SICB newsletter 04-2006


Home	Volume Spring 2006
Contents Message from the President Sarah A. Woodin Message from the Treasurer Ron Dimock Message from the Past Program Officer Catherine Loudon Message from the Secretary Lou Burnett Elections News and Announcements A Personal Account of Hurricane Katrina Committee Reports Divisional Newsletters Animal Behavior (DAB) Comparative Biomechanics (DCB) Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB) Evolutionary Developmental Biology (DEDB) Ecology and Evolution (DEE) Invertebrate Zoology (DIZ) Neurobiology (DNB) Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (DSEB) Vertebrate Morphology (DVM)	View/Download this newsletter in PDF format Division of Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry (DCPB): 2006 Spring Newsletter In this newsletter: Message from the Chair Message from the Program Officer Message from the ICCPB executive committee DCPB representative Message from the Secretary Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative The George A. Bartholomew Award Competition Candidates for Elections Message from the Chair Patrick J. Walsh In this, my first newsletter as DCPB Chair, I want to begin by congratulating all of our members attending the Orlando annual meeting for making it a tremendous success! Despite a brief "cold-snap" that did not dampen our spirits, the quality and diversity of the scientific presentations were very high, and served to reinforce my strong feelings about membership in this society and the DCPB in particular. Nowhere was our strength through diversity more evident than in the competition amongst the student oral and poster presentations. Dave Tapley and his team had their work cut out for them, judging over 60 entrants for the Dorothy M. Skinner awards. In the case of the poster competition, there was a single clearcut winner, so join me in congratulating Nishad Jayasundara of Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory for his presentation: Dorothy M. Skinner Best Poster Award JAYASUNDARA, N.; SPANINGS-PIERROT, C.; TOWLE, D.W.; MDI Bio. Lab., Salsbury Cove, ME; Universite Montpellier, France; MDI Bio. Lab., Salsbury Cove, ME: Salinity-induced changes in isoform-specific Na⁺+K⁺-ATPase gene expression in the European shore crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus. The oral presentation judging resulted in an exact numerical tie for "Best", so we decided what better way to celebrate our success than to give two Dorothy M. Skinner awards for "Outstanding Oral Presentations". Join me in congratulating Joanna Joyner-Matos of the University of Florida and Kenneth Welch of the University of California, Santa Barbara for their outstanding presentations: Dorothy M. Skinner Outstanding Oral Presentation Awards JOYNER-MATOS, J.; CHAPMAN, L. J.; JULIAN, D.; Univ. of Florida, Gainesville; McGill Univ., Montreal; Univ. of Florida, Gainesville: Elevated dissolved oxygen level influences fingernail clam (Sphaerium sp.) stress protein expression and population distribution in a Ugandan papyrus swamp. WELCH, KC; BAKKEN, BH; SUAREZ, RK; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of Wyoming; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara: Use of Dietary Sugar by Hummingbirds as Revealed by Stable Isotope and Respiratory Analysis. Nishad, Joanna and Kenneth all received checks for $100, a certificate of award, a one-year membership renewal to SICB, and a copy of a tribute to Dorothy M. Skinner prepared by Don Mykles that was published in our Spring 2005 newsletter. And one perk of having the meeting in Orlando is that our new awardees, like Super Bowl Champs, could turn to the camera and say: "Next, I'm going to Disneyworld!" I and Past-Chair Donna Wolcott extend a sincere 'thank you' to Dave Tapley and his judges for doing a great job. As you know, the name of the award changes every year, so please feel free to suggest to me or any DCPB officer names that we can honor with the 2007 award. One note from our 2006 business meeting that is related to the above prizes: we voted to approve a bylaw change to allow non-DCPB students to compete for the DCPB Best Paper/Poster Awards. Bartholomew Award I also wish to thank the Bartholomew Award Committee for their hard work in selecting Dr. Jamie Gillooly as this year's recipient. Dr. Gillooly gave a great presentation to a packed room, and I was especially pleased to see that the topic drew significant numbers of SICB members from other Divisions. (See Jamie's Biography below.) For committee service, in particular, I want to thank Drs. Ross Ellington and Steve Hand who are rotating off after their three years of service on this committee, and to welcome new members Drs. Lynn Riddiford (U. Washington) and Katie Gilmour (U. Ottawa) to the Award Committee. At the poster sessions and exhibitor booths I also got the opportunity to meet John Lighton and Robin Turner of Sable Systems for the first time. They have enhanced the Bartholmew Award with their generous support, and I ask you all to give them a special 'tip of the cap' next time you see them. The deadline for applications for the 2007 Bartholomew Award is tentatively set at September 1, 2006. Finally, the scientific program featured a number of interesting and well-attended symposia; I was able to sample talks from all of them, and I particularly enjoyed the Crustacean Genomics and Proteomics session. This symposium, and the many contributed papers using these technologies especially made me realize that the world of biomics is truly upon us and starting to have a major impact on the questions we are able to address as DCPB scientists. My sincere thanks to Kim Hammond and all of the symposium organizers for putting together a great overall program of invited and contributed papers and posters. While the science and camaraderie at the meeting were great, I did hear a few rumblings about the venue itself. Notably, the setup this year was unlike some prior meetings in the downtown core of a large city, where one can easily stroll from the hotel to many restaurants and attractions. Many felt a little 'trapped' and found it hard to venture out. I noted these concerns and will try to voice them when SICB officers are considering future venues. Division Officers Old and New In terms of the annual 'changing of the guard' of some of our Division officers, several terms ended at the Orlando meeting including: Nora Terwilliger's term as Past-Chair, Paul Yancey's term as Secretary, and Donna Wolcott's term as Chair (although she does not quite get off the hook that easily in that she now serves two years as Past-Chair). Please join me in thanking them for their steadfast service. I hope to lean on them extensively to try to maintain continuity in the Division. Donna did an excellent job of keeping the records and duties of the chair up to date, making the transition for myself and for future chairs easy. Last but not least, Joanna Joyner-Matos has agreed to stay on for a second two-year stint as the graduate student/postdoc representative. We are looking forward to her cooperative plan with other Division Reps to organize a workshop on publishing (tentatively entitled: "What Do Editors Want?"). I also wish to remind you that, as part of the reorganization of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Dr. Chuck Booth of Eastern Connecticut State University has been named as the DCPB member of the ICB Editorial Board. Spring Elections We have some important items on the ballot for the Spring elections. First, through the efforts of the nominating committee, Donna Wolcott, Jim Clegg and Harvey Lillywhite, we have a great slate of candidates for Program Officer and Division Chair-Elect. Please see the candidates' bios and statements below, and please vote (it is so easy to do online). Important By-law Changes We also have to vote on an important bylaw change regarding a "self-levy" to allow us to support international meetings (such as the ICCPB in Brazil in 2007) and other activities that tie us to the greater world-wide comparative community. The levy is essentially the cost of one beer per year. (I think it was Lou Burnett who pointed out that actually, it is the cost of a beer at a normal, non-Disney, venue; that is, approximately 0.6 "Disneys" noting that it took 1.0 "Disney" to get you a beer at the Orlando meeting.) Bistro-Mathematics aside, my point is that this is such a small amount, and the money will be well spent. I urge you to vote to approve this bylaw change. I've prattled on long enough. Looking ahead, I hope that you all have a great Spring into Summer/end of school year transition and that your summers are both productive and stress free, enabling you to push the boundaries of your discipline forward, so we can have great interchange again at the 2007 meeting in Phoenix. Proposed By-law changes: Proposed: the following addition (underlined text) to the by-laws under article X. Finances Necessary expenditures of the Division shall be paid from the treasury of the Society within the limits set by the Executive Committee of the Society in the annual budget. Expenditures in support of international societies of which the Division is a member will be paid from an assessment levied annually on Division members, in addition to SICB dues. The amount of the assessment will be determined by the DCPB Executive Committee. Assessment funds will accrue across years, and be managed through the management company, and disbursed with authorization by the Chair, upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the Division. This proposed by-law change is set for a vote during Spring 2006. Message from the Program Officer Kimberly Hammond Orlando: By all accounts we have a great meeting in Orlando this year. We had more than 1200 total members