Your year 2000 Membership Renewal Form is enclosed, and copies are on the society website, www.isce.ucr.edu/ Please return this form with your dues to our new Treasurer Steve Teale, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology, State U. of New York, Syracuse NY 13210, USA. If you have not yet paid your 1999 dues, please do so; the day-to-day running of the Society, including the costs of preparing and mailing the Newsletter, is funded by annual dues. Note that you can pay by credit card if you wish - VISA, Mastercard, or Discover card.
Thanks to those members who have sent me photos, news items, notices of upcoming meetings, etc. to include in the Newsletters. Please keep them coming! The Newsletter will only be as good as the information in it, and to provide good information, I need your help. Specifically, news items in several general areas would be welcome:
Please send items to me by Email or regular mail. My address and Email are listed on the masthead above.
Last year, the Society revised and updated its brochure, which describes the general aims of the Society and provides information about Society functions and meetings. The brochure is lavishly illustrated with some terrific photos contributed by members, and it is really eye-catching. We intended that the brochure would be used as a tool to introduce potential new members to the Society and its philosophy and functions. The brochure is also intended as a fundraising aid, so that potential donors can get a quick overview of the Society, and the types of research and activities that their donations would be supporting. If you need some brochures for recruiting or fundraising efforts, please contact Jocelyn Millar at the address above. Alternatively, the officers of the Society have been sent brochures, so they can provide you with some as well.
The ISCE website now includes postings of positions available, as a service to members only. Please send any postings with a concise but complete description of the position (e.g., project description, qualifications, salary range, duration, contact information, etc.) to me at my Email address on the masthead.
I would like to express my thanks to Adam Trickett, who has done a wonderful job of setting up and maintaining the Society webpage here at Riverside (http://www.isce.ucr.edu/Society/). There is a link to the membership list (http://www.esf.edu/ISCE/), which is maintained separately by the Treasurer.
The arrangements for the meeting are almost complete, and Jean-Luc Clément, our meeting host, has indicated that attendance will be excellent. In fact, the conference hotel is now fully booked, but the meeting organizers have been able to arrange accomodation at hotels nearby for late registrants, so everyone who applies will have comfortable and convenient accomodations. The meeting organizers have sent out clear directions and confirmations of registration for the hotels, so all registered participants should know exactly where they will be staying. The costs of meals are covered by the registration fees, with meals to be taken at the main conference hotel, the Concorde Palm Beach Hotel. If you are at all unsure about your arrangements, please contact the organizers; their phone and FAX numbers, and Email address, are on the confirmation of registration sheet sent to each registrant by mail.
The final details of the scientific program are being worked out, and participants will be informed of the times of their presentations or posters in early October by Email.
The closing banquet will be held in The Grand Tinel Hall of the Palais-des-Papes in Avignon. The Popes' Palace is a magnificent building, one of the noblest expressions of Gothic architecture in Europe, "The most beautiful and powerful mansion in the world" as a chronicler declared ten centuries ago. In the 14th century, this luxurious palace was the capital of the Christian world. It witnessed nine popes in succession and its bold architecture and rich paintings still remain as signs of this glorious past. In the 14th century, the wooden ceiling was covered with blue fabric studded with stars. During the election of a Pope, the arched walls to the south and the west were taken down, and the Grand Tinel Hall opened onto the Robing Room and the Guests' quarters. The Cardinals remained cloistered here until the election of the new Pope was decided. It will be a truly memorable venue to hold the final banquet for the meeting.
We are all looking forward to a stimulating and enjoyable conference in Marseille. See you there!
Trécé, Inc., a manufacturer and supplier of a wide variety of insect pheromone products and traps based in Salinas, California, generously donated monies to the Student Travel Fund, which sponsors student travel to the annual meeting to make presentations. Student travel awards are made on an annual basis, with 6-10 students and postdoctoral scholars normally receiving awards. Details of application procedures can be found on the ISCE website, and are mailed out every year along with the registration information for the annual meeting.
In Germany there has been a dramatic decline in the number of students starting to study chemistry, with almost 50 % fewer students enrolling in chemistry courses now than at the beginning of the decade. This decline has very significant negative implications; for example the pool of students prepared for University training in the sciences will decrease, as will University resources and funding. The decline may be partly due to (perceived) poor job expectations, which are recovering now, and a bad reputation for Chemistry in general. Colleges in other countries may face the same situation. A key step in reversing this trend will be to rekindle an interest in Chemistry among students in middle and high schools. Unfortunately, however, chemistry teachers in Germany frequently are not well trained, and have a difficult time teaching students the many fascinating and fundamental ways in which life on earth is dependent on chemistry. Better training will help, but it is probably equally important that teachers can demonstrate the importance of chemistry to their students through interesting themes, illustrated by real-life practical examples and experiments. Chemical Ecology could be one such theme, and in fact, several teachers have asked me for ideas and suggestions that they might use in their classes. In terms of generating interest in Chemistry, Chemical Ecology seems to be an ideal discipline for helping chemistry teachers to enliven their classes, because of the many fascinating chemically mediated phenomena in nature that are so easy to demonstrate.
