Committee Reports
Educational Council
Wendy Ryan, Chair
Congratulations to Manuel Joao Costa of the University of Azores, Portugal. His presentation, "Demystifying Molecular Biology: a role for conservation" earned him recognition as the first recipient of the SICB Award for Excellence and Innovation in Science Education at the 2003 annual meeting in Toronto.
The SICB Award for Excellence and Innovation in Science Education will be awarded for the second time at the annual meeting in New Orleans. The award will be given in recognition of the outstanding paper or poster presentation given at the annual meeting in any area pertaining to science education. The intent of this award is to increase the profile of innovation in science education within and beyond SICB, and also to attempt to highlight the contribution of such activities towards the goal of increasing science literacy in the general population. Anyone who has submitted an oral or poster presentation with an education component for the New Orleans meeting is eligible to compete for the award. You will need to contact me by December 10, 2003 with the following information to be considered for the award: name of the primary presenter; current position (graduate student, post-doctoral student, non-tenured faculty, tenured faculty); division affiliation; title of presentation and session.
The Education Council meeting in New Orleans will be open to anyone interested in participating in activities or programs related to science education within or related to SICB. Feel free to join our meeting or forward your ideas to any council member if you will be unable to meet with us in New Orleans. If you are interested in serving as a representative on the Council please let me know. We are always looking for new members who represent the diversity of disciplines within SICB, so if your division is not represented on the Council and you have an interest in science education we would be particularly interested in having you join us.
Student Support Committee
Brian Tsukimura, Chair
Students of SICB,
The Student Support Committee wishes to announce 2 award opportunities this Fall, 2003. The membership of the SICB has generously set aside funds to provide two forms of research awards, the Grants-In-Aid-of-Research and Fellowship of Graduate Student Travel. Students can apply to only ONE program per year. Students have a "lifetime eligibility" to receive only one award (FGST or GIAR).
The Grants-In-Aid-of-Research (GIAR) are available to provide small awards to graduate students in support of their research in the fields of integrative and comparative biology. Awards are made payable to the individual recipients. No part of an award may be used for the payment of indirect costs to the recipient's institution. All funds must be expended directly in support of the proposed investigation. Any equipment purchased shall be the property of the institution. Awards are made in amounts up to a maximum of $ 1,000. In Fall 2002, 61 applications were submitted. The SSC reviewed these at the Toronto meeting (January 2003) and made 26 awards (42%) for a total of $23,997 to students from each of the 9 divisions in the Society. The Fellowship of Graduate Student Travel (FGST) are available to provide student funds for travel and other expenses at distant research laboratories, museums, or field sites. The primary purpose is for travel to "distant" research sites to learn specialized techniques or to use unique equipment or collections. The SSC expects to grant 2-3 fellowships of up to $2000 this year. In Fall 2002, 14 applications were submitted. The SSC reviewed these at the Toronto meeting (January 2003) and made 3 (21%) $2,000 awards, for a total of $6,000.