SICB newsletter 11-2008


Home	Volume Fall 2008
Contents Experiences in Integrative and Comparative Biology Richard Satterlie Message from the President John Pearse Message from the Treasurer Ron Dimock Message from the Program Officer Eduardo Rosa-Molinar Message from the Secretary Lou Burnett News and Announcements Committee Reports Divisional Newsletters Animal Behavior (DAB) Comparative Biomechanics (DCB) Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB) Developmental and Cell Biology (DDCB) Evolutionary Developmental Biology (DEDB) Ecology and Evolution (DEE) Invertebrate Zoology (DIZ) Neurobiology (DNB) Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (DSEB) Vertebrate Morphology (DVM)	Division of Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry (DCPB): 2008 Fall Newsletter In this newsletter: Message from the Chair Message from the Program Officer Message from the Secretary Proposed DCPB Bylaws Revisions Message from the Chair Joseph B. Williams Kathy Dickson Jim Hicks Election Results DCPB members elected Jim Hicks Chair-Elect of DCPB for the coming term 1/2009-1/2010 and Kathy Dickson as Program Officer 1/2009-1/2011. Thank you to both for service to our community. Program News-Boston 2009 Our Program Officer, Don Mykles, has informed me that our upcoming meeting in Boston, Jan. 2009, will be the largest meeting that we have ever had, with over 1300 abstracts, 223 of which are from members of DCPB. Please see Don's newsletter entry below for details of this meeting. Don and other members of the SICB Program Committee recently met in Boston, Sept 26-28^th, and made plans for our extravaganza in the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. Don, thank you for all of your efforts on our behalf. Katie Gilmour, Peter Wainwright Stephen Secor, Malcolm Gordon, Lou Burnett Bartholomew Award Committee On behalf of DCPB, I wanted to thank Katie Gilmour (chair), Peter Wainwright, Stephen Secor, Malcolm Gordon, and Lou Burnett, for taking their time to evaluate the large number of applicants and nominations this year for the Bartholomew Award. Katie tells me that the application pool this year was exceptionally strong making the choice of a winner difficult. Katie, your efforts and those of the rest of the committee members, are indeed appreciated by all of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. Bartholomew Award Winner! It is my pleasure to announce that Lynn "Marty" Martin is the winner of the Bartholomew Award for 2009. Named in honor of George A. Bartholomew, a past president of SICB and one of the founders of Physiological Ecology, this award is given annually to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry or to related fields of Functional and Integrative Biology. Marty Martin Marty Martin received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2004, and then went to Ohio State University for a Postdoctoral Fellowship. Although Marty's research interests are varied, he mainly focuses on understanding how physiological systems, in particular the endocrine and immune systems, constrain the pace of life of rodents and songbirds. He has pioneered new studies in ecological immunity of wild vertebrates. Marty, the one in the picture with the blue hat, will present the Bartholomew Award lecture on Sunday, Jan 4, 2009 at 6:30 pm. When I asked Marty how his research questions are intertwined with the work of George Bartholomew, he said, "I have tried to follow Bartholomew's path when seeking to understand animal physiology and in particular immunity. Bartholomew's approach was 'to remain flexible...and to some extent allow circumstances to determine the particular animals to be worked on and then allow their ecology to influence the questions to be asked.' This directive helped me contribute to the emerging field of ecological immunology. As Bart said, ecological immunology, and ecophysiology broadly, are 'operationally effective if one is willing to learn new techniques, deal with diverse animal types, work in the field with improvised facilities, and spend the effort to acquire the knowledge of the literature needed to meet the standards for publication in several different fields of research.' While modern immunology makes advances every day, I agree with Bart that the addition of the naturalistic, multi-disciplinary perspective would lead to even more rapid progress." At the lecture, John Lighton, founder of Sable Systems International and long-time member of SICB, will present Marty with a cash prize of $1,000 in honor of Dr. Bartholomew, who was John's advisor at UCLA. The remainder of Marty's expenses will by paid by DCPB from the Bartholomew fund. Anyone interested in contributing to the Bartholomew Fund can do so on the SICB web page under "donations." Nominating Committee-for Secretary of DCPB A committee, consisting of