in attendance, which is more than half of our total membership and a very good showing relative to most scientific societies! Congratulations to Dr. James Gillooly (University of Florida) for winning the Bartholomew award and for his talk: "Linking Biological Currencies in Ecology and Evolution". We also really appreciate Stacia Sower's (University of New Hampshire) contribution for this years Bern Lecture "Insight into the Molecular Evolution of Gonadotropin and its Receptor in the Hormonal Regulation of Reproduction" This year's symposiums were very successful. The two society wide symposia were: "Ecological Immunology: Recent Advances and Applications for Conservation and Public Health", by Kelly Lee, Bram Lutton, and Martin Wikelski "Metamorphosis: A Multi-Kingdom Approach" by Andreas Heyland, Jason Hodin, Cory Bishop, and Leonid Moroz The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry also cosponsored three symposia. These were: "Genomic and Proteomic Approaches in Crustacean Biology" by Donald Mykles and David Towle Sponsoring divisions and societies: The Crustacean Society, DCPB, DIZ, and DNB "EcoPhysiology and Conservation: The Contributions of Energetics", by Robert Stevenson Sponsoring divisions: DCPB, DCE, and DEE "Biomechanics and Neuromuscular Control", by Kiisa Nishikawa and Andrew Biewener Sponsoring divisions: DCPB, DVM, and DNB Phoenix: Our next meeting is in Phoenix Arizona. The dates are: January 3-7. We look forward to many great talks and symposia. It is never too soon to start thinking of ideas for symposia for future meetings. The symposia are a good way to introduce new and provocative ideas, or discuss changing themes in research, or revisit and revitalize other areas. Please email me (khammond@ucr.edu) to get started. Other Meetings of interest to our division: Virginia Beach 2006 SICB is co-sponsoring the Comparative Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity Meeting 8-11 October 2006 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. There are many really exciting symposia at these meetings for members of DCPB. The meeting website is: http://www.the-aps.org/meetings/aps/vabeach/ Brazil 2007 DCPB/SICB is co-sponsoring the International Congress for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (ICCPB) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in August 2007. We have been soliciting ideas for symposia at those meetings, and we are hoping many SICB members will plan to attend. Kenya 2008 Steve Morris and Natural Events is setting up the 4th International Conference in Africa for Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry This will be held at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, East Africa. July 19-25: 2008 The meeting website is: <http://www.natural-events.com/mara/> www.natural-events.com/mara Finally, I want to congratulate, on behalf of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry the following graduate student award winners at our 2006 meeting. Grants in aid of research Tara M. Blank University of North Texas Hypoxia-induced plasticity of respiratory development in the blue gourami (Trichogaster trichopterus), an air-breathing fish Dao H. Ho University of North Texas The Effect of Egg-Borne Maternal Cues Specific to Species and Breed on Cardiac Performance in Chicken Embryos Matthew Van Sant University of California Riverside Water regulation of high altitude deer mice. Congratulations for jobs well done! Message from the ICCPB Executive Committee DCPB Representative Lou Burnett Brazil 2007 - 7^th International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry "Integrative Physiology Meets Biodiversity" August 12-16, 2007 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil This ICCPB meeting occurs every four years and is the premier international meeting for comparative physiologists and biochemists throughout the world. Please review the background material for ICCPB below (Roots of the ICCPB). A web site for this meeting is now available at http://www.ib.usp.br/iccpb-brazil/index.html. The program will consist of 40 symposia (32 are presently confirmed) and 5 plenary lectures. Chris Wood of McMaster University will present the opening Knut-Schmidt Nielsen lecture. Other plenary speakers include Nora Terwilliger, a past DCPB chair, Francisco Bozinovic of Chile, Steven Chown of South Africa, and Tristram Wyatt of the United Kingdom. The SICB will be well represented with a strong group of symposia including the following. Nitrogen Metabolism and Excretion in the Face of Environmental Nitrogen Loading (SICB & CSZ) organized by Pat Walsh and Chris Wood. Aromatases, organized by Alan Conley. New Models of Ammonium Transport, organized by David Towle. Behavioral And Digestive Modulation of Environmental Physiology of Aquatic Animals, organized by Iain McGaw and Steve Morris. Genetic and Phenotypic Responses to Hypoxia in the Individual, organized by Karen Burnett, Kim Hammond, Nora Terwilliger and Guido Van den Thillart. Hypoxia as a Selective Force in Populations, organized by Karen Burnett, Kim Hammond, Nora Terwilliger and Guido Van den Thillart Many more symposia on exciting comparative topics are listed on the ICCPB web site. There will be opportunities for travel support so stay tuned. Plan now to attend this important meeting in the late summer of 2007! Roots of the ICCPB The meetings of the International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry sprung out of a desire on the part of the leadership of a number of "comparative" groups to hold international meetings. The formal structure surrounding the group is a Section of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry of the International Union of Biological Sciences. This section is currently a group of 12 societies organized for the promotion of international co-operation in the areas of comparative physiology and biochemistry through symposia, conferences, workshops and any other means. DCPB along with the Canadian Society of Zoologists were the founding members. The main activity of this section is an international congress held approximately every four years and sponsored by one of the member societies. The first such meeting was held in Liege, Belgium in 1984. Subsequent meetings and planned meetings are listed below. 1988 - Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA 1991 - Tokyo, Japan 1995 - Birmingham, England 1999 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2003 - Mt. Buller, Australia 2007 - Salvador, Bahia, Brazil 2011 - Kyoto, Japan The current list of society members includes the following in alphabetical order. American Physiological Society, Comparative Section Australia & New Zealand Society of CPB Canadian Society of Zoologists European Society of CPB German Zoological Society Japanese Society for CPB Russian Physiological Society, Section of Comparative Biochemistry Society de Physiologists Society for Experimental Biology SICB, DCPB South African Society for Zoology South American Society for CPB Message from the Secretary Jonathon H. Stillman Firstly, I am proud to be serving DCPB and SICB in this capacity. I am considering ways improve the newsletter or other aspects of recording and communicating DCPB activities. Both the DCPB and SICB executives have discussed the need to make our online interfaces both more informative and more interactive; and any suggestions are welcomed! Please do not hesitate to contact me: stillmaj@sfsu.edu. Minutes of the DCPB BUSINESS MEETING, JAN 5, 2006, Orlando. Donna Wolcott (Chair) presented the minutes form the DCPB Business meeting in San Diego, January 2005. The minutes were approved unanimously. Donna announced the DCPB Officers that are retiring effective Jan 5, 2006: Paul Yancey (Secretary), Nora Terwilliger (Past Chair), and Donna Wolcott (Chair). Donna then announced Officers beginning new terms effective Jan 5, 2006: Donna Wolcott (Past Chair), Pat Walsh (Chair), and Jonathon Stillman (Secretary). In 2006, DCPB will hold elections for a new chair elect and a new program officer. The chair elect will serve 2 years as chair and 2 years as past chair. The nominees for those positions are presented following this newsletter, and elections will be held during Spring 2006. Donna reported on the Bartholomew Award, which was run by Steve Hand (we thank Steve for the great job he did). Sixteen candidates were considered, and Dr. Jamie Gillooly was selected to receive the 2006 Award. Jamie's bio is at the end of this newsletter. The generous contribution of Sable Systems in support of the Bartholomew Award was acknowledged. Kimberly Hammond, program officer, invited proposals for symposia at the 2007 SICB meeting. Kimberly stressed that we should consider creative means by which to find funds to support these symposia, since it was unlikely that any funds from NSF would be forthcoming. Lou Burnett, SICB secretary and representative to the ICCPB gave a status report on the ICCPB conference "Integrative Physiology Meets Diversity" to be held in Brazil, August 12-16, 2007. Details of ICCPB are above in Lou's message, above. Lou presented that there is a funding problem for the international meetings and proposed the above-mentioned change to the by-laws, under article X. Finances. Lou suggested a $4 assessment, and noted that this assessment was relatively meager and amounted to only 2/3 of a beer at the Orlando venue. Lynne Riddiford suggested that we assess a $10 extra charge for SICB annual meeting registration fees, and bank these funds for future meetings. After some discussion regarding whether or not people could voluntarily give extra for such an assessment, Brett Burk, SICB Executive Director, responded that this would not be an issue. This proposed by-law change is set for a vote during Spring 2006. The SICB Officers stopped by the DCPB Business Meeting at this point and the President, Sally Woodin, introduced the President Elect, John Pearse, as well as the other SICB Officers: Lou Burnett (Secretary), Linda Walters (Program Officer), Ronald Dimock (Treasurer), and the new ICB Editor (Harold Heatwole). Ronald Dimock reported that the 2006 SICB meeting had 1389 registrants. Sally announced a new SICB Division: Comparative Biomechanics. Next on the agenda were the reports of the two DCPB sponsored journals: Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (CBP) and Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (PBZ). Pat Walsh, CBP Editor (and DCPB Chair-Elect!) reported for CBP. In 2005, CBP had 1116 manuscripts submitted (up 200 from 2004), of which 53% were accepted. 