What is needed to make this happen? A series of simple, robust, and entertaining experiments in which chemicals are shown to play a key role in development or behavior, for example, would provide a good foundation. While there are plenty of textbooks with "ordinary" experiments for school chemistry, I doubt whether even one covers a single chemical ecology experiment, or even uses a living organism in an experiment! To make a start at forming a database of simple but interesting experiments for use in schools, I ask you, my fellow members of the ISCE, to suggest chemical ecology experiments or demonstrations that could be done in schools, preferably with student participation. If possible, outlines of experimental procedures with lists of equipment and supplies would be even more helpful. Lab or field experiments can be aimed at every school level, starting from simple primary school experiments to more complex ones for high school students. For example, experiments such as trail following by ants, feeding stimulation of a variety of organisms, germination experiments, pheromone-based sex attraction or aggregation, and manipulation of insect development by exogenously applied hormones might be ideal. Because of the strong links with biology, these experiments would probably benefit science teaching in general, not just Chemistry. Obviously, it may be difficult to find a certain species or phenomenon in every region of the world, but even regionally limited experiments can offer insights for others, or be used to provide a framework for science teachers to adapt experiments to the organisms that are available locally. The database could be maintained on the ISCE website, which would allow continuous updating and addition of new experiments, as well as feedback from users. I will collate and edit the experiments, and pass them on to the ISCE Secretary for website posting. Please indicate the amount of time needed to perform the experiment and the school level aimed at (when known), and whether the experiment has been performed successfully before. Full credit will be given at the web site. It would also be useful to have volunteers to test new experiments, to get an unbiased idea of how well the experiments work, and any possible problems. Please send your suggestions and outlines to me, Stefan Schulz, at Email: stefan.schulz@tu-bs.de, or by regular mail to the Institute of Organic Chemistry, TU Braunschweig, Hagenring 30, D-38106 Germany. Thank you in advance for your help with this very worthwhile project.
The 1st Brazilian Conference on Chemical Ecology will take place at the Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Parana State, Brazil, Dec. 1-4, 1999. The conference has been organized by members of the Laboratorio de Ecologia Quimica e Sintese Organica in the Department of Chemistry, UFPR Curitiba, with the aim of strengthening and increasing the visibility of Chemical Ecology in Brazil, and as a means of increasing links between research groups within Brazil and abroad. The conference is sponsored by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ), the Brazilian Society of Chemistry, the Brazilian Entomological Society, and several industrial sponsors, including Varian Instruments, ISCA Tecnologias, 3M, SINC do Brasil, and Planta¸Øes E. Michelin Ltda. The conference will consist of invited lectures, submitted papers, and posters. The invited lectures will include:
For more information, please contact Prof. Paulo Zarbin, Email pzarbin@quimica.ufpr.br, or visit the website at http://www.quimica.ufpr.br/~iebeq/ebeq.html
The 1st National Symposium of Chemical Ecology took place May 24-25, 1999, as part of the Mexican National Congress of Entomology in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The symposium was organized by the Chemical Ecology group from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chiapas, with 14 papers presented by researchers from ten different Mexican research Institutions, such as CP, ECOSUR, IE, INSP, IPN, UNAM, UAM, and UNACH, as well as the URA-CNRS from France. The symposium included topics related to interactions between insects and plants, with organisms of importance to agriculture, medicine, and forestry, and a paper on allelopathy. Papers in extenso were published as Memoirs.
Staffan Lindgren, longtime ISCE member and acting chair of the Biology Program at the University of Northern B.C. in Canada, is asking for a donation of Volumes 1-10, and Vol. 12, #4 of the Journal of Chemical Ecology, should any retiring members of the Society be willing to donate their copies. The University will pay all transportation costs, and provide a receipt for tax purposes. If you have some or all of these back issues, please contact Joanne Matthews, Head of Information Services, UNBC Library, 3333 University Way, Prince George B.C., V2N 4Z9, Canada; phone 1-250-960-6615, FAX 1-250-6610, Email matthews@unbc.ca
The Silverstein-Simeone lecture and award was established by the ISCE in 1995 to honor Milt Silverstein and John Simeone for their contributions to the field of Chemical Ecology and for their long service as founding editors of the Journal of Chemical Ecology. It is presented each year to a scientist conducting innovative research on the "cutting edge" of science. The recipient of this award is asked to present a plenary lecture at the annual meeting of the ISCE and to publish a paper on the same topic in the Journal of Chemical Ecology. The expenses of the award recipient to attend the annual meeting are paid by the society through the generous sponsorship of Plenum Press.
The first five scientists to receive this award were:
Please help the society by nominating someone who is doing innovative research in chemical ecology for the Silverstein-Simeone award for the year 2001. Selection of the 2000 awardee is already underway. All that is required is a nomination letter explaining why your nominee deserves to be recognized for his/her innovative research, a Curriculum vitae, and a list of publications pertinent to the research on which the nomination is based. Send your nominations to Thomas Hartmann, Vice-President, ISCE, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 1, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany, by April 1, 2000.
