Contents
Message from the Division Chair
James Newcomb, chair.dnnsb@sicb.org
As I write this, the in-person component of the 2022 SICB meeting is now in the rearview mirror, but the virtual component (SICB+) is still in high gear. Many thanks are due to the SICB Executive Committee for being able to organize and execute this year’s meeting; the Phoenix component occurred during a surge in the Omicron variant in the United States and many last-minute adjustments were required to pull everything off. And it is no easy feat to pull off an effective and engaging virtual meeting, that thankfully provides a platform for many people that could not make it to Phoenix this year.
DNNSB co-sponsored several major symposia this year and we encourage DNNSB members to consider proposing symposia for upcoming SICB meetings. We also had a full slate of contributed talks and posters, both in Phoenix and SICB+. Thank you to all of the people who volunteered to chair sessions, judge presentations, and help contribute to the success of both the in-person and virtual DNNSB sessions.
We had another strong group of speakers for our Best Student Presentation (BSP) talks and posters. Please join me in congratulating our 2022 BSP winners, Elias Lunsford (University of Florida; oral), Emily Ray (Louisiana State University; poster), Chase Anselmo (Louisiana State University; poster), and Sofia Minano (University of Oxford; SICB+), and the 2022 BSP Honorable Mentions, Kaylyn Flanagan (Bowling Green State University; oral), Dana Lim (University of North Carolina; poster), and Audrey Guyonnet (University of Lethbridge; SICB+).
DNNSB’s representative to SPDAC, Maryam Kamran, finished out her term at this year’s meeting in Phoenix. Please join me in both thanking Maryam for her energy and service to DNNSB and SPDAC over the last several years, as well as welcoming in her replacement, Loranzie Rogers, who has agreed to come on board and contribute to the much-needed voice of early career scientists in our division and society. Thank you and welcome!
In this year’s election, we will be voting for DNNSB Program Officer, to start after the end of the 2023 annual meeting. Jeff Riffell is the current Program Officer; please join me in also thanking Jeff for his service to our division and the society!
This year, we will also be proposing language to expand the DNNSB Executive Committee from its current make-up of Chair, Program Officer, and Secretary, to include Officer-Elect positions for each of these. Please be sure to vote, so that you can have a say in these proposed changes to the DNNSB bylaws.
Message from the Program Officer
Jeff Riffell, dpo.dnb@sicb.org
The 2022 Meeting
Thanks to all of you attending DNNB’s Best Student Presentations and Posters, and everyone who judged the presentations and posters! Over the last several years, the number of student applications for DNNB’s Best Student Presentations and Posters has generally increased, and this has reflected the growth in our division. But please remember to encourage your students to apply. The application is easy (just a check-box). And of course, thanks to everyone for participating and sharing your work!
Symposia for the 2023 Meeting
DNNSB will be the lead sponsor for two symposia at the 2023 meeting, including “Neuroethology in the age of gene editing: New tools and novel insights into the molecular and neural basis of behavior,” and “The role of mechanosensation in robust locomotion.”
There are several other symposia that we are also co-sponsoring, including “Biology at birth: The role of infancy in providing the foundation for lifetime success,” and “Daily torpor across birds and mammals: Recent progress and how do we advance the field?”. Please keep an eye out for symposium details on the SICB meeting site (http://www.sicb.org/meetings/).
Submit Proposals for Symposia at the 2024 Meeting in Seattle WA, or plan a Workshop
Proposals for symposia for the 2024 meeting in Seattle are due August 20th, 2022. If you have an excellent idea for a symposium, I urge you to submit a proposal. Moreover, please contact me, Jim, or Jess if you want feedback about your ideas. The call for proposals can be found at http://sicb.org/meetings/2024/callsymp.php, and please check out the guidelines for the process of developing proposals.
Submitting a proposal is not difficult, although it does require some planning and organization. The breadth of DNNSB continues to grow, and we’d like the symposia to reflect that breadth. Not surprisingly, given our scope, we co-sponsor many symposia. Nonetheless, we would still appreciate having symposia that have DNNSB as a focus. And if there are hot/developing topics that should be a symposium topic, please let us know.
Another mechanism for featuring emerging research areas are Workshops. A Workshop can be scheduled the day before the meeting and provides impetus to bring new people who typically do not attend SICB. If you have an idea for a Workshop, even one for Washington DC, please contact me and Thomas Sanger (SICB Program Officers; programofficer@sicb.org).
Looking Forward… I will be leaving the position of DNNSB’s Program Officer at the end of the 2023 annual meeting, so I encourage everyone to vote for our next Program Officer! We are in fantastic hands based on the leadership of Jess, Jim, and Loranzie, and I’m happy to see the interest in filling DNNSB’s Program Officer position. Please vote!
