Division of Ecology & Evolution (DEE): 2004 Spring Newsletter
In this newsletter:
Message from the Chair Mary Alice Coffroth, Secretary Michael Temkin and Program Officer Emily Carrington
Greeting from the DEE officers: New Orleans was a great meeting and we would like to thank everyone who helped to make it so. As many of you heard at the meeting, it was one of the largest meetings in recent history. DEE sponsored or co-sponsored two symposia and by all accounts these were very successful.
This year we had thirty-seven students compete for the DEE best paper presentation award and fourteen students compete for the best poster presentation award. As always the judges had a very hard time selecting the winners of the competitions. This year's winner of the best paper presentation was Kelly Lee (Princeton University) for her talk entitled "Sex Influences Immune Responses Differently in the House Sparrow and a Monomorphic Congener, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow." The winner of the best poster presentation was Alexander Cheroske (University of Maryland) for his presentation entitled "'All in favor, say eyeâ': Adaptive color and postural signaling by stomatopod crustaceans in different light environments." Kelly and Alexander each receive an award of $100, a certificate, and our best wishes for continued success in their research endeavors.
We thank all of the DEE members who graciously volunteered to serve as judges for the competitions: Patrick Baker, Marilyn Banta, Lisa Belden, Pat Boily, Rachel Bowden, Dennis Claussen, Mary Alice Coffroth, Brian Eads, Suzanne Edmands, Bobby Espinoza, David Foltz, Jennifer Gee, Jonathan Geller, Allen Gibbs, Michael Horn, John Hranitz, Duncan Irschick, Fred Janzen, Deborah Kristan, John Lighton, Pat Lorch, Cathy McFadden, Scott McWilliams, Donald Miles, Amy Moran, Tony Steyermark, Jonathon Stillman, John Swallow, Bob Thacker, Carl Thurman, Joe Veech, Linda Walters, Martin Wikelski, and Peter Zani.
We are looking forward to an exciting meeting in San Diego next January, where DEE is co-sponsoring four symposia: 1) "Desiccation Tolerance in Animals, Microbes, and Plants: Comparative Mechanisms and Evolution", 2) "The New Microscopy: Toward a Phylogenetic Synthesis", 3) "Mating Systems and Sexual Selection in Hermaphrodites", and 4) "Complex Life-histories in Marine Benthic Invertebrates: A Symposium in Memory of Larry McEdward". For those of us who will present contributed papers in San Diego, we will have an updated list of "topics" to choose from when we submit our abstracts in a few months. The new list should serve ecologists better, and make the tedious process of sorting abstracts run much smoother. Thanks to all for many helpful suggestions!
Looking ahead, the 2006 meeting will be held in Orlando, FL. It's not too soon to start thinking about symposium ideas for that meeting; formal proposals will be due towards the end of summer.
We would like to extend our congratulations to Fred Janzen who is the new chair-elect for DEE. In addition, Sophia Hussain (smhussai@helios.acomp.usf.edu) has agreed to serve as the DEE representative to the Graduate Student and Post-Doc Affairs Committee. Any comments or suggestions for this group, please let Sophia know.
During the coming year we hope to revamp the DEE webpage. Please contact one of the officers with any suggestions or comments.
Division of Ecology and Evolution Business Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order 5:37 pm.
The division officers (Mary Alice Coffroth- President, Emily Carrington - Program Officer, and Michael Temkin Secretary) were introduced at the start of the meeting.
The minutes of the 2003 DEE business meeting were approved.
Mike reported that last years winners of the best student paper and poster competitions were Hannah Stewart (University of California at Berkeley) for her talk entitled "Hydrodynamic consequences of buoyancy versus flexural stiffness in the tropical alga Turbinaria ornata" and Cynthia Lewis (State University of New York at Buffalo) for her poster entitled "Changing horses in midstream: secondary zooxanthellae uptake by the Caribbean octocoral Briareum asbestinum following an experimentally induced bleaching event."
Mike reported that at the New Orleans meeting 51 students are participating in the best student paper and poster competitions. Mike stated that once again the members of the division had responded extremely well to the call for judges. Mike thanked all of the 38 members who are serving as judges for the New Orleans meeting.
Emily thanked Michael Angilletta, Jr. for organizing the symposium on "The evolution of thermal reaction norms for growth rate and body size in ectotherms" and Raymond Huey for organizing the "Bartholomew Award Symposium." These symposia were the only DEE co-sponsored symposia at the New Orleans meeting.
Emily reported that DEE is co-sponsoring the following four symposia at the 2005 meeting in San Diego: 1) "Desiccation Tolerance in Animals, Microbes, and Plants: Comparative Mechanisms and Evolution", 2) "The New Microscopy: Toward a Phylogenetic Synthesis" 3) "Mating Systems and Sexual Selection in Hermaphrodites", and 4) "Complex Life-histories in Marine Benthic Invertebrates: A Symposium in Memory of Larry McEdward."
Looking ahead Emily stated that it was not too soon to plan for symposia for the Orlando 2006 meeting. She reminded the members that symposia proposals for the Orlando meeting are due by August, 2004.
Emily worked with those attending the DEE business meeting to develop new key words for categorizing contributed papers.
Mary Alice reported that the New Orleans meeting was the largest meeting in 10 years with more than 1200 participants.