Stephen Secor (Chair), Dick Tracy, Doug Altshuler, Lisa Crockett and Pat Walsh has been formed to put forward names of people that would be willing to serve as Secretary of DCPB for the next term. If you are interested in running for divisional secretary in the spring of 2009 or wish to nominate someone, please contact any member of this committee or any member of the divisional Executive Committee. Undergraduate Steering Committee Itzick Vatnick, Mark Hausman, Harry Itagaki Chris Gillen, Bob Mauck, Dave Tapley Last year, several DCPB members approached me about fostering more undergraduate participation in SICB meetings. Graduate students are often seen as the life-blood of our society, but undergraduates with research experience are the primary source of our best graduate students. Undergraduates who attend SICB meetings have commented to me how it changes their perspective about evolutionary and ecological physiology. To this end, we have established an undergraduate steering committee composed of Itzick Vatnick, Mark Hausman, Harry Itagaki, Chris Gillen, Bob Mauck, and Dave Tapley. As a first step in achieving its goal, this committee has organized an undergraduate mixer on Tuesday of the meeting. Undergrads and their mentors who want to meet other undergrads that are also doing research should buy a box lunch and come to the mixer. Anyone who is interested in being involved with this committee, or who has ideas that would promote a positive experience for undergraduates at our meetings, please contact Itzick Vatnick at ivatnick@widener.edu. In addition, this committee is considering a symposium in 2010 entitled "Involving Undergraduates in Research." If you have ideas about this symposium and/or would like to be involved, please contact David Tapley (dtapley@salemstate.edu). Judges Needed The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry honors its student presenters with Best Student Paper Awards, one for best oral presentation and best poster, at each year's annual meeting. Dave Tapley, the organizer for our judges this year, tells me that we have near 70 students that will qualify for the "best" presentation or "best poster" competition, about 30 more than we had last year in San Antonio, and the second-highest number of entrants ever. Hence we need people to volunteer to be this year to be a judge. If you are willing to provide some time to serve DCPB in this manner, please contact Dave Tapley (dtapley@salemstate.edu). Don Mykles Message from the Program Officer Don Mykles Upcoming SICB meetings Boston 2009. The meeting is January 3-7, 2009 at the Westin Waterfront Hotel (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1528), located south and east of downtown (South Boston). It is an excellent venue with easy access to Logan International Airport and downtown restaurants and attractions. Taxi fare from the airport to the hotel is $20-25. You may also use the T subway system (http://www.mbta.com) for $2. Take the Silver Line (a bus) from the airport to the World Trade Center stop. The hotel is about a 5-minute walk. For visitor information, maps, and guides: http://www.bostonusa.com/index.htm. The program is jam-packed. Over 1,370 abstracts were submitted, which is a new record! The division received 223 abstracts (includes 33 symposium-related talks), which were distributed between 94 platform and 129 poster presentations. There are poster sessions on Jan. 4, 5, & 6. DCPB is sponsoring a society-wide symposium on Insect Evolution, organized by T. Bradley and A. Briscoe, and a regular symposium on Biomaterials: Properties, Variation, and Evolution, organized by B. Swanson and A. Summers. DCPB is hosting the reception following the Bartholomew Lecture on Sunday, Jan. 4. More details about the program are available on the meeting web page: http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2009/index.php3. Seattle 2010. The meeting is at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel (http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2009/index.php3) during the first week of January. DCPB is sponsoring a regular symposium on Metabolism, Life History, and Aging, organized by James Harper and co-sponsoring a society-wide symposium on Advances in Antarctic Marine Biology, organized by James McClintock, Charles Amsler, Amy Moran, Art Woods, and Bill Baker. The SICB Program Committee will consider proposals for late-breaking symposia; information on this will be announced later. 