AIBS News March 2009

• AIBS Annual Meeting to Feature NAS Reception, Pennock Lecture

  The 2009 AIBS annual meeting, "Sustainable Agriculture: Greening the Global Food Supply," will be held 18–19 May at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The program chair is 2009 AIBS President May R. Berenbaum, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Registration, poster submission forms, and the preliminary program are online at www.aibs.org/events/annual-meeting. The meeting will bring together plenary speakers, panelists, and discussion groups from the basic and applied life sciences to examine food sustainability, supply, and security. The two-day program is geared toward the science-policy interface for an audience of scientists, educators, students, representatives from nongovernmental organizations, members of Congress, and the media. The rest of the meeting's program will be rounded out by, among other events, a contributed poster session, AIBS awards, a teachers' workshop organized by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study and the National Association of Biology Teachers, and a workshop, led by the AIBS Public Policy Office, focusing on the AIBS publication Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media. As a special event, there will be a reception and lecture starting at 6:30 p.m. on 18 May at the National Academies' Keck Center, in Washington, DC. The speaker will be Robert Pennock, of Michigan State University, who will give the talk "Reason Enough for Scientific Researches: Darwin and the Scientific Virtues." The evening will also include an after-hours tour of the Koshland Science Center. (The $35 fee for the reception includes return bus transportation from the meeting hotel and after-hours access to the Koshland Science Museum.) The meeting is taking place during "Year of Science 2009," a year of activities aimed at engaging the general public in the nature and value of the scientific enterprise. Year of Science 2009, which is co-organized by AIBS and the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science, involves more than 500 organizations. Recordings of the plenary lectures from the annual meeting will be available online for free viewing in the AIBS Media Library (www.aibs.org/media-library/) about two months after the meeting. The meeting's confirmed speakers and the topics of their presentations, if available, are listed below:

  • Bruce Alberts (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco); Science editor-in-chief
  • May R. Berenbaum (Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  • Fred Gould (Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University): "From Transgenic Crops to Transgenic Pests: How Can AgBiotech Be Green?"
  • Hans R. Herren (Millennium Institute, Arlington, Virginia): "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security: The Wake-up Call for Change"
  • Taylor Ricketts (Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund–USA); agriculture and conservation
  • Scott Swinton (Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University); agriculture and ecosystem services
  • Robert Tauxe (National Center for Zoonotic, Vectorborne, and Enteric Diseases; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention); foodborne diseases

  Breakout discussion sessions

  • Public understanding of agriculture, food supply, genetically modified foods
  • Biofuels
  • National Academies' report on agriculture and undergraduate science education
  • Year of Science 2009 information and planning session

  Workshops

  • National Association of Biology Teachers/Biological Sciences Curriculum Study
  • AIBS Public Policy Office: Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media

• ASM-AIBS Graduate Student Public Policy Internship

  AIBS and the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) are pleased to announce the availability of an internship in the AIBS Public Policy Office in Washington, DC. The internship is open to ASM members who are currently enrolled in a graduate program and who are engaged in research that will contribute to our understanding and conservation of mammals. The internship is for three months during the fall of 2009, and carries a monthly stipend of $2000. Selection criteria include a demonstrated interest in the public policy process, strong communication skills, and an excellent academic record.

  The AIBS Public Policy Office focuses on science and science education public policy (e.g., federal research and development funding policy). Additional information about ASM and AIBS can be found on their Web sites (www.mammalsociety.org, www.aibs.org).

  The ASM-AIBS public policy internship is an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in public policy at the national level. By working with the AIBS Public Policy Office, the intern will learn how scientific societies, nongovernmental organizations, executive branch agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation, US Geological Survey), and the legislative branch interact to craft science policy. Duties include (but are not limited to) the following:
  

  • Attending science coalition meetings, congressional and agency briefings, hearings, press briefings, and other relevant events
  
  
  • Assisting with tracking and analysis of relevant issues
  
  
  • Assisting with planning Capitol Hill briefings or press events
  
  
  • Preparing a written report on the internship experience

  Application requirements:
  

  • A letter of application describing the applicant's interest in science policy issues and detailing how this fellowship would enhance his or her professional goals. The applicant should include the names of two individuals other than his or her adviser from whom recommendations can be requested. These individuals should be able to address the candidate's leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills.
  
  
  • A two-page résumé that demonstrates the applicant's leadership and communication experience. It should include education (including relevant law or policy courses), work experience, honors and awards, memberships, presentations, and publications.
  
  
  • A statement describing the importance of federal support for fundamental mammalian research (500 words maximum). The statement should draw on the applicant's own experience or research area, and should illustrate how the applicant would try to convince his or her own congressional delegation to support federal research funding programs and agencies.
  
  
  • A letter of support and recommendation from the applicant's academic adviser.
  
  
  • Copies of transcripts from each college or university from which the applicant received a degree and/or in which the applicant is currently enrolled.

  Applicants are not required to be ASM members at the time of application, but if selected must join the society before starting the internship. All application materials must be received by 1 May 2009 and should be sent to Alicia V. Linzey, Evaluation Committee Chair, 148 Double Brook Drive, Weaverville, NC 28787. Questions about the internship can be addressed in an e-mail to Linzey at avlinzey@verizon.net.

• Recent Articles Online at www.actionbioscience.org

  Original article in English
  

  • "The Legacy of Charles Darwin," by Tim M. Berra, professor emeritus in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University

  "Technology: An Educational Issue?" blog post
  

  • The Year of Science 2009

  Spanish translation of a previously posted article
  

  • "Nanotecnología: Es un mundo muy, muy, muy, muy pequeño" [Nanotechnology: It's a Small, Small, Small, Small World], by Ralph C. Merkle, executive editor of the journal Nanotechnology

  BioScience 59: 268
  doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.3.15

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