NEWSLETTER
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY
- Secretary/Editor's Message
- President’s Message
- Report from the Annual Business Meeting
- ISCE Treasurer’s Report
- Report on the 23rd Annual Meeting
- Report on Metabolomics workshop
- Student Travel Award and Student Presentation Winners
- Recipient of the 2008 Silver Medal
- Recipient of the 2008 Silverstein-Simeone Award
- Call for Nominations for the Year 2009 ISCE Silver Medal and Silverstein-Simeone Awards
- Call for Nominations for ISCE Vice-President, Councilors for 2007
- Prize
The ISCE Newsletter is published
triannually, normally in October, February, and June. It is financed through
member contributions. None of the material contained herein may be reprinted
without the proper written acknowledgment of the editor. Address all correspondence
and newsletter submissions to the editor (Stephen Foster,
stephen.foster@ndsu.edu).
Deadline for the next issue is February 15, 2008.
During the last annual meeting several people pointed out that a number of members, particularly the younger ones, do not know what role they can play in the society’s affairs. Some of the roles of society members are given in the bylaws on the website (http://chemecol.org/society/bylaws.htm), but other roles are perhaps as obvious as the plan to put a bypass through Arthur Dent’s house (“on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard”) in Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! So, here is a non-exhaustive list of what you can do as a member of the International Society of Chemical Ecology:
- Pay your dues each year! These go mainly to fund the society’s awards, presented at the annual meeting.
- Encourage other people, especially students, to join the society.
- Attend the Annual Meeting.
- Attend the Business Meeting during the Annual Meeting. Members get to vote directly on issues concerning the society at the Business Meeting.
- Stand as a councilor (or Executive) of the society. Councilors can have a strong influence on society policy and directions at the executive meeting, held during the Annual Meeting. They also vote on nominations for the Silver and Silverstein-Simeone Awards.
- Nominate someone as a councilor or Executive member. Any member can nominate another member for a councilor or Executive position. The calls and instructions for these nominations are given (see later) in the third newsletter of the year, each year.
- Nominate someone (not necessarily a member) for the Silver and Silverstein-Simeone Awards. The calls and instructions for these nominations (see later) are given in this third newsletter of the year, each year.
- Vote in the elections of councilors and executives. The elections are held at the beginning of each year.
- Send news and photographs of interest to the Secretary for publication in the newsletters. Send these throughout the year rather than just after a newsletter has appeared!
- Post positions available on the website. Send these to the Secretary.
On the administrative front, note that our industrious webmaster, Allard Cossé, has updated the front page of the website so that a dropdown menu (“Archive”) includes lists of past executives, councilors, meeting sites, award winners, etc.
Finally, congratulations to Wilhelm Boland and his team who organized a most successful meeting in Jena!
p.s. Thanks to Wilhelm Boland, Jeremy Mc Neil, and Mohammed Uddin for the photographs.
Stephen Foster
Secretary, ISCE
ISCE – an ‘Amazing’ Society
The ISCE is an ‘amazing’ society and I am honored to be President this year. It has always been great to have a society that is focused exclusively on the promotion of “the understanding of interactions between organisms and their environment that are mediated by naturally occurring chemicals”. That means that every issue of the Journal and every annual meeting is filled with interdisciplinary studies of interest to chemical ecologists around the world. It is a field that is involved not only in the signals, production, and processing aspects of chemical interactions at all levels of complexity in nature, but also in the “discovery and rational exploitation of new natural products useful in medicine, agriculture and industry”.
With so much excitement in this field and with a proliferation of scientists throughout the world who understand the significance of investigating the complex interactions in our changing environment, it is ‘amazing’ to find that ISCE is a stable, but not growing society. It is a society wherein the top chemical ecologists in the world invest a great deal of time and energy to keep it going. Not only does it have dedicated chemical ecologists who take on long-term positions, such as our secretary, treasurer, and Journal representative (Stephen Foster, Kenneth Haynes, and John Romeo, respectively), but several other world leaders have been President as well as a host of an annual meeting. One only has to read the great description in last year’s President’s message by Gary Blomquist on what a host does to prepare for a meeting to understand what is involved. It is Huge! But, after all that, Gary then went on to successfully serve as President of the Society last year. This is not unusual and, in fact, Wilhelm Boland, who hosted the great meeting in Jena, Germany this past summer, has put himself in line for the Presidency for next year. What I am leading to in saying all this is that we have a strong core of scientists who serve the society with passion, but there are many of us who might be involved in host/parasite behavior.