1647 different people reviewed papers for CBP in 2005, and these people will be appreciated in the January 2006 issue. Average time for review was 4-8 weeks, and the average time from acceptance to online publication was about four weeks. 2004 impact factors were 1.6 for Parts A and C, and 1.4 for Part B (improvements of impact factors from 1999, which were all 0.9 or lower). CBP has added an online submission system at: http://www.CBPjournal.net CBP will publish 1-2 special issues (e.g., symposia) per year for each Part. Color is free in online (98% of readers access electronically), and price for color figures is negotiable for print. CBP has added a new reviews editor, Göran Nilsson, as well as a new section: Part D, Genomics and Proteomics, which will launch in 2006. The editors for Part D are Dietmar Kultz, Nancy Denslow, and Göran Nilsson. Dietmar is the DCPB associate editor. A Sample plus a free 1-year personal subscription to CBP:D is available on the CBP website. Finally, Pat reported that Elseiver press (publishers of CBP) is a sponsor of the Young Scientist Award. Tim Bradley filled in for Jim Hicks to summarize the year at PBZ. Tim reported that everything is going well, and that the online systems are working fine. New for 2006 is that the cover will now have images related to articles in each issue. PBZ is improving their speed to publication, and the current date on the journal now is about equal to the actual calendar date, an improvement of about 6 months lag when Jim Hicks took over as Editor. New Business presented at the meeting included a proposal by Joanna Joyner-Matos (DCPB Student Representative) for a workshop on "how to publish a paper - what editors want" at the 2007 SICB meeting. Joanna plans to invite journal editors (Pat W. volunteered) to give insight on the publication process aimed for students and postdocs who are new to the publication process. The workshop will be SICB-wide, but Joanna will focus her work on the DCPB aspect. Please feel free to send Joanna feedback to help her develop this workshop. The best student presentation awards for 2006 have been titled the "Dorothy Skinner" award, following tradition of making the award a memorial of an influential DCPB member. See the Message from the Chair, above, for this year's winners. We amended Article XII. Awards A. Best Student Paper Awards by deleting the following sentence: A student who applies must be a member of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. It was thought that students from across SICB should be able to compete if their work was physiology-related. The amendment was moved by Pat Walsh, seconded by Peter DeFur, there was no discussion, no opposition, and the motion passed. Announcements (aside from those summarized above): SICB 2007 will be held in Phoenix, the APS intersociety meeting will be Oct 8-11 2006 in Virginia Beach, and SICB 2008 will be held in San Antonio. Lastly, David Tapley (Student Award judging coordinator) requested that times not be changed when talks are withdrawn because this causes problems with organizing judges. We thank David for all of his hard work organizing the judging. We also thank outgoing secretary Paul Yancey (who took great notes at this meeting!) and Past Chair Nora Terwilliger for her hard work. The meeting convened at 5:15 PM and adjourned at 5:57 PM. Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative Joanna Joyner Matos Hello to all DCPB graduate students and postdocs. I hope you enjoyed the meeting in Orlando! As graduate student representative for DCPB, I am also a member of SICB's Student/ Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC). SPDAC organized a number of activities at the Orlando meeting. I would appreciate any feedback regarding these activities: 1^st Timers Orientation on the first day of the meeting, during which we discussed "How to get the most out of your SICB meeting." Two workshops on the last evening of the meeting, Workshop #1 "Optimizing your graduate school experience." Workshop #2 "Strategies for landing an academic job/postdoc." SPDAC is in the process of planning the workshop at the 2007 meeting in Phoenix. We have tentatively entitled the workshop, "What editors want." We hope to have a panel discussion of editors from various journals followed up by a question-and-answer period. Potential topics of discussion include how to choose the appropriate journal, how to interpret and respond to reviewer comments, and how to write cover letters. If you have any suggestions for discussion topics or journal choices, please contact me! If you are looking for funding opportunities during this semester, you may want to consider the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research. The spring grant deadline is March 15^th. You can find additional information at www.sigmaxi.org. If you have questions or ideas regarding SPDAC's plans for the Phoenix meeting, or other questions for me, please feel free to contact me at jjoyner@zoo.ufl.edu. Good luck with the semester! The George A. Bartholomew Award Competition The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry solicits applications and nominations for the 2007 George A. Bartholomew Award-an annual prize given to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to comparative physiology and biochemistry or to related fields of functional and integrative biology. Past awardees have represented fields as diverse as comparative physiology and biochemistry, functional morphology, comparative endocrinology, physiological ecology, functional genomics, and evolutionary physiology. Eligible candidates are those who have completed their doctorate within the past seven (7) years. Additional information about the award is available on the SICB website (http://www.sicb.org/grants/bartholomew.php3). Candidates may apply directly or be nominated: both types of candidates will be evaluated equivalently. Applicants should submit a short description of their work, three (3) reprints, and a curriculum vita and also request three letters of recommendation. Nominators must arrange for these same materials (except that only two additional letters of recommendation are required) to be submitted to the Committee. All materials should be submitted electronically in .pdf format to the Chair of the Selection Committee, Dr. Katie Gilmour, Department of Biology, University of Ottowa (email address: katie.gilmour@science.uottawa.ca). Deadline for receipt of all materials is Friday, August 25, 2006. The winner will present a Plenary Lecture at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Pheonix. Bartholomew Award Winner: Dr. Jamie Gillooly: Jamie Gillooly received his B. A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan in 1988. Upon graduation, Jamie moved to California to teach environmental education to elementary school students. Soon after, he began to take courses in ecology, and volunteer in the laboratory of Professor George Barlow at the University of California-Berkeley. After this experience, Jamie was hooked. He went on to pursue graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he completed his PhD with Professor Stanley Dodson in 1999 studying the effects of body size and temperature on the ecology of aquatic ectotherms. The enthusiasm and support of Stanley Dodson encouraged Jamie to continue his research. Over the next 5 years, he did so as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Jim Brown at the University of New Mexico. Under the guidance of Jim, as well as Drs. Geoffrey West and Eric Charnov, Jamie worked as part of an interdisciplinary group of scientists investigating how the controls on individual metabolic rate constrain processes at the level of communities and ecosystems. Jamie is now continuing this research as a new assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida. DCPB Elections Candidates for Chair-Elect John R. B. Lighton Born 1952 in South Africa. Obtained a BA at the University of Cape Town in 1975, did freelance writing and photography, and changed the course of his life to study science after researching an article on the Namib desert. After graduating with a B.Sc.