AIBS News March 2005

• NEON Featured at NCSE Conference

  Senior planners of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) provided a project update at the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) conference in Washington, DC, 3–4 February 2005.

  NEON codirector Bruce Hayden discussed the complexities of designing ecological forecasting systems at a roundtable/plenary panel. Hayden described the process of sharpening NEON's focus as the project evolves toward its specific build-out design. He also addressed issues related to how observatories support the science needed to generate forecasting models, supplying data that is crucial to running the models and evaluating their effectiveness as forecasting tools.

  In a second presentation, Hayden gave NCSE conference attendees an overview of the NEON concept. He was joined by William Michener, codirector for informatics and technology, who outlined the 21-month design process that will result in a detailed NEON planning document by June 2006. Finally, project manager Jeffrey Goldman discussed the results of the first meeting of the NEON Design Consortium, held in Los Angeles, 4–6 January 2005, which produced first-draft committee reports addressing eight science challenges, technical infrastructure issues, educational programs, and the formation of NEON, Inc.

• New at www.neoninc.org

  • Reports from the second meeting of the NEON Design Consortium (15–17 March 2005 in Boston) will be available online for public comment throughout April. Interested readers are invited to provide confidential comments to the NEON Project Office via Web-based evaluation surveys that accompany each science, technology, education, and organizational report. Feedback from the public and the science community will go to the appropriate subcommittee cochairs as they undertake further revisions of NEON documents.
  • Sign up for the NEON Design Consortium's electronic mailing list to stay informed about the latest developments in the design process. By joining, readers will receive updates on developments in the NEON design planning effort and be alerted when documents have been posted on the Web for comment.
  • Who's who in NEON design and planning: The NEON Design Consortium comprises more than 160 scientists, engineers, technology experts, and educators. Brief biographical sketches for all of the committee and subcommittee members are available at www.neoninc.org.

  For further information, contact Dan Johnson, NEON public information representative, at .

• AIBS Welcomes Two New Member Organizations

  In February 2005, the AIBS Board of Directors welcomed the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA) and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut as member organizations in AIBS.

  The International Association for Bear Research and Management, founded in 1968, is a volunteer organization open to professional biologists, wildlife managers, and others dedicated to the conservation of all species of bear. The organization consists of several hundred members from over 20 countries. IBA supports the scientific management of bears through research and distribution of information. The organization also sponsors international conferences on all aspects of bear biology, ecology, and management. These conferences alternate between venues in the Americas and in Eurasia. The IBA publishes the journal Ursus. Read more about the society at www.bearbiology.org.

  The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut consists of over 30 faculty and 50 graduate students with taxonomic interests in algae, parasites, mosses, lichens, vascular plants, insects, and vertebrates. Faculty and students conduct field work on every continent except Antarctica and use the full range of modern experimental, observational, and analytical techniques to investigate a broad range of questions in ecology, evolutionary biology, and systematics. More information about the department and its programs is at www.eeb.uconn.edu.

• Recent Articles Online at www.actionbioscience.org

  Original articles in English
  

  • "Using Case Studies to Teach Science," by Clyde Freeman Herreid, distinguished teaching professor, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
  
  
  • "Natural History Museum Collections in the Twenty-first Century," by Keith S. Thomson, professor emeritus of natural history, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

  Spanish translations of previously posted articles
  

  • "Células Madre para Terapias Celulares" [Stem Cells for Cell-based Therapies], by Lauren Pecorino, biochemistry program leader, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
  
  
  • "Los Microbios: Cómo Actúan y Cómo son Cambiados por los Antiobióticos" [Microbes: What They Do and How Antibiotics Change Them], by Maura Meade-Callahan, adjunct professor of microbiology, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey

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