While the dedicated few were putting themselves on the line for this society, many of us enjoyed the benefits of their efforts by publishing in the journal and attending the annual meetings. The moment of truth for me in realizing that I had been somewhat of a parasite on this society came with a phone call from Wittko Francke, who called at 2 AM (his time) on Christmas morning from his laboratory and asked if I would serve as President. That was like the voice of God speaking to Moses. One could not say No. It was time to give something back and join the illustrious list of past Presidents (a list that Wittko requested to be uploaded on the ISCE web site in his excellent entertaining social lecture at the last meeting) who have so faithfully served this society.
Now that I realize the existence of this parasitic behavior, I feel obliged to address this issue. Another ‘amazing’ thing about ISCE is the extremely inexpensive annual membership fee, especially for students. And yet, very few students are members unless they take the free membership with a scholarship. It certainly cannot be the cost, which is little over $1 per month. It could be the hassle of getting the funds sent to the treasurer, but just read the account of being a host once again and see if there is any semblance of hassle in sending the money. I think that it is more of the universal thinking of ‘what am I going to get out of being a member?’. Probably nothing more than you are getting now as a non-member. But – if you ever publish in the journal, read a journal article, or go to an annual meeting, then you are exhibiting parasitic behavior in benefiting from the efforts of those who are members and keep this a strong society.
With the increasing importance of chemical ecology in science and involvement in global problems, it is important that the membership reflect this worldwide interest. We need our membership list to show heavy involvement of students, postdocs, and scientists around the world in all countries. This list serves as a base of authority when viewed by politicians, federal agencies, industries, etc. I already had a call from a representative of a tourism agency who wanted to know if our membership had anyone in chemical ecology from a certain country. I looked it up and had to say ‘no’ even though there probably are chemical ecologists there. I did not know why it was important, but it underscored the fact that the membership list needs to be complete and that we need to make every effort to sign up all those involved in chemical ecology, including the students and colleagues at our own institutions. I was surprised to find that many of my own colleagues at Cornell were not members. We all need to be more evangelistic about our society. We need to keep involving the young, bright scientists who will lead this field in the 21st century since some of us are pushing past our prime. By the time we meet at Penn State next summer, I want to be ‘amazed’ at how large our membership list has grown.
President Blomquist called the meeting to order. Blomquist read the election results. Wilhelm Boland was elected Vice-president (President elect). Jörg Bohlmann, Angel Guerrero, Caroline Müller, Aijun Zhang were elected as councilors and Jocelyn Millar would join them as past-President. They will replace Tom Baker (past president), Bill Hansson, Erika Plettner and Johannes Steidle. The election results were collated and counted by Secretary Foster and checked by Jocelyn Millar.
Treasurer Haynes read his report (see following section). The report had been audited by Stefan Schulz and Tom Baker. Coby Schal moved to accept the report, May Beerenbaum seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously. Haynes reported that $7500 of the Society’s money would be made available for student travel awards for 2008.
Secretary Foster reported that it had been a typical year. Three newsletters had been produced, and elections had been carried out electronically. Contact between the secretary and members over membership and Journal issues had been reduced since Treasurer Haynes now sent out membership renewal notices directly. 