(Hons) degree with distinction in zoology, microbiology and biochemistry at UCT, he completed an M.Sc. there under the comparative physiologist Gideon Louw, then left for UCLA where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1987 as George Bartholomew's final student. During his graduate student career he was awarded various prizes and awards, both at UCT and UCLA. John remembers fondly his first SICB (then ASZ) meeting in Denver '84, where he first met Warren Burggren, Martin Feder, Al Bennett, Maggie Ngai, Tim Casey, Jon Harrison, Jenny Fewell, Charlie Ellington and many of the other usual suspects. After completing a Hollaender distinguished postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, he spent 1990 at the University of Z¨rich as a guest professor. He then spent four years building a research program at a university best known for its cold fusion studies. There he published prolifically and was awarded a Packard Fellowship and multiple NSF and NIH grants before moving to UNLV, where as a Visiting Associate Professor he transferred his grants and continued his research. After two years he moved into full-time involvement with Sable Systems International, a company he co-founded in 1987 with George Bartholomew's encouragement, and which first exhibited at the '87 ASZ/SICB annual meeting in New Orleans. Throughout his career he has been inspired and sustained by the rich cross-fertilization of ideas at the ASZ/SICB meetings. He is currently the president of Sable Systems International, which employs ten people in beautiful Las Vegas, NV and was recently given an Export Achievement award by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Sable Systems has sponsored the Bartholomew Award at SICB since its inception. An author of over 70 peer-reviewed papers, John maintains an adjunct post at UNLV and an active research program in the comparative respiratory physiology of arthropods, and acts as a thesis advisor nationally and internationally. He is married to Robbin Turner, General Manager of Sable Systems, and has a nine-year old daughter, Alexandra Grace. Joseph B. Williams Current Position: Associate Professor, Ohio State University Education: 1970, B.A. degree David Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee: 1974, M.A. degree in Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois: 1977, Ph.D. degree in Ecology and Evolution, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois: 1980-1982, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania. Professional Experience: 1976, Visiting Instructor in Biology at University of Illinois. 1977-1979 Assistant Professor, Division of Natural Science, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. 1980-1982, Postdoctoral Fellow University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1982-1986, Associate Professor, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. 1986, Visiting Research Fellow University of Western Australia, Perth,Western Australia. 1986-1989, Research Fellow University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. 1988-1994, C.S.I.R. Fellow University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa. 1994-1998, Assistant Professor Ohio State University. SICB Activities: 9 posters, 12 oral presentations, symposium speaker for SICB symposium "Taking Physiology to the Field". 17 papers published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 1 paper published in Integrative and Comparative Biology. Editorial Board, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. Other memberships: Ecological Society of America, American Ornithologists Union, Cooper Ornithological Society. Research Interests: Members of our group are interested in questions that fall under the rubric of Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology. Adopting an integrated approach in our research program, we investigate how natural selection has fashioned physiological phenotypes to survive and reproduce in a given environment. Our studies span a number of levels of biological organization including genes, organelles such as mitochondria, physiological systems, the whole organism, and life-history evolution. At present we are involved in projects that include an investigation of how birds are adapted to survive some of the harshest deserts in the world, about how differences in the pace of living between tropical and temperate birds are associated with their respective life-history, about how immune function is associated with the pace of living of temperate and tropical birds, and about how Physiological Ecology can be used as a tool in the conservation of endangered ungulates in the deserts of the Middle East. Goals Statement: The SICB has as one of its goals to facilitate "Integrative Biology" among its members. In the DCPB, we have the opportunity to highlight this goal, and to insure that members of our community have the opportunity to exchange ideas with other members in far different fields of endeavor from their own. To facilitate such exchange, I would like to emphasize symposia that address important evolutionary questions covering a diverse array of study animals and systems. In addition, I would like to see a "hot topic" symposium organized each year around questions that appear controversial containing speakers that do not necessarily, in fact preferably, do not agree with each other. By expressing these differences, I think greater insights into biological problems can be obtained. Candidates for Program Officer Martin Grosell Current position: Assistant Professor, Marine Biology and Fisheries, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, FL. 2002-present. Education: 1993 Candidate of Science (M.Sc.), The August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; 1997 Ph.D., The August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Zoophysiological laboratory, August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen 2001-2002; Senior Research Associate, Biology Department, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada 2000-2001; Postdoctoral Fellow, Biology Department, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada 1997-2000; Postdoctoral Fellow, Eco-physiology Department, Odensen University, Denmark, 1998. SICB activities: Member since 2003; a total of 5 platform presentations and 2 posters at SICB meetings in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Other Memberships: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, University of Miami Chapter, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Canadian Society of Zoologists, Society of Experimental Biology. Research Interests: Environmental biology of fish (and aquatic invertebrates) with special emphasis on salt, water and acid-base balance. I employ a comparative approach to understanding how fish maintain homeostasis in normal, as well as extreme and fluctuating environments. In addition to natural environmental parameters, I explore integrative environmental physiology to account for large among-species sensitivity variation to anthropogenic environmental perturbations. Goals statement: A particular goal is to facilitate and co-ordinate the organization of cross-disciplinary sessions while maintaining traditional topical session topics. I would like to see a higher number of students giving platform presentations to ensure as much exposure and feedback as possible for these upcoming scientist. Considering the limitations on time and space already inflicted upon the popular annual SICB meeting I see the goal of more student platform presentations best achieved through interactive poster sessions. During such interactive poster sessions a series of brief platform presentations (5 min each) will be followed by an attended poster session allowing for in depth discussions. Further, I hope to work with session organisers to publish presentations in suited session as special issues in the quality journals in which SICB members traditionally publish. I am looking forward to contributing to the continued success of annual meetings by further improving on an already effective electronic abstract submission system and searchable abstract data base and to contribute to the identification of meeting venues providing the best possible atmosphere for scientific discussions and social interactions Donald L. Mykles Current Position: Professor, Department of Biology and Associate Dean for Graduate Education, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara (1973); Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (1979). Professional Experience: Muscular Dystrophy Association Postdoctoral Fellow (1981-1983); Postdoctoral Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1979-1983); Research Associate, ORNL (1983-1985); Assistant (1985-1988), Associate (1988-1993), Full Professor (1993-), Colorado State University. NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989); Fulbright Scholar and Guest Professor, University of Heidelberg (1991); Fulbright Intercountry Visitor to the U.K. (1991); Associate Editor, The Journal of Experimental Zoology (1994-1999); Distinguished Research Fellow at Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California, Davis (1998); Editorial Board, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 2002-. SICB Activities: Invited speaker in five SICB symposia (co-organizer of two); Judge for DCBP Best Student Paper competitions; DCPB Nominating Committee; and DCE Nominating Committee. Other Memberships: The Crustacean Society; American Microscopical Society; American Association for the Advancement of Science; and Society for Experimental Biology. Research Interests: Regulation of molting and limb regeneration in decapod crustaceans using cellular, biochemical and molecular biological methods. Goals Statement: I have been a member of ASZ/SICB since 1974. The DCPB is a major forum for integrative and comparative biologists nationally and internationally. As Program Officer, I will support and foster symposia and meetings that promote the exchange of ideas and techniques across the broad spectrum of biological diversity and organization. This can be done in conjunction with other divisions in SICB, as well as with comparative biochemistry and physiology societies in other nations. DCPB should continue its involvement with the International Union of Physiological Scientists and the International Union of Biological Scientists in organizing international meetings. Programming should continue to encourage the full participation of students and postdoctoral fellows at the annual meetings. Link to officer list on DCPB page

