Message from the Chair
Bob Dores
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark Sheridan for the superb job that he
has done as our program officer. Mark has worked diligently to provide us with a balanced
and exciting program. He has been a strong voice for our division in the discussions with
the Executive Committee on the format, scope and focus of our national meeting. Mark and
Stacia Sower have been prime movers in organizing the symposium to honor Erika Plisetskaya
at the 1999 SICB Annual Meeting in Denver, Jan. 6-10. Sunny Boyd will take over for Mark
as divisional program officer and will handle the meetings planned for Atlanta (Jan. 4-8,
2000) and Chicago (Jan. 3-7, 2001).
There are two additional announcements for the meeting in Denver. First, Aubrey Gorbman
has received the National Science Foundation 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in
Science, Mathematics and Engineering. On January 7, the division will host a reception for
Dr. Gorbman honoring his many accomplishments. Please check the message board at the
meeting for announcements regarding time and location. Second, there will be a dinner to
honor Richard Jones on January 9. The cost of the dinner will be $25. Reservations are
required. Please look for an announcement about this dinner on the registration form. Be
sure to mark the box for the Dick Jones dinner and include your payment with the
registration fee.
It is never too soon to be planning ahead for future meetings. It would be desirable to
formulate plans for symposia and special interest oral presentation sessions for the
Chicago meeting in the next few months. Please convey your ideas to Sunny Boyd.
In the year 2000, the division can look forward to the 4th International Fish
Endocrinology symposium that will be organized by Walt Dickhoff and Penny Swanson and held
in Denver. In addition, the International Congress on Comparative Endocrinology will be
held in Sorrento, Italy in 2001.
With regard to future meetings of the International Congress on Comparative
Endocrinology, the Executive Committee has selected North America as the site for the 2005
meeting. In the spring newsletter, I put out a call for proposals. Boston and Denver have
emerged as two potential sites. Ian Callard and colleagues put together a very complete
proposal for having the meeting in Boston. A "Blue Ribbon Panel" (Howard Bern,
Paul Licht and Walt Dickhoff) unanimously recommended Boston. I also agree that the Boston
team has an excellent set of plans for the 2005 meeting. Ian Callard is moving ahead with
an application to the International Executive Committee, and he will provide us with a
report on the Boston 2005 meeting at our Jan. 9 business meeting at the 1999 SICB Annual
Meeting in Denver.
Finally, at the close of the Denver meeting, Dave Norris will take over as chair of
DCE. Many thanks to everyone for making my term as chair very enjoyable.
Message from the Program Officer
Mark Sheridan
The comparative endocrinology program at the 1999 SICB Annual Meeting in Denver
promises to be an exciting one. Look for contributed papers in both divisional and
interdivisional sessions. Also look for our inaugural "Trends in Endocrinology"
mini-symposium, "Comparative Vertebrate Reproduction" (in honor of Dick Jones),
organized by Dave Norris and Cathy Propper. In addition, our division is sponsoring two
symposia this year: "Endocrine Disrupting Contaminants: From Genes to
Ecosystems," organized by Lou Guillette and Andrew Crain, and "A Tribute to
Erika Plisetskaya: New Insights on the Function and Evolution of Gastroenteropancreatic
Hormones," organized by Mark Sheridan and Stacia Sower. Socials for Dick and Erika
also are planned.
In other business, the SICB Ad Hoc Program Advisory Committee (PAC) has recommended a
society-wide topics-based approach to the programming of contributed papers. PAC feels
that this change will make the program of the Annual Meeting more integrated. This
recommendation is a significant departure from our current divisional-based program. I
will highlight details of the PAC recommendation at our divisional business meeting in
Denver and look forward to your input. See you in Denver!
I would like to begin by reporting the election results held this past spring for
program officer-elect. In a close race, Sunny Boyd narrowly edged out Marcia Loeb for the
position. Congratulations to Sunny Boyd as our new program officer-elect! Worth noting,
however, is that only 16 percent of the DCE membership voted. We need to improve our voter
turnout dramatically. This is a significant issue at a time when we are seeking more
active involvement within our division. If you direct a laboratory, make sure your
graduate student members of SICB know about and participate in the election. If you're a
graduate student, find out the duties for positions under election, perhaps by contacting
one of officers (the SICB web page is an easy way to do this). Basically, when election
time comes, it's time to nudge your colleagues!
A second item is our special thanks to Cathy Propper for organizing the
Western/Southwestern Conference on Comparative Endocrinology, held this past March in
Flagstaff, Ariz. The approximate attendance was about 60 people and 34 talks. David Norris
received the Irving Geschwind Award and gave the Geschwind Memorial Lecture titled
"Environmental Endocrinology: A Perspective From Four Decades." The Northern
Arizona University hosts made everyone feels welcome, and the setting in Flagstaff was
terrific. Helping Cathy to ensure a smoothly run meeting were members of her lab: Loretta
Mayer, Lisa Rania, Sarah Faragher, Daesik Park, Matt Minor, Kim Epand, Anthony Rosales and
Bill Johnson. We look forward to following the progress of many projects while in Denver.
Finally, if you teach a course in general or comparative endocrinology as I do,
information on exceptional resource materials is always valuable. If you have identified a
favorite textbook, lecture demonstrations (slide sets, CD-ROMs, etc.) or laboratory
manuals, please drop me a line via e-mail (ncollie@ttu.edu).
I would like to collate that information for members of our division.