2011 Meeting. The location has not been selected. However, it's not too early to develop symposia for the 2011 meeting! Please feel free to discuss your ideas with me in Boston, or call me (970-491-7616). Other upcoming meetings of interest Skeletal Endocrinology. Brescia, Italy, March 27, 2009. http://www.skeletal-endocrinology.org/presentazione.asp Experimental Biology 2009. New Orleans, LA, April 18-22, 2009. http://www.eb2009.org/. The First International Conference of Hydrogen Sulfide in Biology and Medicine (H2S Biology 2009). Shanghai, China, June 26-28, 2009. http://www.h2sbiology2009.org XXXVI International Congress of Physiological Sciences. Kyoto, Japan, July 27-Aug 1, 2009. http://www.iups2009.com 11th International Congress on Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins. Vienna, Austria, August 3-7, 2009. http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/ICAAP09/index.html The Crustacean Society Summer Meeting. Tokyo, Japan, Sept 20-24, 2009. http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/csj4/TCSFirstPage1.html Consult the SICB DCPB web site (http://www.sicb.org/divisions/dcpb.php3) for other meetings of interest. Message from the Secretary Allen Gibbs This year, we and the other divisions have worked to revise our bylaws. Many of the proposed changes aim for consistency across divisions in offices, terms, and other aspects of divisional business, and for consistency with society bylaws. The proposed bylaws would also limit Bartholomew Award nominations to SICB members. Please review the proposed changes (shown below), and send any comments to me (allen.gibbs@unlv.edu) or any of the DCPB Officers. Bring your thoughts to the Divisional Business Meeting in Boston, where we will discuss the proposed changes and vote on their adoption. At the end of the meeting in Boston, Jim Hicks will begin his term as divisional Chair, and Kathy Dickson will take over as Program Officer. Nominations will be sought for Secretary; please feel free to volunteer to run, or nominate someone who is willing to do so. Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative Jennifer Ro Hello DCPB students and post docs! The annual SICB meeting is coming up soon, Jan 3-7, 2009 in Boston, MA. I look forward to meeting with all of you again. The deadline for early registration for the meeting is Nov.30, 2008. For our upcoming SICB meeting, the Student/ Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC) is organizing a workshop on "How to find a post doc position; how to apply for an academic job." If you have any suggestions or preferences on what should be discussed during the workshop, please contact me at ro.25@osu.edu. We would also like to invite several people as panel members for the workshop. Panel members are expected to be involved in a Q&A session during the workshop. We think it will be helpful to have a panel comprised of people from different career stages. For example: senior/junior faculty members, starting faculty members, post-docs who recently got hired. If you are willing to volunteer as a panel member, or would like to suggest panel members, please e-mail me. For those of you who are looking for funding opportunities, here are some suggestions. -Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid This program awards up to $1,000 to students from all areas of the sciences and engineering. For astronomy and vision related research allow for grants up to $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. Upcoming application due date is October 15. Visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/giar/index.shtml -Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Don't forget SICB also provides funding opportunities for students to support their research! Grants-in-Aid of Research awards are up to $1,000. Visit: http://sicb.org/grants/researchgrant.php3 -The Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Scholarship is designed to "help support a first meaningful field-station experience for a first- or second-year graduate student or an advanced undergraduate." The award is up to $1,200. Visit : http://sicb.org/grants/hyman/ -American Physiological Society The American Physiological society provides several awards to APS student members annually. Here are some possibilities -Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award - The award is $7,000 and given to individuals who demonstrated outstanding research in physiological science. The Lazaro Mandel Young Investigator Award is a $7,500 award given to individuals who demonstrate outstanding research in epithelial or renal physiology. Visit APS webpage for more information: http://www.the-aps.org/awards/society.htm DCPB Bylaws Revisions To be discussed and voted upon at the divisional business meeting in January 2009. Only the sections with proposed changes are included below. Additions are shown in bold underline, deletions are indicated by a ~~strikethrough~~. (As amended December 1983; December 28, 1986; December 1988; September 1990; December 1993; March 1995; December 1995; January 2002; January 2004; January 2008) Article II. Membership Any member of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology may register with