Home

Volume Spring 2006

Contents

Message from the President
Sarah A. Woodin

Message from the Treasurer
Ron Dimock

Message from the Past Program Officer
Catherine Loudon

Message from the Secretary
Lou Burnett

Elections

News and Announcements
A Personal Account of Hurricane Katrina

Committee Reports

Divisional Newsletters

Animal Behavior (DAB)

Comparative Biomechanics (DCB)

Comparative Endocrinology (DCE)

Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB)

Evolutionary Developmental Biology (DEDB)

Ecology and Evolution (DEE)

Invertebrate Zoology (DIZ)

Neurobiology (DNB)

Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (DSEB)

Vertebrate Morphology (DVM)

View/Download this newsletter in PDF format

Division of Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry (DCPB): 2006 Spring Newsletter
In this newsletter:

Message from the Chair

Message from the Program Officer

Message from the ICCPB executive committee DCPB representative

Message from the Secretary

Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative

The George A. Bartholomew Award Competition

Candidates for Elections

Message from the Chair

Patrick J. Walsh

In this, my first newsletter as DCPB Chair, I want to begin by congratulating all of our members attending the Orlando annual meeting for making it a tremendous success! Despite a brief "cold-snap" that did not dampen our spirits, the quality and diversity of the scientific presentations were very high, and served to reinforce my strong feelings about membership in this society and the DCPB in particular. Nowhere was our strength through diversity more evident than in the competition amongst the student oral and poster presentations. Dave Tapley and his team had their work cut out for them, judging over 60 entrants for the Dorothy M. Skinner awards. In the case of the poster competition, there was a single clearcut winner, so join me in congratulating Nishad Jayasundara of Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory for his presentation:

Dorothy M. Skinner Best Poster Award

JAYASUNDARA, N.; SPANINGS-PIERROT, C.; TOWLE, D.W.; MDI Bio. Lab., Salsbury Cove, ME; Universite Montpellier, France; MDI Bio. Lab., Salsbury Cove, ME: Salinity-induced changes in isoform-specific Na⁺+K⁺-ATPase gene expression in the European shore crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus.

The oral presentation judging resulted in an exact numerical tie for "Best", so we decided what better way to celebrate our success than to give two Dorothy M. Skinner awards for "Outstanding Oral Presentations". Join me in congratulating Joanna Joyner-Matos of the University of Florida and Kenneth Welch of the University of California, Santa Barbara for their outstanding presentations:

Dorothy M. Skinner Outstanding Oral Presentation Awards

JOYNER-MATOS, J.; CHAPMAN, L. J.; JULIAN, D.; Univ. of Florida, Gainesville; McGill Univ., Montreal; Univ. of Florida, Gainesville: Elevated dissolved oxygen level influences fingernail clam (Sphaerium sp.) stress protein expression and population distribution in a Ugandan papyrus swamp.

WELCH, KC; BAKKEN, BH; SUAREZ, RK; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of Wyoming; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara: Use of Dietary Sugar by Hummingbirds as Revealed by Stable Isotope and Respiratory Analysis.

Nishad, Joanna and Kenneth all received checks for $100, a certificate of award, a one-year membership renewal to SICB, and a copy of a tribute to Dorothy M. Skinner prepared by Don Mykles that was published in our Spring 2005 newsletter. And one perk of having the meeting in Orlando is that our new awardees, like Super Bowl Champs, could turn to the camera and say: "Next, I'm going to Disneyworld!"

I and Past-Chair Donna Wolcott extend a sincere 'thank you' to Dave Tapley and his judges for doing a great job. As you know, the name of the award changes every year, so please feel free to suggest to me or any DCPB officer names that we can honor with the 2007 award.

One note from our 2006 business meeting that is related to the above prizes: we voted to approve a bylaw change to allow non-DCPB students to compete for the DCPB Best Paper/Poster Awards.

Bartholomew Award

I also wish to thank the Bartholomew Award Committee for their hard work in selecting Dr. Jamie Gillooly as this year's recipient. Dr. Gillooly gave a great presentation to a packed room, and I was especially pleased to see that the topic drew significant numbers of SICB members from other Divisions. (See Jamie's Biography below.) For committee service, in particular, I want to thank Drs. Ross Ellington and Steve Hand who are rotating off after their three years of service on this committee, and to welcome new members Drs. Lynn Riddiford (U. Washington) and Katie Gilmour (U. Ottawa) to the Award Committee. At the poster sessions and exhibitor booths I also got the opportunity to meet John Lighton and Robin Turner of Sable Systems for the first time. They have enhanced the Bartholmew Award with their generous support, and I ask you all to give them a special 'tip of the cap' next time you see them. The deadline for applications for the 2007 Bartholomew Award is tentatively set at September 1, 2006.

Finally, the scientific program featured a number of interesting and well-attended symposia; I was able to sample talks from all of them, and I particularly enjoyed the Crustacean Genomics and Proteomics session. This symposium, and the many contributed papers using these technologies especially made me realize that the world of biomics is truly upon us and starting to have a major impact on the questions we are able to address as DCPB scientists. My sincere thanks to Kim Hammond and all of the symposium organizers for putting together a great overall program of invited and contributed papers and posters.

While the science and camaraderie at the meeting were great, I did hear a few rumblings about the venue itself. Notably, the setup this year was unlike some prior meetings in the downtown core of a large city, where one can easily stroll from the hotel to many restaurants and attractions. Many felt a little 'trapped' and found it hard to venture out. I noted these concerns and will try to voice them when SICB officers are considering future venues.

Division Officers Old and New

In terms of the annual 'changing of the guard' of some of our Division officers, several terms ended at the Orlando meeting including: Nora Terwilliger's term as Past-Chair, Paul Yancey's term as Secretary, and Donna Wolcott's term as Chair (although she does not quite get off the hook that easily in that she now serves two years as Past-Chair). Please join me in thanking them for their steadfast service. I hope to lean on them extensively to try to maintain continuity in the Division. Donna did an excellent job of keeping the records and duties of the chair up to date, making the transition for myself and for future chairs easy. Last but not least, Joanna Joyner-Matos has agreed to stay on for a second two-year stint as the graduate student/postdoc representative. We are looking forward to her cooperative plan with other Division Reps to organize a workshop on publishing (tentatively entitled: "What Do Editors Want?"). I also wish to remind you that, as part of the reorganization of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Dr. Chuck Booth of Eastern Connecticut State University has been named as the DCPB member of the ICB Editorial Board.

Spring Elections

We have some important items on the ballot for the Spring elections. First, through the efforts of the nominating committee, Donna Wolcott, Jim Clegg and Harvey Lillywhite, we have a great slate of candidates for Program Officer and Division Chair-Elect. Please see the candidates' bios and statements below, and please vote (it is so easy to do online).

Important By-law Changes

We also have to vote on an important bylaw change regarding a "self-levy" to allow us to support international meetings (such as the ICCPB in Brazil in 2007) and other activities that tie us to the greater world-wide comparative community. The levy is essentially the cost of one beer per year. (I think it was Lou Burnett who pointed out that actually, it is the cost of a beer at a normal, non-Disney, venue; that is, approximately 0.6 "Disneys" noting that it took 1.0 "Disney" to get you a beer at the Orlando meeting.) Bistro-Mathematics aside, my point is that this is such a small amount, and the money will be well spent. I urge you to vote to approve this bylaw change.

I've prattled on long enough. Looking ahead, I hope that you all have a great Spring into Summer/end of school year transition and that your summers are both productive and stress free, enabling you to push the boundaries of your discipline forward, so we can have great interchange again at the 2007 meeting in Phoenix.

Proposed By-law changes:

Proposed: the following addition (underlined text) to the by-laws under article X. Finances

Necessary expenditures of the Division shall be paid from the treasury of the Society within the limits set by the Executive Committee of the Society in the annual budget. Expenditures in support of international societies of which the Division is a member will be paid from an assessment levied annually on Division members, in addition to SICB dues. The amount of the assessment will be determined by the DCPB Executive Committee. Assessment funds will accrue across years, and be managed through the management company, and disbursed with authorization by the Chair, upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the Division.