John Romeo reported for the Journal of Chemical Ecology. There had been over 380 submissions last year and, for the first time, the rejection rate was >50%. Papers originated from 48 countries with (in order) the greatest numbers coming from USA>China>Germany>Brazil. He noted that a high percentage of papers were coming from countries with low society membership. The journal published 191 papers last year. The major problems with journal editing were (1) poor English in submissions, (2) frequent change in publishing staff, (3) too many errors from authors affecting speed of publication. In the next year there would be a special edition “Olfactory Ecology” put together by John Hildebrand. The impact factor dropped slightly, but this was probably insignificant. The majority of papers published were on plant insect-interactions (53%), with about 34% on pheromones. Starting in 2008, the journal would be published in large format.
Blomquist announced that the winner of the Silver Medal for 2008 was Gunnar Bergstrom and the winner of the Silverstein-Simeone award for 2008, Leslie Vosshall.
The proposal for the new Student Travel Awards amendment to the bylaws would be posted on the website in the future and would be voted on at the next business meeting (in State College, PA).
Ales Svatos reported on the short Mass spectrometry course held just prior to the meeting. He hoped such courses might be a regular feature at future meetings.
Finally, Tom Baker moved to close the meeting, Jeremy McNeil seconded it and President Blomquist declared the meeting closed.
The Society’s financial situation continues to be healthy. Our assets grew by 16.8 % in 2006, and have grown by 11.8% so far in 2007. The 2006 meeting organized by Angel Guerrero in Barcelona generated a surplus of $3043 that was deposited in the ISCE account. Our assets are distributed in to stocks (63%), bonds (17%), and cash (20%). To ensure continued modest appreciation of our portfolio, our spending should be limited to 4% of the portfolio value. If recurring revenues and expenses remain the same, we should have a comfortable buffer of about $7500 for fiscal year 2007.
In 2007 we have received a gift in support of our student travel awards from Trécé ($2500). Thanks are due to Bill Lingren and his company. We also received a gift to support the Silverstein-Simeone Award from Springer Publishing Co. ($2000). Thanks are due to Vickie Ferrara (no longer with Springer) and Ann Avouris. Suterra is our generous new sponsor for the Silver Medal Award ($5000). Please thank Tom Larsen.
We have spent $7400 on student travel awards for this meeting, and will spend $1000 for student presentation awards. Travel expenses for our Silver Medal Award winner and our Silverstein-Simeone Award winner are pending. I have set aside $5400 for the minting of new Society medals.
We have 361 active members coming from 42 countries. There are 103 life members, 234 regular members, 22 student members, 1 sponsor member, and 1 honorary member in the database. Twelve of the student members are our student travel award winners, who are given free membership for this year, otherwise our student membership continues to be low. Another concern is the high rate of delayed membership renewals. Over 20% or our 2006 members have not renewed their memberships for 2007.
K.F. Haynes
Report on the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society was held from July 22nd - 26th 2007 in the central lecture hall of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. The meeting was organized by the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, in cooperation with the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker. Jena was selected in 2001 at the Lake Tahoe meeting in order to acknowledge the 10th anniversary (October 2007) of the founding of the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology in Jena.
The meeting was one of the largest ISCE meetings so far, with 291 registered attendees from thirty countries, plus a number of local attendees. The high number of students (ca. 100) was particularly encouraging and demonstrated the enormous interest in the field. The meeting had ca. 90 oral presentations, four special lectures, and about 160 posters. Owing to the large number of submitted contributions, parallel sessions had to be held during the last two days. Lectures were generally reduced to 15 min to minimize the parallel sessions. A special workshop on “Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Complex Metabolite Profiles” and a lunch seminar on “Recent Advances in Mass Spectroscopy (LTQ Orbitrap)” complemented the program. Twelve students received prestigious Travel Awards from the society. The best oral- and poster presentations were also honored. Guided tours to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology were offered to many interested participants on two of the days of the meeting.
