AIBS News December 2004

• AIBS Welcomes NEON Writer

  Daniel C. Johnson, a former speechwriter with the National Science Foundation (NSF), joined AIBS in November as the public information representative for the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Design Consortium and Project Office.

  In 2002 and 2003, Johnson drafted keynote addresses, lectures, and other remarks for NSF's former director Rita Colwell and deputy director Joseph Bordogna. From February to October 2004, he wrote science research features for the foundation's Web site. Before his tenure at NSF, Johnson served as associate editor of The Futurist magazine (writing frequently about trends in society, government, and the environment) and as communications director of the World Future Society in Bethesda, Maryland. His work as an editor and writer in the DC literary community includes three collections of poetry and a term as president of Washington Writers' Publishing House.

  Johnson's primary task will be to coordinate and implement a NEON media strategy and to disseminate information about the project to Congress, the scientific community, agency and NGO stakeholders, and the general public. He will report to Jeffrey Goldman, AIBS Science Office director and NEON project manager, and work closely with NEON's codirectors, Bruce Hayden (Science and Education) and William Michener (Informatics and Technology).

  Additional staff scheduled to join the NEON team at AIBS headquarters include several postdoctoral associates who will participate in the project design process. For more information about NEON, visit www.neoninc.org/ or contact Dan Johnson at (e-mail: )

• AIBS Welcomes New Member Societies

  In October 2004 the AIBS Board of Directors welcomed the Coastal Education and Research Foundation (CERF) and the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) as member societies in AIBS.

  CERF, founded in 1984, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the advancement of the coastal sciences. The foundation is devoted to the multidisciplinary study of the complex problems of the coastal zone. The purpose of CERF is to help translate and interpret coastal issues for the public and to assist professional research and public information programs. The foundation specifically supports and encourages field and laboratory studies on a local, national, and international basis. Through the media of scientific publications, television, and radio, CERF brings accurate information on all aspects of coastal issues to the public and coastal specialists in an effort to maintain or improve the quality of shoreline resources. CERF publishes the Journal of Coastal Research. Read more about the foundation at www.cerf-jcr.org.

  APLS is an international and interdisciplinary association of scholars, scientists, and policymakers concerned with problems and issues that involve politics or public policy and one or more of the biological sciences. The association, founded in 1980, has an individual and institutional membership of approximately 400. A 12-member council oversees the operation of APLS. The association hosts a Web site at www.aplsnet.org/, conducts an annual meeting for its members, and sponsors the publication of the journal Politics and the Life Sciences.

• AIBS Members and Staff Recognized as National Academies Education Fellows and Mentors in the Life Sciences

  AIBS members Ingrid C. Burke (Colorado State University), Martin L. Tracey Jr. (Florida International University), and Michael L. Dini (Texas Tech University) were named National Academies Education Fellows in the Life Sciences for their participation in the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology, held 16–20 August 2004 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The newly named fellows were among 39 faculty from research institutions at the week-long summer institute, the theme of which was scientific teaching (see the article by Jo Handelsman and colleagues, "Scientific Teaching,"Science 304: 521–522).

  Gordon Uno, chair of the AIBS Education Committee (University of Oklahoma), and Susan Musante, AIBS education and outreach program manager, served as facilitators. They were recognized as National Academies Education Mentors in the Life Sciences, along with AIBS member Diane Ebert-May (Michigan State University). The mentors each worked with a team of faculty participants to develop a teaching unit that engages students actively in their own learning, reaches a diverse student audience, and includes ways to assess whether students have met the intended learning outcomes. The participants committed to implement the teaching unit that they collectively developed, share information with peers at their home institution, and conduct a training seminar for those who mentor undergraduate student researchers.

  The summer institute grew out of a recommendation in the National Academies' National Research Council report Bio2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (see www.nap.edu/catalog/10497.html). Major funding for the 2004 Institute was provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute along with support from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the National Academies. Visit www.academiessummerinstitute.org to learn more the 2004 program and participants, as well as to find information about next year's summer institute, currently scheduled for 31 July–5 August 2005 in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Recent Articles Online at www.actionbioscience.org

  Original article in English
  

  • "Urban Heat Islands: Effects and Biological Solutions," by James Voogt, associate professor of geography at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and chair of the American Meteorological Society's Board on the Urban Environment.

  Spanish translation of previously posted article
  

  • "Los Impactos Ecológicos de la Biotecnología Agrícola" ("The Ecological Impacts of Agricultural Biotechnology"), by Miguel A. Altieri, professor of agroecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California–Berkeley

  Lessons for classroom activities
  

  • "The Value of a Garden," written by Marianne E. Krasny, professor and director of graduate studies, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, to accompany the article "The Weight of a Petal: The Value of Botanical Gardens," by H. Bruce Rinker, division administrator of the Pinellas County Environmental Lands Division, Florida
  
  
  • The PowerPoint presentation "Feedback Loops in Flower Gardening," also written by Marianne Krasny, with Cornell colleagues Paul Newton, Linda Tompkins, and Karl North

back to AIBS News