This proposed by-law change is set for a vote during Spring 2006.

Message from the Program Officer

Kimberly Hammond

Orlando:

By all accounts we have a great meeting in Orlando this year. We had more than 1200 total members in attendance, which is more than half of our total membership and a very good showing relative to most scientific societies!

Congratulations to Dr. James Gillooly (University of Florida) for winning the Bartholomew award and for his talk: "Linking Biological Currencies in Ecology and Evolution". We also really appreciate Stacia Sower's (University of New Hampshire) contribution for this years Bern Lecture "Insight into the Molecular Evolution of Gonadotropin and its Receptor in the Hormonal Regulation of Reproduction"

This year's symposiums were very successful. The two society wide symposia were:

"Ecological Immunology: Recent Advances and Applications for Conservation and Public Health", by Kelly Lee, Bram Lutton, and Martin Wikelski

"Metamorphosis: A Multi-Kingdom Approach" by Andreas Heyland, Jason Hodin, Cory Bishop, and Leonid Moroz

The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry also cosponsored three symposia. These were:

"Genomic and Proteomic Approaches in Crustacean Biology" by Donald Mykles and David Towle

Sponsoring divisions and societies: The Crustacean Society, DCPB, DIZ, and DNB

"EcoPhysiology and Conservation: The Contributions of Energetics", by Robert Stevenson

Sponsoring divisions: DCPB, DCE, and DEE

"Biomechanics and Neuromuscular Control", by Kiisa Nishikawa and Andrew Biewener

Sponsoring divisions: DCPB, DVM, and DNB

Phoenix: Our next meeting is in Phoenix Arizona. The dates are: January 3-7. We look forward to many great talks and symposia.

It is never too soon to start thinking of ideas for symposia for future meetings. The symposia are a good way to introduce new and provocative ideas, or discuss changing themes in research, or revisit and revitalize other areas. Please email me (khammond@ucr.edu) to get started.

Other Meetings of interest to our division:

Virginia Beach 2006

SICB is co-sponsoring the Comparative Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity Meeting 8-11 October 2006 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. There are many really exciting symposia at these meetings for members of DCPB.

The meeting website is: http://www.the-aps.org/meetings/aps/vabeach/

Brazil 2007

DCPB/SICB is co-sponsoring the International Congress for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (ICCPB) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in August 2007. We have been soliciting ideas for symposia at those meetings, and we are hoping many SICB members will plan to attend.

Kenya 2008

Steve Morris and Natural Events is setting up the 4th International Conference in Africa for Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry

This will be held at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, East Africa. July 19-25: 2008

The meeting website is: <http://www.natural-events.com/mara/> www.natural-events.com/mara

Finally, I want to congratulate, on behalf of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry the following graduate student award winners at our 2006 meeting.

Grants in aid of research

Tara M. Blank University of North Texas Hypoxia-induced plasticity of respiratory development in the blue gourami (Trichogaster trichopterus), an air-breathing fish

Dao H. Ho University of North Texas The Effect of Egg-Borne Maternal Cues Specific to Species and Breed on Cardiac Performance in Chicken Embryos

Matthew Van Sant University of California Riverside Water regulation of high altitude deer mice.

Congratulations for jobs well done!

Message from the ICCPB Executive Committee DCPB Representative

Lou Burnett

Brazil 2007 - 7^th International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry

"Integrative Physiology Meets Biodiversity"

August 12-16, 2007 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

This ICCPB meeting occurs every four years and is the premier international meeting for comparative physiologists and biochemists throughout the world. Please review the background material for ICCPB below (Roots of the ICCPB). A web site for this meeting is now available at http://www.ib.usp.br/iccpb-brazil/index.html. The program will consist of 40 symposia (32 are presently confirmed) and 5 plenary lectures. Chris Wood of McMaster University will present the opening Knut-Schmidt Nielsen lecture. Other plenary speakers include Nora Terwilliger, a past DCPB chair, Francisco Bozinovic of Chile, Steven Chown of South Africa, and Tristram Wyatt of the United Kingdom. The SICB will be well represented with a strong group of symposia including the following.

Nitrogen Metabolism and Excretion in the Face of Environmental Nitrogen Loading (SICB & CSZ) organized by Pat Walsh and Chris Wood.

Aromatases, organized by Alan Conley.

New Models of Ammonium Transport, organized by David Towle.

Behavioral And Digestive Modulation of Environmental Physiology of Aquatic Animals, organized by Iain McGaw and Steve Morris.

Genetic and Phenotypic Responses to Hypoxia in the Individual, organized by Karen Burnett, Kim Hammond, Nora Terwilliger and Guido Van den Thillart.

Hypoxia as a Selective Force in Populations, organized by Karen Burnett, Kim Hammond, Nora Terwilliger and Guido Van den Thillart

Many more symposia on exciting comparative topics are listed on the ICCPB web site. There will be opportunities for travel support so stay tuned. Plan now to attend this important meeting in the late summer of 2007!

Roots of the ICCPB

The meetings of the International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry sprung out of a desire on the part of the leadership of a number of "comparative" groups to hold international meetings.

The formal structure surrounding the group is a Section of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry of the International Union of Biological Sciences. This section is currently a group of 12 societies organized for the promotion of international co-operation in the areas of comparative physiology and biochemistry through symposia, conferences, workshops and any other means. DCPB along with the Canadian Society of Zoologists were the founding members.

The main activity of this section is an international congress held approximately every four years and sponsored by one of the member societies. The first such meeting was held in Liege, Belgium in 1984. Subsequent meetings and planned meetings are listed below.

1988 - Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
1991 - Tokyo, Japan
1995 - Birmingham, England
1999 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2003 - Mt. Buller, Australia
2007 - Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
2011 - Kyoto, Japan

The current list of society members includes the following in alphabetical order.

American Physiological Society, Comparative Section

Australia & New Zealand Society of CPB

Canadian Society of Zoologists

European Society of CPB

German Zoological Society

Japanese Society for CPB

Russian Physiological Society, Section of Comparative Biochemistry

Society de Physiologists

Society for Experimental Biology

SICB, DCPB

South African Society for Zoology

South American Society for CPB

Message from the Secretary

Jonathon H. Stillman

Firstly, I am proud to be serving DCPB and SICB in this capacity. I am considering ways improve the newsletter or other aspects of recording and communicating DCPB activities. Both the DCPB and SICB executives have discussed the need to make our online interfaces both more informative and more interactive; and any suggestions are welcomed! Please do not hesitate to contact me: stillmaj@sfsu.edu.

Minutes of the DCPB BUSINESS MEETING, JAN 5, 2006, Orlando.

Donna Wolcott (Chair) presented the minutes form the DCPB Business meeting in San Diego, January 2005. The minutes were approved unanimously. Donna announced the DCPB Officers that are retiring effective Jan 5, 2006: Paul Yancey (Secretary), Nora Terwilliger (Past Chair), and Donna Wolcott (Chair). Donna then announced Officers beginning new terms effective Jan 5, 2006: Donna Wolcott (Past Chair), Pat Walsh (Chair), and Jonathon Stillman (Secretary). In 2006, DCPB will hold elections for a new chair elect and a new program officer. The chair elect will serve 2 years as chair and 2 years as past chair. The nominees for those positions are presented following this newsletter, and elections will be held during Spring 2006.

Donna reported on the Bartholomew Award, which was run by Steve Hand (we thank Steve for the great job he did). Sixteen candidates were considered, and Dr. Jamie Gillooly was selected to receive the 2006 Award. Jamie's bio is at the end of this newsletter. The generous contribution of Sable Systems in support of the Bartholomew Award was acknowledged.

Kimberly Hammond, program officer, invited proposals for symposia at the 2007 SICB meeting. Kimberly stressed that we should consider creative means by which to find funds to support these symposia, since it was unlikely that any funds from NSF would be forthcoming.