Mary Alice stated that she had been asked by the Society to discuss several issues with the members of DEE:
- SICB would like to increase international participation - Should SICB hold a meeting in Mexico? Members' responses included: It may be hard for people at small schools to attend and bring students. However, increases in travel costs, may be offset by low hotel and food costs. There was the suggestion that SICB might change the nature of support for students from housing to travel. International students in US may not want/be able to leave US. There was concern that Mexico may have an appropriate venue. It was suggested SICB increase the support for international speakers and also support international attendees. It was suggested that symposia focus on Latin American or Caribbean topics. It was suggested that symposia focus on Theorical and Mathematical Ecology.
- What did people think about the larger program format for meeting schedules and abstracts? DEE members thought that the organization was not good. Members wanted a published event grid and not the purple pages for each data. The schedule of events should be located up front in the program.
- SICB asked for DEE membership input on the journal - Our Editorial Board Representative Dianna Padilla reported that the journal was using consortium editing and that there is no longer a publication back log. Dianna reported that electronic copy of the journal is available through Bio ONE. Unfortunately, SICB does not get any money back from Bio One. Consequently, members need to let their librarian know that journal is important in print form.
- There seemed to be a lack of discussion at talks. Members were asked to suggest ways to simulate discussions. It was suggested that members ask more questions. It was also suggested that session chairs could help stimulate discussion. It was pointed out that for many talks there is not enough time to ask questions or have discussion. It was suggested that talks should be stopped at 18 minutes to that there is time available for questions.
- At the New Orleans meeting there were 1300 abstracts and many concurrent sessions. Mary Alice asked the question, "Should talks be decreased to a total of 15 min talks in order to reduce the number of concurrent sessions from 13 to 10 ?" It was suggested that more established people give fewer oral presentations, allowing students to present since they need the experience of presenting - similar to the guidelines for Society for Evolution. However, many members believed that having prominent people talk at the meeting is important. Shorter talks may work, but question periods are not long enough. Consequently, it was suggested that if the format of shorter talks was adopted then there would need to be more time to meet outside of sessions for discussions. Mary Alice announced that there was a round meeting on "Increasing Diversity in the Society" and that Sophie Hussain was the DEE graduate student representative.
The DEE business meeting was visited by the SICB Executive Committee. The SICB Executive Committee reported that the New Orleans meeting was the largest in 10 years with about 1250 people attending. The Committee stated that they are interested hearing from the membership about any new ideas or initiatives.
Meeting adjourned at 6:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Temkin
DEE Secretary
DEE Candidates for ElectionCandidates for DEE Secretary
John M. Hranitz
Current Position: Assistant Professor; Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Education: B.S., Biology, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 1987; M.S., Biology, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 1989; Ph.D., Biology, Mississippi State University, 1993
Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Central Oklahoma, 1993-1998; Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Central Oklahoma, 1998-2002; Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 2002-Present
SICB Activities: SICB Education Council participant, 1998-2001, 2003-2004; Judge for Best Student Paper Committee, Division of Ecology and Evolution 2001, 2003, 2004.
Other Memberships: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Sigma Xi, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for the Study of Evolution
Research Interests: Ecological genetics, molecular ecology, and physiological ecology; more specifically I, with collaborators, study the reproductive success of collared lizards, the role of heat shock protein 70 in the thermal niche separation of native and introduced solitary bees, and the population genetic structure of pelagic barnacles.
Statement of Goals: When I was introduced to SICB (at that time ASZ) by my masters and doctoral major professors in 1989, the diversity of topics and approaches to conducting science available at the meeting provided an eye-opening experience for me. Later, I realized that this was typical of our society's meetings and the unique role SICB plays in the biological sciences, supporting scientists who use integrative and comparative approaches in biology. Because an active society relies on an engaged membership, I would aid programs of the DEE that maintain the interest of current members, promote student attendance and development, and attract new members. Toward this goal, I would facilitate the activities that DEE members believe will maintain an active DEE membership.
Anthony C. Steyermark
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.
Education: B.S., Saint Joseph's University, 1990; M.S., Ph.D., Drexel University, 1994, 1999.
Professional Experience: Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Science, Engineering and Policy, Drexel University, 1999; Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physiology, UCLA School of Medicine, 1999 - 2002; Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, 2002 - present.
SICB Activities: Diversity Committee, 2003 - present; Session Co - Chair, Contributed Papers in Ecology and Evolution, 2000; Judge for Best Student Paper Committee, Division of Ecology and Evolution, 2000 - 2004.
Other Memberships: American Physiological Society, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Sigma Xi, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Society for the Study of Evolution.
Research Interests: Physiological ecology; metabolic regulation and animal energetics; phenotypic selection; sea turtle conservation (see http://www.stthomas.edu/biol/faculty/asteyermark)
Statement of Goals: As SICB strives to maintain a healthy position in promoting the importance of integrative biology, effective communication with colleagues, potential members, and the public becomes increasingly vital. SICB continues to gain prominence as a biological society, as evidenced through increasing memberships, and efforts and successes in promoting the teaching of evolution in school curricula and in recruiting members from underrepresented groups. These successes can be expanded by continuing to foster an inclusive atmosphere for students through web site initiatives to connect students with potential mentors; advocating DEE goals to non-members and the public at large; encouraging interdisciplinary collaborations among existing and potential DEE members; and creating a forum for a freer exchange of ideas within the division. Many of these goals can be realized through creative web programs and targeted e-mailings. Reaching out to non-SICB colleagues engaged in ecological and evolutionary research, and bringing current members closer together, will make both DEE and SICB stronger as the division and society look toward the future.
Link to officer list on DEE page