chair Wolcott
announced the Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Scholarship winner, Heidi
Weiskel. Former Student Awards Committee Chair Sara Lindsay
announced the winner of the 2004 Best Student Paper awards, Alex
Cheroske, with runner-up Jeff Riffell. The 2004 Best Student Poster
award was won by Collin Johnson, with runner-up Constance
Rogers-Lowery. Michelangelo Von Dassow won the Adrian Wenner Strong
Inference Award, with runner-up Sheri Johnson. Chair Wolcott and all
of the meeting attendees thanked Sara for several years of service
administering the student awards program.
DIZ Program
Officer Penny Barnes announced changes in the rules for the Best
Student Paper & Poster awards. Currently, DIZ and two other
divisions require students to be members of their divisions to
compete for these awards. Elimination of the requirements for
division affiliation was proposed. This change will need to be
incorporated into the DIZ bylaws. Several attendees discussed the
recognition of divisional affiliation during the Best Student Paper
competition.
In 2005, 6 of 8
symposia are DIZ co-sponsored or supported. Many of the symposia
also garnered strong participation in complimentary sessions. For
the 2006 SICB meeting in Orlando, 2 symposia are sponsored by DIZ.
The deadline for symposium proposals for 2007 is now August 19, 2005.
The 2007 meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tucson, Arizona, with
a future meeting perhaps in an international venue or Puerto Rico.
The SICB
Executive Committee visited our business meeting. SICB President
John Wingfield stated that the major issues facing the society are
financial, including declining NSF support for symposia and declines
in journal revenues with a loss of institutional subscriptions. The
society is committed to maintaining support for students and
symposia. President Wingfield encouraged discussion of these issues
and attendance at the society-wide business meeting.
Tom Vandergon,
from the NSF Division of Integrative Organismal Biology (IOB)
solicited applications for symposium support, even though NSF funding
is tight. There is currently a relatively low funding rate for grant
proposals; many proposals judged worth of funding cannot be fully
funded. Dr. Vandergon requested that DIZ members attend the NSF
funding discussions later in the meeting. He also solicited
supplemental funding applications in support of undergraduate
research.
Patrick
Reynolds discussed the status of the journal Invertebrate Biology,
which is now co-published with Blackwell and available on-line
through Syngergy. The entire catalog of Invertebrate Biology
will soon be on-line through JSTOR. Dr. Reynolds thanked the DIZ
membership for serving as members of the editorial board, as
reviewers, and as authors for the journal; he also encouraged future
manuscript submissions. Dr. Reynolds led a round of applause to
thank Vicki Pearse for a decade of service as editor of Invertebrate
Biology.
Clay Cook,
American Microscopical Society, also addressed the partnership of
Invertebrate Biology with DIZ, and discussed ways to bring AMS
and DIZ together, including subscriptions to the journal, submission
of manuscripts to the journal, and co-sponsorship of symposia. In
addition, SICB has waived the conference participation fee for AMS.
Rachel Merz
presented the SICB Digital Library project, which aims to provide
teaching materials in integrative and comparative biology. The first
project concerns biomechanics teaching resources and is coordinated
by Trish Morse. Dr. Merz requested submission of teaching materials
in multiple media formats. Joe Thompson emphasized that all material
submitted to the Digital Library project will be peer-reviewed and
encouraged participation both as submitters of materials and
reviewers of future modules.
Chair Wolcott
reminded DIZ members about our efforts to improve the website; please
send pictures of your research to DIZ Secretary Bob Thacker.
Chair Wolcott
stated that the society-wide ballots in the spring elections will
address the issue of creating a permanent diversity committee, which
requires a bylaw change. Chair Wolcott also discussed the society's
increasing interest in conservation biology, including a meeting on
Friday.
Frederick
Harrison announced the planning stages for an international congress
on invertebrate morphology to be held in 2008. He asked the DIZ
membership to participate in generating themes and ideas for the
congress.
Chair Wolcott
announced a request from AIBS and BioScience for review articles and
other manuscript submissions.
The final
discussion centered on the timing of the next Invertebrate Auction at
SICB. Most attendees favored holding another auction in the next 2
to 3 years. All DIZ members are urged to seek out neat items for the
next auction, for to make their own artistic endeavors.
All present
were thanked for their attendance.
Submitted by RW
Thacker.
Elections: Candidates for DIZ Chair
Please review
the biographies of our two candidates for the position of DIZ Chair,
Janice Voltzow and Jon Norenburg. We will hold an election for this
office later this year.
Janice
Voltzow
Current
position: Professor, Department of Biology, University of
Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Education:
1980, B.S. (Biology), Yale University, New Haven, CT. 1985, Ph.D.
(Zoology), Duke University, Durham, NC.
Professional
Experience: 1996-present, Assistant, Associate, Professor,
University of Scranton. 2001-present, Editor-in-chief, American
Malacological Bulletin. 2002-present, Project Kaleidoscope
Faculty for the 21st Century. 2004-2005, Visiting
Scholar, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sydney.
2000-2001, President, American Malacological Society. 1987-1996,
Assistant, Associate Professor, University of Puerto Rico. 1992,
Visiting Scholar, Harvard Forest, Harvard University. 1985-1986,
Postdoctoral Fellow, Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of
Washington. 1982-1985, Cocos Foundation Trainee in Morphology, Duke
University.