the Executive Director of the Society as a member of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, and may withdraw from the roll of the Division at any time on notice to the Executive Director. Membership in the Division is open to all classes of members of the SICB. It is acquired by registration with the SICB business office. Article IV. Officers Officers of the Division shall be a Chair, a Chair-Elect, a Past Chair, a Program Officer and a Secretary. They shall be elected by a majority vote of the members conducted by a mail ballot prior to the annual meeting by a procedure consonant with the Bylaws of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. In the case when a divisional office is unexpectedly vacated, the current Nominating Committee will recommend to the Chair an interim officer who will be appointed to serve the remainder of the term. Elections of officers shall be held by both paper and appropriately secure electronic ballots. A brief biography of each candidate shall be made available on the ballot. The term of office of all elected officers and appointed representatives shall begin at the end of the second SICB Executive Committee meeting at the Annual Meeting in the year the term is to begin and will end at the adjournment of the second SICB Executive Committee meeting at the Annual Meeting in the year the term is to expire. The Officers plus the graduate student representative shall constitute an Executive Committee responsible for divisional affairs. ~~The business year of the Division shall run January 1 through December 31.~~ In the circumstance where an elected officer is unable to complete his or her term of office, the following provisions are made: If the office of Secretary or Program Officer is vacated early, the Chair, in consultation with the Divisional Executive Committee, will appoint someone to serve until elections can be held to fill the position. If the office of Divisional Chair is vacant, the Divisional Executive Committee, in consultation with the SICB President, will appoint someone to be the interim Chair until an election is held. Article VII. Past Chair The Past Chair shall assist the Chair and other members of the divisional Executive Committee in handling divisional affairs. The Past Chair assumes this position upon completion of a term as chair and shall serve for two years. The Past Chair shall serve as a member of the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee will present two candidates for each office and certify to the Secretary that each candidate has declared a willingness to run for office, and to serve if elected. Article XI. 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. The Chair shall authorize all disbursements, and coordinate financial procedures with the Executive ~~Officer~~ Director of the Society. Article XIII. Awards B. Bartholomew Award An annual prize may be given to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to comparative physiology and biochemistry or to related fields of functional and integrative biology. The formal title for this award is "The George A. Bartholomew Award." Eligible candidates are those who are members of the SICB and who have completed their doctorate within the past seven years. The Chair of the Division shall appoint an Award Committee consisting of at least three divisional members with diverse interests to serve as judges. The Chair of the Division will designate one of the members as the chair of the Award Committee. Committee members will normally serve for no more than three years, with at least one member being replaced each year. Candidates may apply directly or be nominated, but both types of candidates will be evaluated equivalently. Applicants shall submit to the Chair of the Award Committee a short description of their work, selected reprints, and curriculum vitae; 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. The Committee may recommend for approval one candidate to the Chair of the Division. Each year's winner will be invited to present a special address at the annual meeting. The Chair of the Division may authorize reimbursement of appropriate expenses incurred by the winner in attending the meeting. The Chair may also authorize a cash prize. The awardee will be presented with a certificate signed by all current Divisional officers. Article XVI. Amendments The Bylaws may be amended at any annual meeting by a two-thirds vote of those present provided that notice has been given to all members at least sixty (60) days in advance or by at least two-thirds vote of the members responding to a mail ballot. In either case, it is the responsibility of the Executive Committee ~~divisional executive~~ to assure that opportunities for discussion, either verbal or written, occur before a ballot is taken. Link to officer list on DCPB page

