In my first message as Chair of the Division of Vertebrate Morphology, I would like to begin by thanking a number of people. First, I would like to thank Andy Biewener, for his service as chair, as well as Audrone Biknevicius and Dave Carrier for serving over the past two years as Division secretary and program officer, respectively. In addition, I am grateful to Dominique Homberger, Rick Blob and Jacki Webb for serving as this year's nominating committee. I would also like to thank Diane Kelly for her efforts on behalf of the Dwight Davis Award. Finally, in behalf of the entire division, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Matthias Starck and the other organizers of the ICVM meeting in Jena, Germany. Many of our members participated in this event, and I'm sure all would agree it was an outstanding meeting.
The Division is sponsoring (or co-sponsoring) three symposia at the 2002 meeting in Anaheim, California, all of which will be of significant interest to our members: the Biomechanics of Adhesion, Tendon: Bridging the Gap, and the Dynamics and Energetics of Animal Swimming and Flying. As you recall we have debated our priority for scheduling symposia versus contributed papers, and Dave Carrier, John Pearse, and the symposia organizers have worked very hard to limit the overlap between symposia sessions and contributed paper sessions. The society is still considering proposals for the Toronto meeting. I urge you to contact our current program officer, Dave Carrier if you are interested.
Finally, a word about elections. The Division is electing a new Chair-elect (who will take office in January, 2003), secretary and program officer. Frank Fish and Steve Reilly, both long time, enthusiastic supporters of the division have agreed to run. Audrone has agreed to serve a second term as secretary, as is allowed in the bylaws, and will be running unopposed. The nominating committee tried very hard to come up with two candidates for program officer and was unable to find a second member of the division willing to serve. We have one excellent candidate, Bret Tobalske. I would hope all of you will consider serving as an officer of the division the next time nominations are necessary. If you are interested in serving in any office, please email me at
kksmith@duke.edu, and I'll pass your name along. In addition, we have in general had a very low participation in our elections. Please vote!
In closing, I would like to emphasize how I look forward to seeing you all in Anaheim. For all of us, life has been disrupted by the terrorist events of September. To those who suffered personal loss, I offer my sincere condolences. I hope however, that the membership of the division will show their strong support and make the 2002 meeting a highly successful one.
As noted above by Kathleen in the Chair's report, the Division of Vertebrate Morphology is holding elections this fall for the DVM chair and DVM program officer. Papers ballots will be mailed to members shortly from the SICB office. Below are the biographies for the two candidates of Chair-elect (Frank Fish, Stephen Reilly) as well as the single biography for program officer (Bret Tobalske).
DVM Candidates for Election
Candidates for Division Chair
Frank Fish
Current
Position:
Professor of Biology, West Chester University.
Education:
B.A., Biology, SUNY at Oswego, 1975; M.S., Zoology, Michigan State University,
1977; Ph.D., Zoology, Michigan State University, 1980.
Professional
Experience:
Assistant Professor of Biology, West Chester University, 1980-1986; Assistant
Professor, Wallops Island Marine Science Center, 1982; Associate Professor of
Biology, West Chester University, 1986-1989; Professor of Biology, West Chester
University, 1989-Present; Chairman, Department of Biology, West Chester
University, 2000-2001.
Awards
and Honors:
Zoology
Faculty Annual Senior Award, State University College at Oswego, New York,
1975; Anne M. Jackson Award of the American Society of Mammal, 1980; West
Chester University Trustees' Achievement Award, 1995; Honorary Fellow of the
Flinders University of South Australia, 1995.
SICB
Activities:
Local Committee for annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA, 1983; Meeting Session
Chair, 1983, 1985, 1987-1989, 1996-1999; Nominating Committee for the
Chair-Elect of the Division of Vertebrate Morphology, 1984, 1988, 1992;
Secretary of the Division of Vertebrate Morphology, 1991-1995; Editorial Board
for the American Zoologist, 1992-1997; D. Dwight Davis Student Award Committee,
1996; Co-organizer of symposium, Stability and Maneuverability, Chicago (2001).
Publications:
41 journal articles and book chapters; 3 technical reports; 5 proceedings
articles.
Other
Memberships:
American Society of Mammalogists; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University
Biologists; International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology; Pennsylvania
Academy of Science; Sigma Xi; The Society for Marine Mammalogy.
Research
Interests:
My research interests are concerned with the evolution of vertebrate aquatic
locomotion. My approach to this research integrates the fields of functional
morphology, biomechanics, ecological physiology, and hydrodynamics. I am
interested specifically in adaptations that are associated with the use of
energy during swimming. By examining energy use and efficiency through
metabolic and hydrodynamic studies, the evolutionary transition of highly
derived aquatic species, such as whales and seals, from terrestrial ancestors
may be elucidated. In addition, I am interested in formation movement as a
behavioral mechanism to reduce the energetic cost of locomotion. A recent
interest is in the area of biomimetics an the application of geometry of
morphological structure into technological designs.