Lou Burnett, SICB secretary and representative to the ICCPB gave a status report on the ICCPB conference "Integrative Physiology Meets Diversity" to be held in Brazil, August 12-16, 2007. Details of ICCPB are above in Lou's message, above.

Lou presented that there is a funding problem for the international meetings and proposed the above-mentioned change to the by-laws, under article X. Finances. Lou suggested a $4 assessment, and noted that this assessment was relatively meager and amounted to only 2/3 of a beer at the Orlando venue. Lynne Riddiford suggested that we assess a $10 extra charge for SICB annual meeting registration fees, and bank these funds for future meetings. After some discussion regarding whether or not people could voluntarily give extra for such an assessment, Brett Burk, SICB Executive Director, responded that this would not be an issue. This proposed by-law change is set for a vote during Spring 2006.

The SICB Officers stopped by the DCPB Business Meeting at this point and the President, Sally Woodin, introduced the President Elect, John Pearse, as well as the other SICB Officers: Lou Burnett (Secretary), Linda Walters (Program Officer), Ronald Dimock (Treasurer), and the new ICB Editor (Harold Heatwole). Ronald Dimock reported that the 2006 SICB meeting had 1389 registrants. Sally announced a new SICB Division: Comparative Biomechanics.

Next on the agenda were the reports of the two DCPB sponsored journals: Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (CBP) and Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (PBZ). Pat Walsh, CBP Editor (and DCPB Chair-Elect!) reported for CBP. In 2005, CBP had 1116 manuscripts submitted (up 200 from 2004), of which 53% were accepted. 1647 different people reviewed papers for CBP in 2005, and these people will be appreciated in the January 2006 issue. Average time for review was 4-8 weeks, and the average time from acceptance to online publication was about four weeks. 2004 impact factors were 1.6 for Parts A and C, and 1.4 for Part B (improvements of impact factors from 1999, which were all 0.9 or lower). CBP has added an online submission system at:
http://www.CBPjournal.net

CBP will publish 1-2 special issues (e.g., symposia) per year for each Part. Color is free in online (98% of readers access electronically), and price for color figures is negotiable for print.

CBP has added a new reviews editor, Göran Nilsson, as well as a new section: Part D, Genomics and Proteomics, which will launch in 2006. The editors for Part D are Dietmar Kultz, Nancy Denslow, and Göran Nilsson. Dietmar is the DCPB associate editor. A Sample plus a free 1-year personal subscription to CBP:D is available on the CBP website. Finally, Pat reported that Elseiver press (publishers of CBP) is a sponsor of the Young Scientist Award.

Tim Bradley filled in for Jim Hicks to summarize the year at PBZ. Tim reported that everything is going well, and that the online systems are working fine. New for 2006 is that the cover will now have images related to articles in each issue. PBZ is improving their speed to publication, and the current date on the journal now is about equal to the actual calendar date, an improvement of about 6 months lag when Jim Hicks took over as Editor.

New Business presented at the meeting included a proposal by Joanna Joyner-Matos (DCPB Student Representative) for a workshop on "how to publish a paper - what editors want" at the 2007 SICB meeting. Joanna plans to invite journal editors (Pat W. volunteered) to give insight on the publication process aimed for students and postdocs who are new to the publication process. The workshop will be SICB-wide, but Joanna will focus her work on the DCPB aspect. Please feel free to send Joanna feedback to help her develop this workshop.

The best student presentation awards for 2006 have been titled the "Dorothy Skinner" award, following tradition of making the award a memorial of an influential DCPB member. See the Message from the Chair, above, for this year's winners. We amended Article XII. Awards A. Best Student Paper Awards by deleting the following sentence: A student who applies must be a member of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. It was thought that students from across SICB should be able to compete if their work was physiology-related. The amendment was moved by Pat Walsh, seconded by Peter DeFur, there was no discussion, no opposition, and the motion passed.

Announcements (aside from those summarized above):

SICB 2007 will be held in Phoenix, the APS intersociety meeting will be Oct 8-11 2006 in Virginia Beach, and SICB 2008 will be held in San Antonio.

Lastly, David Tapley (Student Award judging coordinator) requested that times not be changed when talks are withdrawn because this causes problems with organizing judges. We thank David for all of his hard work organizing the judging. We also thank outgoing secretary Paul Yancey (who took great notes at this meeting!) and Past Chair Nora Terwilliger for her hard work.

The meeting convened at 5:15 PM and adjourned at 5:57 PM.

Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative

Joanna Joyner Matos

Hello to all DCPB graduate students and postdocs. I hope you enjoyed the meeting in Orlando!

As graduate student representative for DCPB, I am also a member of SICB's Student/ Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC). SPDAC organized a number of activities at the Orlando meeting. I would appreciate any feedback regarding these activities:

1^st Timers Orientation on the first day of the meeting, during which we discussed "How to get the most out of your SICB meeting."

Two workshops on the last evening of the meeting,

Workshop #1 "Optimizing your graduate school experience."

Workshop #2 "Strategies for landing an academic job/postdoc."

SPDAC is in the process of planning the workshop at the 2007 meeting in Phoenix. We have tentatively entitled the workshop, "What editors want." We hope to have a panel discussion of editors from various journals followed up by a question-and-answer period. Potential topics of discussion include how to choose the appropriate journal, how to interpret and respond to reviewer comments, and how to write cover letters. If you have any suggestions for discussion topics or journal choices, please contact me!

If you are looking for funding opportunities during this semester, you may want to consider the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research. The spring grant deadline is March 15^th. You can find additional information at www.sigmaxi.org.

If you have questions or ideas regarding SPDAC's plans for the Phoenix meeting, or other questions for me, please feel free to contact me at jjoyner@zoo.ufl.edu. Good luck with the semester!

The George A. Bartholomew Award Competition

The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry solicits applications and nominations for the 2007 George A. Bartholomew Award-an annual prize given to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to comparative physiology and biochemistry or to related fields of functional and integrative biology. Past awardees have represented fields as diverse as comparative physiology and biochemistry, functional morphology, comparative endocrinology, physiological ecology, functional genomics, and evolutionary physiology. Eligible candidates are those who have completed their doctorate within the past seven (7) years. Additional information about the award is available on the SICB website (http://www.sicb.org/grants/bartholomew.php3). Candidates may apply directly or be nominated: both types of candidates will be evaluated equivalently. Applicants should submit a short description of their work, three (3) reprints, and a curriculum vita and also request three letters of recommendation. Nominators must arrange for these same materials (except that only two additional letters of recommendation are required) to be submitted to the Committee. All materials should be submitted electronically in .pdf format to the Chair of the Selection Committee, Dr. Katie Gilmour, Department of Biology, University of Ottowa (email address: katie.gilmour@science.uottawa.ca). Deadline for receipt of all materials is Friday, August 25, 2006. The winner will present a Plenary Lecture at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Pheonix.

Bartholomew Award Winner: Dr. Jamie Gillooly:

Jamie Gillooly received his B. A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan in 1988. Upon graduation, Jamie moved to California to teach environmental education to elementary school students. Soon after, he began to take courses in ecology, and volunteer in the laboratory of Professor George Barlow at the University of California-Berkeley. After this experience, Jamie was hooked. He went on to pursue graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he completed his PhD with Professor Stanley Dodson in 1999 studying the effects of body size and temperature on the ecology of aquatic ectotherms. The enthusiasm and support of Stanley Dodson encouraged Jamie to continue his research. Over the next 5 years, he did so as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Jim Brown at the University of New Mexico. Under the guidance of Jim, as well as Drs. Geoffrey West and Eric Charnov, Jamie worked as part of an interdisciplinary group of scientists investigating how the controls on individual metabolic rate constrain processes at the level of communities and ecosystems. Jamie is now continuing this research as a new assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida.