Home

Volume Fall 2008

Contents

Experiences in Integrative and Comparative Biology
Richard Satterlie

Message from the President
John Pearse

Message from the Treasurer
Ron Dimock

Message from the Program Officer
Eduardo Rosa-Molinar

Message from the Secretary
Lou Burnett

News and Announcements

Committee Reports

Divisional Newsletters

Animal Behavior (DAB)

Comparative Biomechanics (DCB)

Comparative Endocrinology (DCE)

Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB)

Developmental and Cell Biology (DDCB)

Evolutionary Developmental Biology (DEDB)

Ecology and Evolution (DEE)

Invertebrate Zoology (DIZ)

Neurobiology (DNB)

Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (DSEB)

Vertebrate Morphology (DVM)

Division of Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry (DCPB): 2008 Fall Newsletter
In this newsletter:

Message from the Chair

Message from the Program Officer

Message from the Secretary

Proposed DCPB Bylaws Revisions

Message from the Chair

Joseph B. Williams

Kathy Dickson

Jim Hicks
Election Results
DCPB members elected Jim Hicks Chair-Elect of DCPB for the coming term 1/2009-1/2010 and Kathy Dickson as Program Officer 1/2009-1/2011. Thank you to both for service to our community.

Program News-Boston 2009

Our Program Officer, Don Mykles, has informed me that our upcoming meeting in Boston, Jan. 2009, will be the largest meeting that we have ever had, with over 1300 abstracts, 223 of which are from members of DCPB. Please see Don's newsletter entry below for details of this meeting. Don and other members of the SICB Program Committee recently met in Boston, Sept 26-28^th, and made plans for our extravaganza in the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. Don, thank you for all of your efforts on our behalf.

Katie Gilmour, Peter Wainwright

Stephen Secor, Malcolm Gordon, Lou Burnett
Bartholomew Award Committee

On behalf of DCPB, I wanted to thank Katie Gilmour (chair), Peter Wainwright, Stephen Secor, Malcolm Gordon, and Lou Burnett, for taking their time to evaluate the large number of applicants and nominations this year for the Bartholomew Award. Katie tells me that the application pool this year was exceptionally strong making the choice of a winner difficult. Katie, your efforts and those of the rest of the committee members, are indeed appreciated by all of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry.

Bartholomew Award Winner!

It is my pleasure to announce that Lynn "Marty" Martin is the winner of the Bartholomew Award for 2009. Named in honor of George A. Bartholomew, a past president of SICB and one of the founders of Physiological Ecology, this award is given annually to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry or to related fields of Functional and Integrative Biology.

Marty Martin
Marty Martin received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2004, and then went to Ohio State University for a Postdoctoral Fellowship. Although Marty's research interests are varied, he mainly focuses on understanding how physiological systems, in particular the endocrine and immune systems, constrain the pace of life of rodents and songbirds. He has pioneered new studies in ecological immunity of wild vertebrates. Marty, the one in the picture with the blue hat, will present the Bartholomew Award lecture on Sunday, Jan 4, 2009 at 6:30 pm.

When I asked Marty how his research questions are intertwined with the work of George Bartholomew, he said, "I have tried to follow Bartholomew's path when seeking to understand animal physiology and in particular immunity. Bartholomew's approach was 'to remain flexible...and to some extent allow circumstances to determine the particular animals to be worked on and then allow their ecology to influence the questions to be asked.' This directive helped me contribute to the emerging field of ecological immunology. As Bart said, ecological immunology, and ecophysiology broadly, are 'operationally effective if one is willing to learn new techniques, deal with diverse animal types, work in the field with improvised facilities, and spend the effort to acquire the knowledge of the literature needed to meet the standards for publication in several different fields of research.' While modern immunology makes advances every day, I agree with Bart that the addition of the naturalistic, multi-disciplinary perspective would lead to even more rapid progress."

At the lecture, John Lighton, founder of Sable Systems International and long-time member of SICB, will present Marty with a cash prize of $1,000 in honor of Dr. Bartholomew, who was John's advisor at UCLA. The remainder of Marty's expenses will by paid by DCPB from the Bartholomew fund. Anyone interested in contributing to the Bartholomew Fund can do so on the SICB web page under "donations."

