HomeVolume Fall 2007

Committee Reports







Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee

Larry Riley, Chair

Hi everyone, I am the new chair of the Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee. If this is going to be the first meeting you have attended I know how you feel. My first conference was the SICB meeting held in Albuquerque, NM in 1996. I was nervous, yet excited, and it turned out to be a great experience. Now, I am glad that I can give back (that is so cliché, but true) to a Society that really focuses on helping young scientists achieve their goals.

The committee (composed of graduate student and post-docs) and I have developed this year's student/post-doc workshop "I Have a Great Idea, But Who Will Fund Me: How to Write a Grant." The workshop will consist of a panel of granting agency Program Directors and faculty review panelists. The workshop will focus on 1) selecting the most appropriate agency to submit your proposal; 2) tips on how to write a strong and convincing proposal; 3) key ingredients to be included in a grant proposal; 4) developing an appropriate budget, etc... We believe that this will be a very helpful and informative workshop since we all need to secure funding to conduct our research endeavors.

Some background on me: I earned my master's in biology from California State University at Fresno under the advisement of Dr. Brian Tsukimura. I then moved to the University of Hawaii and earned a doctorate degree in zoology in Dr. Gordon Grau's lab. My studies investigated the effects of salinity and sex on the physiological/endocrine mechanisms that regulate growth in the tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), a fish. I received a post-doctoral USDA fellowship and stayed in Hawaii (I married a local girl) for 2 additional years. My research focused on the growth and metabolic role of a novel gut peptide, ghrelin.

I am now an assistant professor in biology at California State University at Fresno. I currently have a couple of graduate students working on an NSF funded project, which is investigating the interaction between ghrelin and insulin on growth regulation and glucose metabolism in the tilapia. Another project funded by California Sea Grant investigated the effects of temperature and nutritional status on the endocrine regulation of glucose metabolism. We are collecting some really interesting data and my research program is growing quickly to accommodate more students.




Student Support Committee

Sherry Tamone, Chair

First of all, I would like to acknowledge Adam Summers, the past chair of the Student Support Committee, for his efforts with this committee and for his continued commitment to the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. His organization and strong leadership really helped last year's committee members during the arduous task of making final decisions for the Student Awards. During the 2007 SICB meeting in Phoenix, the Student Support committee made the final funding decisions and selected 4 graduate students from a total of 14 applicants to receive a Fellowship for Graduate Student Travel (FGST). During this time, we also selected 23 graduate students from 67 applicants to receive a Grants In Aid of Research (GIAR) award. The list of successful applicants and the titles of their proposals will be available on the organizational webpage. As incoming chair of this committee, I hope to make the 2008 selection process run as smoothly as did Adam, and I look forward to working with past as well as new members of the Student Support Committee. Our deadline for GIAR and FGST submissions is November 18th and I will be organizing proposals and sending these to committee in early December. I would like to thank the past committee members for their continued commitment and welcome the new members for the next term.