The conference was opened by a well-attended lecture by Jacques Pasteels covering a tour de force presentation on the “Evolution of Leaf Beetle defenses”. During the first symposium on “Insect Semiochemicals”, chaired by Wittko Francke and Bill Hansson, 18 lectures were presented covering a broad range of topics from pheromones of spider mites (Stefan Schulz), wasps (Francesca Dani), and other insects (Manfred Ayasse, Konrad Dettner, Ylva Hilbur). This was followed by an in-depth presentation of new insights into the molecular mechanisms of pheromone perception (Jürgen Krieger) and processing within the antennal lobe (Bill Hansson), as well as modes of encoding odor plume dynamics (Hong Lei). The second part, chaired by Stefan Schulz and John Pickett and titled “New Analytical Methods Based on GC(LC)-MS or MALDI-TOF of Semiochemicals” revealed the cutting edge of modern technology (Tetsu Ando, Ales Svatos). The section was finished by the exciting Silverstein-Simeone Award Lecture given by Walter Leal on the “Molecular Basis of Pheromone Reception“.
Thomas Hartmann gave wonderful and comprehensive historical review of the early days of Chemical Ecology, with particular reference to two pioneers of the field who lived and worked in Jena approximately 100 years ago, Ernst Haeckel (coined the term “Ökologie” in 1866) and Ernst Stahl (the first “experimental ecologist“). The lecture will be available in early 2008 as a contribution in a special issue of PNAS, entitled “The Lost Origin of Chemical Ecology in the Late 19th Century”.
The symposium on “Induced Plant Defenses” (chaired by Ian Baldwin and Junji Takabayashi)“ on Tuesday was opened by a fascinating lecture by Linda Walling showing that whiteflies are able to suppress the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid, which is central for orchestrating the synthesis of defensive metabolites. Other contributions covered early events after herbivory (Massimo Maffei), identification of novel elicitors (Hans Alborn), the molecular basis of the induction processes (Kenji Matsui, Roland Mumm), along with the sophisticated strategies of herbivore-damaged plants using different secondary metabolites in a synergistic fashion to combat herbivores (Anke Stepphun). Volatiles were shown to act as an “Information Highway“ between remote parts of the same plant without the need of a systemically traveling intra-plant signal (Martin Heil). Novel insights into activated defenses of higher fungi and sponges were presented in the second part of this symposium (Peter Spiteller, Carsten Thoms).
The symposium on “Animal Responses to Plant Secondary Metabolites”, chaired by David Heckel and Manfred Ayasse, started on Tuesday afternoon. We learned how fruit odors influence the foraging behavior of bats (Robert Hodgkison) and how floral scents attract oil-bees (Stefan Dötterl). Two important contributions covered transcriptional responses of herbivory against chemical and plant-induced stress (Heiko Vogel, Shai Morin). Claus Tittiger reported on the relation between resin detoxification and pheromone production in bark beetles.
The last block on Tuesday afternoon was reserved for the “Student Travel Awards“, chaired by Angel Guerrero. Twelve students, previously selected by a committee presented their projects in a series of outstanding lectures from many different areas of Chemical Ecology. Two awardees were from USA/Canada, one from Turkey, one from the Czech Republic, one from Hungary, two from the Netherlands, one from Switzerland and four from Germany.
Because of the increasing knowledge on the importance of microbes in organismic interactions, a special symposium on Wednesday was devoted to “Microbial Interactions“, chaired by Axel Brakhage and Leo Eberl. A fascinating opening lecture (Christian Hertweck) demonstrated how a fungus can parasitize rice plants in an alliance with an endosymbiotic bacterium, producing a highly active phytotoxin. Other contributions highlighted the effects of microbial metabolites on plants (Anton Hartmann, Barbara Schellenberg, Birgit Piechulla), or, vice versa, the effect of plant metabolites on microbes (Tofazzal Islam, Doris Engelmeier). The morning session ended with the ISCE General Assembly.
Wednesday afternoon was used for several excursions in Jena and into the surroundings of Jena and Weimar. In the evening, the participants came together in the Volkshaus Jena, a famous building from 1903 that was conceptually initiated as an educational and cultural institution for the public by Ernst Abbe. The program was opened and accompanied by background music from a big band. After dinner Jim Tumlinson honored the late Milt Silverstein. Next, Wittko Francke gave a very entertaining and exciting review of his academic career, scientific achievements and personal interactions with colleagues and friends. This was followed by the official business of the society and a brief presentation of the next ISCE meeting at Penn State, USA. After the presentation the student awards (travel award, best oral- and poster presentation) were presented, before the big band took over allowing many participants to dance.