DCPB Elections

Candidates for Chair-Elect

John R. B. Lighton

Born 1952 in South Africa. Obtained a BA at the University of Cape Town in 1975, did freelance writing and photography, and changed the course of his life to study science after researching an article on the Namib desert. After graduating with a B.Sc.(Hons) degree with distinction in zoology, microbiology and biochemistry at UCT, he completed an M.Sc. there under the comparative physiologist Gideon Louw, then left for UCLA where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1987 as George Bartholomew's final student. During his graduate student career he was awarded various prizes and awards, both at UCT and UCLA. John remembers fondly his first SICB (then ASZ) meeting in Denver '84, where he first met Warren Burggren, Martin Feder, Al Bennett, Maggie Ngai, Tim Casey, Jon Harrison, Jenny Fewell, Charlie Ellington and many of the other usual suspects. After completing a Hollaender distinguished postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, he spent 1990 at the University of Z¨rich as a guest professor. He then spent four years building a research program at a university best known for its cold fusion studies. There he published prolifically and was awarded a Packard Fellowship and multiple NSF and NIH grants before moving to UNLV, where as a Visiting Associate Professor he transferred his grants and continued his research. After two years he moved into full-time involvement with Sable Systems International, a company he co-founded in 1987 with George Bartholomew's encouragement, and which first exhibited at the '87 ASZ/SICB annual meeting in New Orleans. Throughout his career he has been inspired and sustained by the rich cross-fertilization of ideas at the ASZ/SICB meetings. He is currently the president of Sable Systems International, which employs ten people in beautiful Las Vegas, NV and was recently given an Export Achievement award by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Sable Systems has sponsored the Bartholomew Award at SICB since its inception. An author of over 70 peer-reviewed papers, John maintains an adjunct post at UNLV and an active research program in the comparative respiratory physiology of arthropods, and acts as a thesis advisor nationally and internationally. He is married to Robbin Turner, General Manager of Sable Systems, and has a nine-year old daughter, Alexandra Grace.

Joseph B. Williams

Current Position: Associate Professor, Ohio State University

Education: 1970, B.A. degree David Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee: 1974, M.A. degree in Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois: 1977, Ph.D. degree in Ecology and Evolution, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois: 1980-1982, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania.

Professional Experience: 1976, Visiting Instructor in Biology at University of Illinois. 1977-1979 Assistant Professor, Division of Natural Science, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. 1980-1982, Postdoctoral Fellow University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1982-1986, Associate Professor, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. 1986, Visiting Research Fellow University of Western Australia, Perth,Western Australia. 1986-1989, Research Fellow University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. 1988-1994, C.S.I.R. Fellow University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa. 1994-1998, Assistant Professor Ohio State University.

SICB Activities: 9 posters, 12 oral presentations, symposium speaker for SICB symposium "Taking Physiology to the Field". 17 papers published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 1 paper published in Integrative and Comparative Biology. Editorial Board, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Other memberships: Ecological Society of America, American Ornithologists Union,

Cooper Ornithological Society.

Research Interests: Members of our group are interested in questions that fall under the rubric of Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology. Adopting an integrated approach in our research program, we investigate how natural selection has fashioned physiological phenotypes to survive and reproduce in a given environment. Our studies span a number of levels of biological organization including genes, organelles such as mitochondria, physiological systems, the whole organism, and life-history evolution. At present we are involved in projects that include an investigation of how birds are adapted to survive some of the harshest deserts in the world, about how differences in the pace of living between tropical and temperate birds are associated with their respective life-history, about how immune function is associated with the pace of living of temperate and tropical birds, and about how Physiological Ecology can be used as a tool in the conservation of endangered ungulates in the deserts of the Middle East.

Goals Statement: The SICB has as one of its goals to facilitate "Integrative Biology" among its members. In the DCPB, we have the opportunity to highlight this goal, and to insure that members of our community have the opportunity to exchange ideas with other members in far different fields of endeavor from their own. To facilitate such exchange, I would like to emphasize symposia that address important evolutionary questions covering a diverse array of study animals and systems. In addition, I would like to see a "hot topic" symposium organized each year around questions that appear controversial containing speakers that do not necessarily, in fact preferably, do not agree with each other. By expressing these differences, I think greater insights into biological problems can be obtained.

Candidates for Program Officer

Martin Grosell

Current position: Assistant Professor, Marine Biology and Fisheries, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, FL. 2002-present.

Education: 1993 Candidate of Science (M.Sc.), The August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; 1997 Ph.D., The August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Zoophysiological laboratory, August Krogh Institute, University of Copenhagen 2001-2002; Senior Research Associate, Biology Department, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada 2000-2001; Postdoctoral Fellow, Biology Department, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada 1997-2000; Postdoctoral Fellow, Eco-physiology Department, Odensen University, Denmark, 1998.

SICB activities: Member since 2003; a total of 5 platform presentations and 2 posters at SICB meetings in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

Other Memberships: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, University of Miami Chapter, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Canadian Society of Zoologists, Society of Experimental Biology.

Research Interests: Environmental biology of fish (and aquatic invertebrates) with special emphasis on salt, water and acid-base balance. I employ a comparative approach to understanding how fish maintain homeostasis in normal, as well as extreme and fluctuating environments. In addition to natural environmental parameters, I explore integrative environmental physiology to account for large among-species sensitivity variation to anthropogenic environmental perturbations.

Goals statement: A particular goal is to facilitate and co-ordinate the organization of cross-disciplinary sessions while maintaining traditional topical session topics. I would like to see a higher number of students giving platform presentations to ensure as much exposure and feedback as possible for these upcoming scientist. Considering the limitations on time and space already inflicted upon the popular annual SICB meeting I see the goal of more student platform presentations best achieved through interactive poster sessions. During such interactive poster sessions a series of brief platform presentations (5 min each) will be followed by an attended poster session allowing for in depth discussions. Further, I hope to work with session organisers to publish presentations in suited session as special issues in the quality journals in which SICB members traditionally publish. I am looking forward to contributing to the continued success of annual meetings by further improving on an already effective electronic abstract submission system and searchable abstract data base and to contribute to the identification of meeting venues providing the best possible atmosphere for scientific discussions and social interactions

Donald L. Mykles

Current Position: Professor, Department of Biology and Associate Dean for Graduate Education, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara (1973); Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (1979).

Professional Experience: Muscular Dystrophy Association Postdoctoral Fellow (1981-1983); Postdoctoral Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1979-1983); Research Associate, ORNL (1983-1985); Assistant (1985-1988), Associate (1988-1993), Full Professor (1993-), Colorado State University. NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989); Fulbright Scholar and Guest Professor, University of Heidelberg (1991); Fulbright Intercountry Visitor to the U.K. (1991); Associate Editor, The Journal of Experimental Zoology (1994-1999); Distinguished Research Fellow at Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California, Davis (1998); Editorial Board, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 2002-.

SICB Activities: Invited speaker in five SICB symposia (co-organizer of two); Judge for DCBP Best Student Paper competitions; DCPB Nominating Committee; and DCE Nominating Committee.

Other Memberships: The Crustacean Society; American Microscopical Society; American Association for the Advancement of Science; and Society for Experimental Biology.

Research Interests: Regulation of molting and limb regeneration in decapod crustaceans using cellular, biochemical and molecular biological methods.

Goals Statement: I have been a member of ASZ/SICB since 1974. The DCPB is a major forum for integrative and comparative biologists nationally and internationally. As Program Officer, I will support and foster symposia and meetings that promote the exchange of ideas and techniques across the broad spectrum of biological diversity and organization. This can be done in conjunction with other divisions in SICB, as well as with comparative biochemistry and physiology societies in other nations. DCPB should continue its involvement with the International Union of Physiological Scientists and the International Union of Biological Scientists in organizing international meetings. Programming should continue to encourage the full participation of students and postdoctoral fellows at the annual meetings.

Link to officer list on DCPB page