Nominating Committee-for Secretary of DCPB

A committee, consisting of Stephen Secor (Chair), Dick Tracy, Doug Altshuler, Lisa Crockett and Pat Walsh has been formed to put forward names of people that would be willing to serve as Secretary of DCPB for the next term. If you are interested in running for divisional secretary in the spring of 2009 or wish to nominate someone, please contact any member of this committee or any member of the divisional Executive Committee.

Undergraduate Steering Committee

Itzick Vatnick, Mark Hausman, Harry Itagaki

Chris Gillen, Bob Mauck, Dave Tapley
Last year, several DCPB members approached me about fostering more undergraduate participation in SICB meetings. Graduate students are often seen as the life-blood of our society, but undergraduates with research experience are the primary source of our best graduate students. Undergraduates who attend SICB meetings have commented to me how it changes their perspective about evolutionary and ecological physiology. To this end, we have established an undergraduate steering committee composed of Itzick Vatnick, Mark Hausman, Harry Itagaki, Chris Gillen, Bob Mauck, and Dave Tapley. As a first step in achieving its goal, this committee has organized an undergraduate mixer on Tuesday of the meeting. Undergrads and their mentors who want to meet other undergrads that are also doing research should buy a box lunch and come to the mixer. Anyone who is interested in being involved with this committee, or who has ideas that would promote a positive experience for undergraduates at our meetings, please contact Itzick Vatnick at ivatnick@widener.edu. In addition, this committee is considering a symposium in 2010 entitled "Involving Undergraduates in Research." If you have ideas about this symposium and/or would like to be involved, please contact David Tapley (dtapley@salemstate.edu).

Judges Needed

The Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry honors its student presenters with Best Student Paper Awards, one for best oral presentation and best poster, at each year's annual meeting. Dave Tapley, the organizer for our judges this year, tells me that we have near 70 students that will qualify for the "best" presentation or "best poster" competition, about 30 more than we had last year in San Antonio, and the second-highest number of entrants ever. Hence we need people to volunteer to be this year to be a judge. If you are willing to provide some time to serve DCPB in this manner, please contact Dave Tapley (dtapley@salemstate.edu).

Don Mykles
Message from the Program Officer

Don Mykles

Upcoming SICB meetings

Boston 2009. The meeting is January 3-7, 2009 at the Westin Waterfront Hotel (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1528), located south and east of downtown (South Boston). It is an excellent venue with easy access to Logan International Airport and downtown restaurants and attractions. Taxi fare from the airport to the hotel is $20-25. You may also use the T subway system (http://www.mbta.com) for $2. Take the Silver Line (a bus) from the airport to the World Trade Center stop. The hotel is about a 5-minute walk. For visitor information, maps, and guides: http://www.bostonusa.com/index.htm.

The program is jam-packed. Over 1,370 abstracts were submitted, which is a new record! The division received 223 abstracts (includes 33 symposium-related talks), which were distributed between 94 platform and 129 poster presentations. There are poster sessions on Jan. 4, 5, & 6. DCPB is sponsoring a society-wide symposium on Insect Evolution, organized by T. Bradley and A. Briscoe, and a regular symposium on Biomaterials: Properties, Variation, and Evolution, organized by B. Swanson and A. Summers. DCPB is hosting the reception following the Bartholomew Lecture on Sunday, Jan. 4. More details about the program are available on the meeting web page: http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2009/index.php3.

Seattle 2010. The meeting is at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel (http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2009/index.php3) during the first week of January. DCPB is sponsoring a regular symposium on Metabolism, Life History, and Aging, organized by James Harper and co-sponsoring a society-wide symposium on Advances in Antarctic Marine Biology, organized by James McClintock, Charles Amsler, Amy Moran, Art Woods, and Bill Baker. The SICB Program Committee will consider proposals for late-breaking symposia; information on this will be announced later.