The last day of the ISCE-meeting started with the Silver Medal Award Lecture by Koji Nakanishi. He presented a rich bouquet of scientific highlights from individual structures to concepts and methods for structure elucidation. The last symposium was devoted to “Evolution and Adaptation“, chaired by Dietrich Ober and Jonathan Gershenzon. It was opened with a talk by Eran Pichersky on how plants evolved the ability to produce so many scent compounds. Other lectures covered adaptations to plant secondary metabolites, such as cardenolides (Susanne Dobler), or chemical defenses in mulberry latex (Kotaro Konno). A passionate presentation by May Berenbaum addressed the coevolution of wild parsnip and parsnip webworms. The conference ended around noon with the wish for all to meet at Penn State University next year.
For interested readers, Wiley-VCH offers a free link to a PDF-file of a conference report written by Georg Pohnert (Jena) entitled: “New Frontiers in Chemical Ecology: Conference Report of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology”(http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.200700534).
Finally, I wish to thank all sponsors, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker as co-organizers, and my colleagues from the institute (I. Baldwin, J. Gershenzon, B. Hansson, and D. Heckel) who helped to run the conference so smoothly. In particular, the generous support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waters GmbH and Suterra LLC is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due to the symposium organizers and chair persons who took care of the invited speakers and the program. But overall I am especially indebted to all members of the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry and other members of the institute (IT department), who have performed exceptionally by creating the stimulating scientific atmosphere that made the ISCE meeting in Jena such a successful conference.
Wilhelm Boland
ISCE 2007, Meeting Host
On Monday afternoon 60-70 participants attended the workshop on statistical analysis of complex metabolomic profiles. The workshop was organized and introduced by Nicole van Dam (Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Heteren). Due to rapid technical developments in chemical-analytical equipment, chemical ecologists can generate increasingly larger datasets. In order to interpret these complex datasets she argued that we need comprehensive multivariate statistical analyses. Margit Leitner (MPI Chemical Ecology, Jena) illustrated this point based on induced volatile profiles of Medicago truncatula. By using Multidimensional Scaling and Linear Discriminant Analysis she analyzed differences in volatile patterns induced by different elicitors. She discussed the advantages, disadvantages and data structure requirements for each multivariate technique in great detail.
Jeroen Jansen (Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Heteren) gave an overview of the different steps involved in multivariate data analysis. He stressed the importance of a clear scientific question and a thorough design of the experiment, because these aspects eventually determine which statistical model will be used to interpret the data. He showed examples of untargeted LC-TOF-MS data of different Barbarea vulgaris chemotypes that he analyzed by Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant Analysis.
The general discussion after the talks revealed the need for technical information as well as for the development of conceptual aspects of multivariate analysis. On the technical site, there were several questions about how to transfer data from analytical software to the various statistical programs, how to deconvolute chromatograms, and where to find help in deciding on the most appropriate multivariate method. There was also a conceptual debate about the value of untargeted analyses for understanding the biological effects of (induced) compounds, and how this may help to understand the role of a particular compound.
Overall, the workshop was very well received. Many of the participants indicated they would like to learn more about this rapidly developing field and its application for chemical ecological research. Nicole van Dam composed a list with book titles, websites and software dealing with multivariate statistics discussed at the workshop. This list can be downloaded form her personal page (http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/ppages/nvandam/).
Maud Ferrari, Canada
Orkun Baris Kovanci, Turkey
Catalina Estrada, USA
Johannes Stökl, Germany
Jeroen Jansen, The Netherlands
Flore Mas, Switzerland
Petra Matouskova, Czech Republic
Thorben Nawrath, Germany
Josef Vuts, Hungary
Sandra Steiger, Germany
Kenneth Webster, The Netherlands
Mohammad Mahier Uddin, Germany
Best Poster
Alexandra Barofski, Chales Vidoudez & Georg Pohnert, Jena, Germany
Biosynthesis and function of polyunsaturated aldehydes
Best Presentation
Sandra Steiger, University of Freiburg, Germany
The smell of parents: breeding status influences cuticular hydrocarbon pattern in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.