Message from the Secretary
Jessica Fox, secretary.dnnsb@sicb.org
Members Meeting Minutes from SICB 2022
Our division’s members meeting minutes are posted on the SICB website shortly after the annual meeting each year. If you missed them, you can find them here, on our divisional website.
Vote in the SICB Election
An important reminder about elections: our division is electing a new Program Officer this year, so please see below for more information on the candidates and don’t forget to vote! We will also be voting on a series of proposed amendments to our division’s bylaws, posted on our divisional website. Look for the link to the ballot at the top of the society-wide newsletter, and the election reminder email from SICB Headquarters in your inbox.
Communicating with Our Division’s Members
I am always working to keep members better informed about news and research going on within the Division. I maintain our Division’s Twitter feed at @SICB_DNNSB. I would especially like to use this platform to advertise the excellent research of our divisional members, so please tweet me at @SICB_DNNSB or email me at secretary.dnnsb@sicb.org if you would like your work highlighted.
Meet our SPDAC Representative!
Welcome to our new SPDAC representative, Loranzie Rogers. Loranzie is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Washington, and he has a B.S. in Biology (2017) and an M.S. in Integrative Biosciences (2019) from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Loranzie has been a SICB member since 2016, and is affiliated with DNNSB, DAB, and DCB. Loranzie describes his research interests and goals for his work on the SPDAC below:
My research utilizes behavioral and electrophysiological approaches to understand how vocal fishes detect, integrate, and respond to behaviorally relevant auditory information. I am especially interested in how reproductive state- and hormone-dependent changes influence the inner ear auditory sensitivity of the vocal plainfin midshipman fish, which relies upon acoustic communication to facilitate social behaviors.
I joined SICB as an undergraduate student in 2016 and attended my first meeting in 2017. Since then, participating in SICB’s annual meeting has allowed me to share my current research, connect with other students, and receive advice and mentoring from postdocs and professors. By serving as the Division’s student/postdoc representative, I hope to facilitate similar opportunities for the Society and Division’s current and future student and postdoc members. I look forward to working with student/postdoc representatives of the various SICB Divisions to design relevant programming that would be of interest not only to DNNSB members but early-career members society-wide. Additionally, I aim to develop creative ways to build a sense of community for current student/postdoc members and increase student and postdoc participation within the Division, especially members of traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.
Candidates for Program Officer
James Murray
Current Position: Professor of Biology at the California State University, East Bay
Education: I received a BS in Neuro & Behavior from Cornell in 1988, and a PhD in Zoology from U. Washington in 1994.
Professional Experience: I have been teaching full time since 1998, previously at Colby College and the University of Central Arkansas, and have been a visiting instructor at the Friday Harbor Labs.
SICB Activities: I have previously served as chair of the DNB, on the Education Council, and am now on the Public Affairs Committee.
Other Memberships: I am also a member of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, and the Society for Neuroscience.
Research Interests: My research has been focused on the neural and sensory mechanisms of orientation and navigation in sea slugs such as Tritonia, as well as the mechanisms of adaptation to toxic prey.
Statement of Goals: My goals as DNNSB program officer is to foster the development of new scientists, and to help attract symposia and contributed presentations that excite and attract members across divisions and even outside SICB membership.
Jamie Theobald
Current Position: Associate Professor, Florida International University, Department of Biological Sciences, Miami, FL
Education: BS University of Wisconsin-Madison WI (1991), MS University of Idaho, Moscow ID (1997), PhD University of Washington, Seattle (2004)
Professional Experience: Workshop instructor, Neuromorphic Engineering at Telluride, Telluride, CO, 2017, Teaching faculty, Neural Systems and Behavior Course, MBL, Woods Hole, MA, 2014, 2016, HHMI postdoctoral fellow, UCLA 2009-2010, Grass Fellow, MBL, Woods Hole, MA, 2006, NSF International Postdoctoral Fellow, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
SICB Activities: I attended my first meeting in 2001, and have participated in business activities, chaired presentation sessions, and was awarded a graduate student grant in aid of research. I have presented as a graduate student, postdoc, and faculty member, and now send my own students to present.
Other memberships: Society for Neuroscience, International Society of Neuroethology
Research Interests: My lab studies the neurobiology and behavior of visually guided flight in insects, focusing on how they handle challenging environments, such as dim light, cluttered spaces, or fast optic flow.
Statement of Goals: I have been eagerly attending SICB for over 20 years now, and the society has been a fundamental part of my career and motivation as a biologist. I would love to be able give back, in a small way, by serving as DNNSB program officer. I hope to help grow the division by recruiting stimulating proposals for symposia, and involving labs with diverse research interests, maybe some not traditionally present in neuroscience symposia. This approach, I think, is both in the spirit of neural studies and SICB.