2011 Meeting. The location has not been selected. However, it's not too early to develop symposia for the 2011 meeting! Please feel free to discuss your ideas with me in Boston, or call me (970-491-7616).

Other upcoming meetings of interest

Skeletal Endocrinology. Brescia, Italy, March 27, 2009. http://www.skeletal-endocrinology.org/presentazione.asp

Experimental Biology 2009. New Orleans, LA, April 18-22, 2009. http://www.eb2009.org/.

The First International Conference of Hydrogen Sulfide in Biology and Medicine (H2S Biology 2009). Shanghai, China, June 26-28, 2009. http://www.h2sbiology2009.org

XXXVI International Congress of Physiological Sciences. Kyoto, Japan, July 27-Aug 1, 2009. http://www.iups2009.com

11th International Congress on Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins. Vienna, Austria, August 3-7, 2009. http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/ICAAP09/index.html

The Crustacean Society Summer Meeting. Tokyo, Japan, Sept 20-24, 2009. http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/csj4/TCSFirstPage1.html

Consult the SICB DCPB web site (http://www.sicb.org/divisions/dcpb.php3) for other meetings of interest.

Message from the Secretary

Allen Gibbs

This year, we and the other divisions have worked to revise our bylaws. Many of the proposed changes aim for consistency across divisions in offices, terms, and other aspects of divisional business, and for consistency with society bylaws. The proposed bylaws would also limit Bartholomew Award nominations to SICB members. Please review the proposed changes (shown below), and send any comments to me (allen.gibbs@unlv.edu) or any of the DCPB Officers. Bring your thoughts to the Divisional Business Meeting in Boston, where we will discuss the proposed changes and vote on their adoption.

At the end of the meeting in Boston, Jim Hicks will begin his term as divisional Chair, and Kathy Dickson will take over as Program Officer. Nominations will be sought for Secretary; please feel free to volunteer to run, or nominate someone who is willing to do so.

Message from the Graduate Student/Postdoc Representative

Jennifer Ro

Hello DCPB students and post docs!

The annual SICB meeting is coming up soon, Jan 3-7, 2009 in Boston, MA. I look forward to meeting with all of you again. The deadline for early registration for the meeting is Nov.30, 2008.

For our upcoming SICB meeting, the Student/ Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC) is organizing a workshop on "How to find a post doc position; how to apply for an academic job." If you have any suggestions or preferences on what should be discussed during the workshop, please contact me at ro.25@osu.edu. We would also like to invite several people as panel members for the workshop. Panel members are expected to be involved in a Q&A session during the workshop. We think it will be helpful to have a panel comprised of people from different career stages. For example: senior/junior faculty members, starting faculty members, post-docs who recently got hired. If you are willing to volunteer as a panel member, or would like to suggest panel members, please e-mail me.

For those of you who are looking for funding opportunities, here are some suggestions.

-Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid

This program awards up to $1,000 to students from all areas of the sciences and engineering. For astronomy and vision related research allow for grants up to $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. Upcoming application due date is October 15.

Visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/giar/index.shtml

-Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Don't forget SICB also provides funding opportunities for students to support their research! Grants-in-Aid of Research awards are up to $1,000. Visit: http://sicb.org/grants/researchgrant.php3

-The Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Scholarship is designed to "help support a first meaningful field-station experience for a first- or second-year graduate student or an advanced undergraduate." The award is up to $1,200. Visit : http://sicb.org/grants/hyman/

-American Physiological Society

The American Physiological society provides several awards to APS student members annually. Here are some possibilities

-Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award - The award is $7,000 and given to individuals who demonstrated outstanding research in physiological science.

The Lazaro Mandel Young Investigator Award is a $7,500 award given to individuals who demonstrate outstanding research in epithelial or renal physiology. Visit APS webpage for more information: http://www.the-aps.org/awards/society.htm

DCPB Bylaws Revisions

To be discussed and voted upon at the divisional business meeting in January 2009.