Gunnar Bergström was born and raised in Göteborg, southwestern Sweden. He had special interests in literature, physics, and medicine, but came to study chemistry, biology, history of science and philosophy at university. He was recruited as a graduate student by Prof. Einar Stenhagen (Medical Biochemistry, Göteborg), a well-known pioneer in organic mass spectrometry and other bio-physical techniques, and Prof. Bertil Kullenberg (Entomology, Uppsala), a biologist with broad knowledge in plant-insect relationships and originator (1963), together with Stenhagen, of the well-equipped Ecological Research Station of Uppsala University, on the island of Öland, southeastern Sweden. Gunnar spent the summers at the station and the rest of the year in Göteborg. Many collaborations with biologists and other chemists were initiated at the station.
Gunnar graduated with a PhD in 1973. His thesis was titled “Chemistry of Behavior-Releasing Olfactory Signals In Aculeate Hymenoptera”. He became an assistant professor. (docent) in Biochemistry at Göteborg University. He had affiliations with the departments of Medical Biochemistry and Medical Physics, and a special research position with the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council. He spent periods in Toulouse (natural products chemistry) and Copenhagen (microwave spectroscopy) and was a guest Professor. at the University of Texas, Austin, in 1976. Gunnar became full Professor of Ethological Chemistry (a term coined by him at the request of the University) in 1983 and a research unit was created. He was involved with the start of the Journal of Chemical Ecology in 1975 and the ISCE in 1984, and he was the second President of the Society. He was co-organizer of a pioneering IUPAC meeting “Chemistry of Insects” at Borgholm, Öland in 1979, the meeting host of the 6th ISCE meeting in Göteborg 1989, and initiator and co-chair of the first Gordon conference on “Biology and Chemistry of Floral Scent” Oxford, 1999.
Gunnar’s has a broad interest in chemical ecology, with his work covering: 1. Integrated analytical techniques; 2. Olfactory signals in bees and bumble bees, involving, respectively, chemical mimetism and speciation mechanisms; 3. Olfactory signals in ants and antlions; 4. Volatile chemicals from flowering plants and plant-insect relationships; and 5. Pheromones of bark beetles and pine sawflies, and their use in control. He has been involved in major Swedish and European collaborative research projects for the study of behavioral chemical signals in forest insects. Gunnar has held various positions at the University of Göteborg, the Swedish Research Council, various Foundations, and is a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Stockholm), the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences (Göteborg), the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (Helsinki), the Linnean Society (London), the Academia Europaea, and other Academies and Societies. He has received a number of prestigious awards for his work including, the Letterstedt Prize, the Linnean Prize and the Insect Biochemistry Prize for best article 1980 (with Jan Löfqvist).
Leslie B. Vosshall, Chemers Family Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics at The Rockefeller University, is the recipient of the 2008 Silverstein-Simeone Award. Work in the Vosshall lab has focused on the molecular biology of chemoreception in insects.
Her laboratory identified Or83b as a conserved member of the insect odorant receptor gene family that acts as an essential co-receptor necessary for odorant receptor trafficking and function. Recently she proposed that the insect odorant receptors adopt an atypical topology, a provocative finding that calls into question the conventional assumption that all chemosensory receptors G protein-coupled receptors. In 2007, her lab discovered the molecular mechanism by which insects detect carbon dioxide, a finding of potential importance in modulating host-seeking behavior of blood feeding insects.
An imporant long-term goal of work in Vosshall’s lab is to design next generation insect repellents useful in the global fight against insect-borne diseases.
Vosshall joined the Rockefeller faculty in 2000 as an assistant professor and advanced to associate professor in 2006. She received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Columbia University in New York and a doctorate in molecular genetics from The Rockefeller University.
