Fall 2020 DVM

Message from the Chair

Patricia Hernandez, chair.dmv@sicb.org

Hello all! Thank you for the opportunity to serve you these last two years. It is with a heavy heart that I pass the torch to Richard (Rick) Blob as your next Chair. I am sad to be at the end of my own term, but confident that Rick will do an amazing job leading our division!

Richard Blob
Richard Blob, incoming DVM Chair

Please support our dedicated session for the DVM Best Student Talk award competitions. This will take place just ahead of the meeting on Jan 3rd. What a great way to start our meeting!! The competition was certainly stiff picking the top 8 student presentations to compete at the meeting. I very much look forward to hearing these great talks on Jan 3rd, 2021. Thank you to Angela Horner, Lara Ferry, and Marianne Porter for serving on the Best Student Talk Committee.

Thank you also to Katie Staab, Andrea Ward, and David Coughlin who have agreed to serve as our nominating committee. We will be electing both a Chair-elect and Program Officer-elect during our Spring elections. We strongly encourage those interested in serving DVM to self-nominate.  Click here to see a list of past officers. Nominations should be for full members in good standing. If you are interested in running, please reach out to Andie Ward at award@adelphi.edu.

Message from the Program Officer

Mason Dean, dpo.dvm@sicb.org

After a marathon Zoom session at the start of the month, the DVM and DCB sessions are shaping up nicely for the 2021 conference. Thanks to Matt McHenry (DCB’s PO) for all the help juggling the many abstracts: so far, we have 67 posters in seven sessions and 251 talks over 24 oral sessions. This is in contrast to the 144 posters and 34 oral sessions of last year, but overall we actually already have 10 more talks than the 2020 conference, since we can pack more talks into each online session this year. Even in the new online SICB format, we’re continuing our typical strong turnout: as with last year, DVM/DCB talks represent nearly a quarter of all of those submitted to SICB.

Horse skull. Museum d'histoire naturelle. Paris.
Horse skull (Photo credit: Museum d’histoire naturelle Paris, Wikimedia Commons)

Planned session topics this year include perennial favorites (ecomorphology, muscle-tendon structure function, feeding functional morphology, terrestrial and aquatic locomotion) but also exciting emerging themes in DVM/DCB (biomaterials, biomimetics and robotics; ecological and phylogenetic effects on bone structure; mechanics of suckling, chewing and swallowing; locomotion on challenging substrates; structure-function correlates of habitat transitions… the list goes on). Session talks dovetail thematically, but one advantage of 2021’s online format is that you will be able to combine talks and posters into your own dream ‘playlist’ – see Jake Socha’s newsletter post for more details on navigating the new conference structure.

Once the schedule is posted, we’ll be working to promote the sessions leading up to the conference, you can help with this: just remember to tag us @SICB_DCB_DVM when giving props to DVM/DCB sessions!  In particular, don’t forget to support our dedicated sessions for the DVM Best Student Poster and Talk award competitions – we have a killer, diverse line-up of presentations vying for the awards, and we’re excited to unveil them soon.

Lastly, remember to tune in for this year’s fantastic symposia (http://sicb.burkclients.com/meetings/2021/symposia/index.php), with some great ones supported by DVM.  Congrats to the organizers!

  1. An Evolutionary Tail: Evo-Devo, Structure, and Function of Post-Anal Appendages (Janneke Schwaner, Tonia Hsieh, Craig
    The zebra-tailed lizard (Callisaurus draconoides)
    The zebra-tailed lizard, Callisaurus draconoides (photo credit: Wikipedia)

    McGowan)

  2. Biology Beyond the Classroom: Experiential Learning through Authentic Research, Design, and Community Engagement (Ali Hansen, Patrice Connors, Hayley Lanier)
  3. Bridging Disciplinary Gaps to Advance Canine Science (Caleb Bryce & Ana Jimenez)
  4. Physical Mechanisms of Behavior (Patrick Green & Alejandro Rico-Guevara)
  5. Sending and Receiving Signals: Endocrine Modulation of Social Communication (Karen Maruska & Julie Butler)
  6. The Biology of Sticky: Adhesive Silk, Fiber, and Glue Biomaterials Across Eukaryota (Mercedes Burns & Sarah Stellwagen)
  7. The Integrative Biology of Pigment Organelles (Florent Figon, Jérome Casas, Leila Deravi)

And finally, thanks for the support these last two years, it’s been an honor serving DVM — you’re definitely in safe hands with Nicole Danos, the next Program Officer!

Message from the Secretary

 Angela Horner, secretary.dvm@sicb.org

Thanks again to Eric Tytell for forming the online volunteer guest lecture list; I (Angela) have personally utilized this and the students are really engaged and inspired by the diversity of expertise. Note that the DVM list of volunteer lecturers is rather sparse; please consider volunteering your services to the community in these (gestures vaguely) unprecedented times.