The officers of the ISCE welcome nominations for the 2001 ISCE Silver Medal Award, sponsored by the Fuji Flavor Company, Ltd. (Tokyo). This award recognizes outstanding long-term scientific achievement in the field of Chemical Ecology. Previous winners have been Professors Silverstein, Blum, Rothschild, Roelofs, Schneider, Meinwald, Eisner, Harborne, Rosenthal, Janzen, Francke, Mori, Pasteels, Fenical, and Hartmann. The process of selecting the 2001 Silver Medalist will be completed at the 2000 ISCE meeting in Brazil. Nominations therefore must be received by 1 April 2000, so that the Executive Committee and Councilors will have time to review the nominations and reach a timely decision. Executive committee members and councilors are excluded from nomination during their terms of office.
We are confident that you know colleagues who richly deserve this prestigious award. Please help to ensure that these colleagues are recognized through nomination for the award. The nomination procedure is very simple: we require only the nominee's Curriculum vitae and list of publications and a letter of nomination that explains the accomplishments of the nominee that qualify her/him for the award. Please submit nominations by April 1, 2000 to: Dr. Walter Leal, ISCE Vice President Elect, Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting, National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science, University of Tsukuba, 1-2 Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan.
The Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation will award a prize for an original work or series of
works, individual or collective, in the field of Chemical Communication, dealing with the
specific action of chemical substances on organisms (invertebrates, vertebrates including man,
plants, etc.) and/or with the fundamental mechanisms governing the functioning of receptors.
The prize consists of an award of $10,000, and will be awarded for work written or translated
into French, or in English. The Award will be presented in December, 2000, at the Public
Session of the Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique.
Applications: Candidates may submit their own applications, or have their
applications submitted by a colleague with expertise in the research area in question.
Applications consist of a covering letter, a curriculum vitae, a complete list of publications,
and the compilation of written works that constitute the basis for the application. Applications
should be submitted in triplicate to the following address, with a deadline of March
15, 2000 for receipt of applications: Fondation Jean-Marie Delwart, U.C.L.
Bâtiment Pythagore, 4, Place des Sciences (Bte 4), B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Selection Process: Applications will be reviewed by a Jury composed of
members of the scientific committee of the Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation, and of members
of the Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique.
John Borden, professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and a member and leader of one of the world’s foremost teams of chemical ecologists, was recently elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Fellowship in the Royal Society is considered Canada’s most prestigious academic accolade. A few months later, Professor Borden was elected as a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America. Fellows of the ESA are elected on the basis of outstanding contributions to Entomology, with no more than ten new Fellows being elected annually.
During his long and immensely productive career, Borden has been one of the pioneers of chemical ecology. He has been involved in major discoveries in insect-plant interactions, and semiochemical identification, production, and function. He is probably most well known for his work in the chemical ecology of forest insects. For several decades, he has led an interdisciplinary group of scientists who have made seminal contributions to the understanding of the chemical systems that are used by insects for communication. Many of these discoveries have been developed into valuable tools for management and control of insect pests of forests, stored products, and fruit and vegetable crops. During this prolonged period of extraordinary scientific activity and discovery, Professor Borden has also contributed heavily to public service, serving on numerous review and grant panels within Canada and internationally. However, his most enduring legacy may be the dozens of students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists, throughout North America and internationally, who have benefited from his mentoring, and who have now established chemical ecology research groups and laboratories of their own. Many of these colleagues will be honoring Professor Borden by participation in a symposium in his honor, to take place during the joint meeting of the Entomological Societies of America and Canada in December of 2000, in Montreal. Furthermore, an issue of The Canadian Entomologist will be dedicated to Professor Borden in 2000, in recognition of his many contributions to entomology and insect chemical ecology.
This multi-author book fills a gap in the literature by addressing the subject of pheromones
in non-lepidopteran insects. It presents research from leading authorities on the most
important insect groups, and details the current progress of pheromone research in these
areas. Applications of the research to agricultural systems around the world, and possible
mechanisms for sustainable crop protection, are considered.
Contents: Part I: Pests
Fruit Flies, Gall Midges, Scarab Beetles, Sap Beetles, Weevils, Forest Beetles, Stored-product
Beetles, Sawflies and Seed Wasps, Aphids, Scale Insects, Phytophagous Bugs, Grasshoppers
and Locusts, Termites,
Part II: Beneficials
Predators, Parasitoids, Parasitoid Hosts, Bees
[Webmaster's note: Additional meeting information of an even more general interest can be found at the ISCE website meetings page]
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Dr. Jocelyn G. Millar ISCE - Secretary Department of Entomology University of California RIVERSIDE, CA 92521 United States of America |
Tel: +1 909-787-5821 Fax: +1 909-787-3086 jocelyn.millar@ucr.edu Millar Home page |