SICB
Activities: SICB member since 1982; Chairperson, Public Affairs
Committee, 1987-1989; Co-organizer and moderator, Forum on
Biodiversity, 1988; Representative to AAAS Section X, Societal
Impacts of Science and Engineering, 1997-1998; Nominating Committee,
Division of Systematic Biology, 1997; Judge for Best Student Paper
for DIZ.
Other
Memberships: American Association for the Advancement of
Science, American Malacological Society, American Microscopical
Society, Malacological Society of London, Sigma Xi, Unitas
Malacologica.
Research
Interests: Functional morphology and evolution of marine
molluscs, evolution and development of invertebrates, effects of wind
on trees (trees are invertebrates too).
Statement of
Goals: This is an especially exciting time to be an invertebrate
zoologist. Because our field integrates concepts and techniques from
so many fields, we have the potential to contribute to a very broad
base of biological knowledge. It is especially important that we use
our excitement to nurture and stimulate the next generation of
invertebrate zoologists. I look forward to working more closely
with them to bring them more actively into DIZ. The next few years
hold some outstanding opportunities for our Division as we look ahead
to increased integration with other SICB divisions, the development
of educational resources on the web, and the proposed International
Congress on Invertebrate Morphology. I believe my experience with
the American Malacological Society (the other AMS) will help me be a
dynamic leader for DIZ.
Jon
Norenburg
Professional
Experience: 1992 - present Curator/Research Zoologist,
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural
History; 1988-1992 - Supervisor, Benthic Invertebrates Section,
Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center; 1983-1986 - Postdoctoral
Research Associate jointly at Department of Anatomy, Medical College
of Georgia, and Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Maine;
1982-1983 - Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow, Fort Pierce,
FL.
Education:
1974 - B.S. (Hon); 1976 - M.S., Biology, Acadia University,
Wolfville, Nova Scotia; 1983 - Ph.D., Zoology/Systematics,
Northeastern University, Boston, MA.
Professional
Interests: Evolution and diversification of the phylum Nemertea,
through use of systematics to integrate and organize studies of
comparative morphology (histochemical, histological and
ultrastructural), life-history attributes, and molecular sequence
data. Current projects include phylum-level phylogenetic survey
based on morphology and sequence data from five gene fragments;
monographic studies and studies of specialized groups of nemerteans
(deep-sea pelagic, mesopsammic, supra-littoral, and commensal);
nemertean larval development and morphology.
SICB
Activities: Member since 1976, attending all annual meetings
except four. Program Officer, Division Invertebrate Zoology;
Program Officer, Division of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology;
member, SICB Program Advisory Committee; Chair and occasional judge
for DIZ and DSEB Best Student Paper Selection Committee;
co-organizer and editor for "First Symposium on Biology of the
Nemertina," ASZ, Philadelphia, 1983; co-organizer for
"Phylogenetic Systematics, Biogeography, and Marine
Biodiversity," ASZ, Washington, DC 1995.
Other
Memberships/Affiliations: American Association for Zoological
Nomenclature (Secretary/Treasurer '90-'92, Secretary '92-'95),
American Microscopical Society (Member-at-Large '97-'00; '02-'05),
Biological Society of Washington (Councilor twice), International
Trust for Zoological Nomenclature (Trustee since 1990), Society of
Systematic Biologists, Willi Hennig Society; Associate Editor,
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington '91-'97;
co-organizer Fourth- and Sixth International Conference on Nemertean
Biology,1995 and 2004; Associate Editor, Publications of Seto Marine
Biological Laboratory, Japan '04-present.
Statement of
Goals: During my terms as Program Officer for DIZ and DSEB, I
was a strong advocate of trying the current format of "integrated"
or topic-based sessions at the annual meetings. I still am a
proponent of this approach and of the Program Officers meeting to
schedule sessions, but I would like to see division-based sessions
for authors preferring that venue or for presentations that don't fit
well into available integrative sessions. I am not running for
program officer, but this is one area where I would advocate for
regaining division identity. The DIZ is the primary or secondary
professional society affiliation for many invertebrate zoologists,
especially those of us who have no taxon-based societies to call
home. I want to strengthen our identity and standing as a
professional home for invertebrate zoologists. We already are
exploring ways to increase DIZ involvement with the American
Microscopical Society's journal Invertebrate Biology, which I
support. We have failed several times in the past in targeted
efforts to increase participation by invertebrate biologists who opt
instead for more narrow taxon-based societies. I propose to keep
trying to win them over (at least the most interesting people from
those societies:-). Promoting excellence in our science is the
obvious goal of DIZ and SICB but my primary guide is success in
providing a stimulating and nurturing home for our students and young
professionals, which cannot be done without drawing the enthusiastic
participation of our "established" colleagues. The DIZ
does an excellent job of that; it seems healthy and not in need of
major initiatives; we can coast or we can try to be even better. I
do not have the force of personality to do that by myself. Don't
vote for me if you are not ready to participate, at least by being
responsive. P.S. I promise not to advocate for adding "evolutionary"
to our name.
Link to officer list on DIZ page