Goals
Statement:
My primary goal is to support and strengthen. the DVM. This goal can be met by
a multifaceted approach. The presentation at the annual meeting of high quality
science should continue to be encouraged. There is already an excellent core of
researchers who present at the meeting each year, but other equally exceptional
biologists, who do not attend, should be encouraged to present through
inclusion in symposia or direct invitation. Invitations to the meetings also
should be made to students whose early exposure to other investigators and the
scientific process will help in the advancement of their projects and aid them
in their professional development. Mechanisms to afford student participation
should be continually identified and strengthened. DVM should continue to
provide quality symposia. Co-sponsorship of symposia with other divisions will
aid in integrating morphology with the collective interests of the SICB. Within
the SICB, I would endeavor to support the integration of new technologies for
presentations at meetings. Finally, I would like to identify the future role
of morphology and its integration with other fields such as molecular biology,
engineering, and developmental genetics. Such a review could provide new
outlets for professional opportunities and scholarly growth, while the
recognition of the union of our discipline with such diverse fields would
highlight the importance of morphology and organismic biology.
Stephen
M. Reilly
Current
Position:
Associate Professor, Ohio University
Education:
B.A. Southern Illinois University, 1977; M.A. San Francisco State University,
1980; Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, 1986.
Professional
Experience:
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Irvine, 1986-1991; Assistant
Professor, Ohio University, 1991-1997; Associate Professor, Ohio University,
1997-present.
SICB
Activities:
Symposium
co-organizer,
Ecological
Morphology,
1990; Dwight D. Davis Prize committee, 1991; Student Poster Award Committee,
1999. Session Chair, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001; Co-hosted Midwest
Regional Meeting of DVM, Ohio University, 1999.
Other
memberships:
International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology, Society of Experimental
Biologists, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists,
Herpetologists League, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Society for the Study of
Amphibians and Reptiles,
Research
Interests:
My
research integrates morphological, developmental, and functional analyses to
study how ontogeny, ecology, and phylogeny affect vertebrate design and
function. My research has focused on the metamorphosis of feeding function and
the consequences of neoteny and paedomorphosis in salamanders and current work
is examining patterns of feeding function across tetrapods. Another major
focus in my work is on vertebrate locomotion with a general goal to understand
the locomotory change from sprawling to erect postures. This involves
quantitative functional analyses of hindlimb function in a variety of
vertebrates with the goal of integrating kinetic and kinematic approaches to
the analysis of locomotion to understand postural evolution and how the limbs
are used to propel the animal.
Goal
Statement:
My goal is to maintain and improve the high quality, interactive atmosphere
that the division provides for members at all points in their careers. This
goal is met via action in several areas. First, our strong support for
graduate student participation and travel should be maintained and strengthened
and I feel we should seek support for additional formal student awards.
Second, I believe that we can do better in developing integrative symposia
tailored specifically to the DVM audience and to cross-divisional audiences.
As the leading group in SICB I feel we should take a more of a leadership role
especially in developing cross-divisional symposia. We need to tap the newly
developed SICB Program Innovation Fund to plan symposia in new growth areas for
the society, in areas that emphasize integration between divisions, and perhaps
we can plan a distinguished lecturer series within a division focussing on a
specific topic or concept that merits a formal review. On the issue of
symposia, we need to formally tackle the problem of scheduling symposia vs.
contributed sessions - a prime issue at the last two business meetings that
seems to be the only
major
complaint of DVM members. If we meet the goal of better DVM sponsored symposia
then almost by definition contributed sessions, in DVM and cosponsoring
divisions, cannot be concurrent. Many feel that the contributed sessions are
the bread and butter of the division and even these sessions often have
conflicting talks. I feel we need to work harder to resolve conflicts both
between contributed sessions and symposia to minimize conflicts. I think the
keyword selection process on the abstract submittal form is the primary culprit
causing conflicts between contributed sessions. The keyword systems needs to
be adjusted for DVM's needs or at least explained to produce less conflicting
schedules at the meetings and more streamlined programming. Finally, I would
encourage regional DVM meetings and I hope that formal DVM socials like the one
organized at the Field Museum last year will become an annual event at the
meetings.
Candidate for Program Officer (running unopposed)
Bret
Tobalske
Current
Position:
Assistant
Professor, University of Portland.
Education:
B.A. Southern Illinois University, 1988; M.A. University of Montana, 1991;
Ph.D. University of Montana, 1994.
Professional
Experience:
Fulbright Scholar, Parc Naturel Regional du Haut-Jura, France, 1995;
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Montana, 1996; Visiting Assistant Professor,
Allegheny College, 1997-1998; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University,
1998-1999; Assistant Professor, University of Portland, 1999-present.
Awards
and Honors:
D.
Dwight Davis Award, 1995.
SICB
Activities:
Nominations Committee, Division of Vertebrate Morphology, 1999-2000. Session
Chair, 1997.
Other
Memberships:
Society for Experimental Biology, Sigma-Xi, American Ornithologists' Union,
Cooper Ornithological Society, Wilson Ornithological Society, American Dove
Association.
Research
Interests:
I study bird flight, particularly how flight performance and the underlying
mechanisms of neuromuscular recruitment, mechanical power output, and wing
motion vary with differences in body size and flight speed. My research
continues to attempt to understand the functional significance, ecology, and
evolution of intermittent flight and gait selection in birds.
Goals
Statement:
My vision for the program in DVM includes further development of thematic
sessions and cross-divisional symposia. In particular, I would like to see
symposia in which "problem-solving" formats might be encouraged. Edgier, less
established, creative, working hypotheses would be easier to unearth and refine
in such an atmosphere. I would also resolve, as much as possible, scheduling
conflicts between symposia and regular DVM sessions. One way to reduce
conflicts may be to follow the Society for Experimental Biology model and fold
some "regular" presentations into existing symposia. I welcome alternative
suggestions from the membership.