Only the sections with proposed changes are included below. Additions are shown in bold underline, deletions are indicated by a ~~strikethrough~~.

(As amended December 1983; December 28, 1986; December 1988; September 1990; December 1993; March 1995; December 1995; January 2002; January 2004; January 2008)

Article II. Membership

Any member of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology may register with the Executive Director of the Society as a member of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, and may withdraw from the roll of the Division at any time on notice to the Executive Director. Membership in the Division is open to all classes of members of the SICB. It is acquired by registration with the SICB business office.

Article IV. Officers

Officers of the Division shall be a Chair, a Chair-Elect, a Past Chair, a Program Officer and a Secretary. They shall be elected by a majority vote of the members conducted by a mail ballot prior to the annual meeting by a procedure consonant with the Bylaws of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. In the case when a divisional office is unexpectedly vacated, the current Nominating Committee will recommend to the Chair an interim officer who will be appointed to serve the remainder of the term. Elections of officers shall be held by both paper and appropriately secure electronic ballots. A brief biography of each candidate shall be made available on the ballot. The term of office of all elected officers and appointed representatives shall begin at the end of the second SICB Executive Committee meeting at the Annual Meeting in the year the term is to begin and will end at the adjournment of the second SICB Executive Committee meeting at the Annual Meeting in the year the term is to expire. The Officers plus the graduate student representative shall constitute an Executive Committee responsible for divisional affairs. ~~The business year of the Division shall run January 1 through December 31.~~

In the circumstance where an elected officer is unable to complete his or her term of office, the following provisions are made: If the office of Secretary or Program Officer is vacated early, the Chair, in consultation with the Divisional Executive Committee, will appoint someone to serve until elections can be held to fill the position. If the office of Divisional Chair is vacant, the Divisional Executive Committee, in consultation with the SICB President, will appoint someone to be the interim Chair until an election is held.

Article VII. Past Chair

The Past Chair shall assist the Chair and other members of the divisional Executive Committee in handling divisional affairs. The Past Chair assumes this position upon completion of a term as chair and shall serve for two years. The Past Chair shall serve as a member of the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee will present two candidates for each office and certify to the Secretary that each candidate has declared a willingness to run for office, and to serve if elected.

Article XI. 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. The Chair shall authorize all disbursements, and coordinate financial procedures with the Executive ~~Officer~~ Director of the Society.

Article XIII. Awards

B. Bartholomew Award

An annual prize may be given to a young investigator for distinguished contributions to comparative physiology and biochemistry or to related fields of functional and integrative biology. The formal title for this award is "The George A. Bartholomew Award." Eligible candidates are those who are members of the SICB and who have completed their doctorate within the past seven years. The Chair of the Division shall appoint an Award Committee consisting of at least three divisional members with diverse interests to serve as judges. The Chair of the Division will designate one of the members as the chair of the Award Committee. Committee members will normally serve for no more than three years, with at least one member being replaced each year. Candidates may apply directly or be nominated, but both types of candidates will be evaluated equivalently. Applicants shall submit to the Chair of the Award Committee a short description of their work, selected reprints, and curriculum vitae; 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. The Committee may recommend for approval one candidate to the Chair of the Division. Each year's winner will be invited to present a special address at the annual meeting. The Chair of the Division may authorize reimbursement of appropriate expenses incurred by the winner in attending the meeting. The Chair may also authorize a cash prize. The awardee will be presented with a certificate signed by all current Divisional officers.

Article XVI. Amendments

The Bylaws may be amended at any annual meeting by a two-thirds vote of those present provided that notice has been given to all members at least sixty (60) days in advance or by at least two-thirds vote of the members responding to a mail ballot. In either case, it is the responsibility of the Executive Committee ~~divisional executive~~ to assure that opportunities for discussion, either verbal or written, occur before a ballot is taken.

Link to officer list on DCPB page