Since rejoining Rockefeller, Dr. Vosshall has received a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a McKnight Scholar Award, a John Merck Fund Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a New York City Mayor’s Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, named a finalist for a 2007 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists from the New York Academy of Sciences, and received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the United States government’s highest honor for young scientists.
Call for Nominations for the Year 2009 ISCE Silver Medal and Silverstein-Simeone Awards
The ISCE Silver Medal Award is intended to recognize career achievement by an outstanding scientist working in the field of chemical ecology. The Silverstein-Simeone Award, established in 1995, to honor Milt Silverstein and John Simeone, is made on the basis of recent or current work, by the individual, of an outstanding nature at the “cutting edge” of chemical ecology. The recipient must deliver a plenary lecture at the annual ISCE meeting and publish a paper on the same topic in the Journal of Chemical Ecology. The expenses of the recipient of the Silverstein-Simeone Award to attend the annual meeting are paid by the society through the generous sponsorship of Springer Publishers. Nominators should be ISCE members in good standing. Nominations will be reviewed by the President and Vice President for relevance to the appropriate award, before forwarding them to the full ISCE Executive Committee. Should a nomination for one award be considered more relevant for the other award, the President will contact the nominator(s) regarding reconsideration. Current ISCE officers or councilors are not eligible for the awards because of possible conflict of interest. Note that previous, unsuccessful nominations must be renominated to be considered for the awards. It would be helpful to resubmit the nomination packets for these individuals..
The nomination process is the same for both awards and is as follows:
• A nomination letter explaining why the nominee should be recognized for the award, stressing either their current cutting-edge research (for the Silverstein-Simeone award) or their career achievements (for the Silver Medal award).
• Curriculum vitae, including a list of publications pertinent to the research on which the award is based (for the Silverstein-Simeone award), or a full list of publications (for the Silver Medal award). If desired, supporting letters from other colleagues.
Please submit all parts of the packet in electronic format (including supporting letters) along with one paper copy to: Dr Wendell Roelofs, President , Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA
Email: wlr1@cornell.edu
Deadline for receipt of nominations: 31 December 2007
Nominations for the positions of Vice-President and four new councilors are called. The position of Vice-President is prestigious in that he/she will assume the position of Society President in the year following tenure of the role of Vice-President.
ISCE councilors are elected for a term of three years. Councilors must commit to attending at least two ISCE Executive meetings during this period. Their other principal responsibilities are participation in the selection of the Silver Medal and Silverstein-Simeone Award and to provide general guidance and assistance to the Executive Committee. It is expected that all people nominated for the above positions have a strong record of participation in Society activities and meetings. It is highly desirable that the elections have competition for the positions, i.e., that there is more than one high quality candidate for Vice-President and at least 5 candidates for the councilor positions.
Please send names, contact addresses, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of candidates along with a short description of why you think the candidate(s) would be suitable for office, to Dr Gary Blomquist, President , Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada , Reno, NV 89434, USA
Email: garyb@cabnr.unr.edu
Deadline for receipt of nominations is December 31 2007
Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation 2008 Award in Chemical Communication
The Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation will award a prize for an original piece of work, or series of works, carried out by an individual or team, in the field of SOIL
CHEMICAL ECOLOGY.
The prize of US$10,000 will be awarded to works written or translated in French or in English.
The Foundation will move soon, please check by e-mail the following address
before sending your application: fondation.j.m.delwart@skynet.be
Fondation Jean-Marie Delwart
A l'attn de Raphaëlle Holender
U.C.L. Bâtiment Pythagore
4, Place des Sciences (Bte 4)
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgique
Candidates can send their own applications or be nominated by a
specialist in the field or by an Academic Institution. Applications must be presented in quadruplicate and should consist of a letter of nomination, a detailed C.V. and a complete list of publications. Applications may also include reprints, books and any additional relevant information.
The jury is composed of members of the scientific committee of the
Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation and of members of the Académie Royale des
Sciences de Belgique.
The Prize will be awarded in December 2008 at the occasion of the Public
session of the Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique.