E-Board No. 42

June 2006

ISDCI E-Board Number 42
June 2006

Dear ISDCI Colleagues

This is the last E-Baord I shall circulate before the Charleston meeting. It also (sadly for me) the last E-Board I shall be sending out as I am handing over the ISDCI Education Secretary hat to Courtney Smith (no relation!) in July. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed items to the E-Board over the last 5 years and I hope you have all found something of interest or use in these mailings. Its been a great pleasure to have been in communication with you all through the E-Board, and I’m sure you will all welcome and support Courtney in her role as the new Education Secretary. Her e-mail and mailing addresses are:

csmith@gwu.edu

L. Courtney Smith,
340 Lisner Hall
Department of Biological Sciences
George Washington University
2023 G St NW
Washington DC 20052

202-994-9211; office
202-994-6100; fax

Please send any items for posting to her from now on. In the meantime I am moving on to serve ISDCI in as new capacity (please see below) and I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the 10th meeting in Charleston in a month’s time.

Very best wishes

Val Smith
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Our tenth Congress is coming up fast. The programme looks exciting and I am sure we will have a fantastic time due to the hard endeavours of our local organisers. So thanks in advance to Greg et al.

The results of the election for our new President-Elect are in. As you know, we had two excellent candidates in Steve Kaattari and Val Smith. Both long-standing members of ISDCI and past conference organisers. I am delighted to announce that Val has been elected, and will take over the reigns of the Society from Kenneth Soderhall at ISDCI XI.

This is my last message via the E-board as President. There will be a number of issues I will raise at our members meeting in Charleston, so please do come along and give your views. Critically one relates to whether we should have a compulsory electronic subscription to DCI as part of our membership dues, rather than the current situation of having a compulsory hard copy subscription. I will give the details on the day.

It has been an enjoyable three years. I believe the Society has made significant advances over this period but there is still a lot more to do. Over to Kenneth - shortly!!

See you in Charleston.

Chris Secombes
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ISDCI CONGRESS PRE / POST DOC TRAVEL BURSARY AWARDEES

Would the pre/ post doc members who have been notified that they have been awarded an ISDCI bursary to help with the cost of attendance at the Charleston meeting please note the following:

-You will receive your bursary award from Norman Miller (Secretary / Treasurer) in Charleston

-Please bring with you a print out of your e-mail bursary award notification from me (Val Smith) and some form of ID. The e-mail notifications were sent out on 8th May 2006.

-Those that joined the Society only recently (ie at or after registration) may be required to bring proof of payment of ISDCI membership dues or confirmation that you are a paid up member of ISDCI (pre/post doc level).

- All recipients will receive their payment in the form of a cheque (check) in US dollars. We are arranging for non-US residents to cash their cheques at the Congress through the Organisers (WorldAqua). US residents will be expected to cash their cheque through their own bank account.

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VACANT PhD POSITION
PhD position: Evolutionary Ecology of Immune Defence

Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Joachim Kurtz and Paul Schmid-Hempel seek a graduate student interested in doing a PhD on the topic of the evolutionary ecology of immune defence. The project will focus on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity in immunity. The major goals are (1) to investigate the extent of phenotypic plasticity in the immune response of an invertebrate (the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum), (2) to experimentally test its benefits, costs and health impacts with regard to pathogenic and nutritional environmental conditions, (3) to use an experimental evolution approach for studying the evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity. Since the project will include the study of long-term phenotypic adaptation, which might be transferred between generations, it will touch the recently highly debated field of epigenetic change.

For more information please contact:
Joachim Kurtz (joachim.kurtz@env.ethz.ch)
ETH Zurich, Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ), ETH-Zentrum, Universitatsstrasse 16, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Phone: + 41 44 63 36 032

For application please send your CV and addresses of 2-3 potential referees until 18 June 2006. Employment will be according to standard regulations of the ETH. Start of project: August 2006 or by mutual agreement. More information on our research can be found at http://www.eco.ethz.ch.

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The next E-Board will be circulated by the new Education Secretary, Courtney Smith. Please send any announcements or items for posting. She can be contacted by e-mail at csmith@gwu.edu


So long and..... thanks for all the fish.......

Val Smith
ISDCI Education Secretary
vjs1@st-and.ac.uk

Gatty Marine Laboratory
School of Biology
University of St Andrews
Fife, KY16 8LB
Scotland, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1334 463474
Fax: +44 (0) 1334 463443

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