This is my last report as President of the Society for In Vitro Biology. My 2-year term ends at the annual meeting in June and President-Elect William Smith assumes the helm.
I have enjoyed the privilege of leading our Society over the past 2 years and I sincerely appreciated the trust that you placed in me. I hope you find that the trust has been well-founded. I am confident that SIVB is on solid footing and the incoming leadership is primed to guide SIVB into the future. I have also enjoyed the opportunity to use this forum as my “bully pulpit” on a rather wide-ranging set of editorial topics. And this, my final Report will continue that trend, but instead of being retrospective like the past few reports, I intend to look forward and challenge you to consider what the Society for In Vitro Biology should, and can become.
The inspiration for this editorial came from an article that appeared in The Scientist this past March1. In it, Steven Wiley posted the question, “To join or not to join” a scientific society? Like many of us, Steven is a member of multiple societies and, every year, he is asked to renew his membership and, every year he has to question the value of re-upping his membership. Is there sufficient value in belonging to a particular society that justifies the cost? This is a sensible and pragmatic question and one that is being answered often in the negative, as evidenced by declining membership numbers in many professional societies, ours included. Steven makes a valid point that the traditional benefits provided by society membership, typically a subscription to the Society journal and a venue to present and hear new research, may no longer be sufficient. For many, present company included, access to the journal is no longer compelling as we have journal access via other means, usually online via an institutional subscription. Read More...
Changes at the IVRDr. Carol Stiff is stepping down as co-editor of the In Vitro Report. Carol has been co-editor for 4 years. Carol is stepping down to devote more time to her non-profit business, Kitchen Culture Education Technologies Inc. where she is president and executive director, and to assist with the new non-profit business, American Council for Medicinally Active Plants www.acmap.org where she is the Treasurer and the volunteer Webmaster. Carol has been a member of the SIVB (called the “TCA” at that time) since the 70’s when Dr. Toshio Murashige sent her stacks of his publications and suggested she join the TCA. Carol will continue to serve on other SIVB committees as well as help the new co-editor in the transition. Dr. Sylvia Mitchell is taking over the position of co-editor of In Vitro Report. Sylvia joined the SIVB in 2001 (at the encouragement of Carol Stiff) and has been an active member ever since. In addition to being a volunteer each year, Sylvia co-convened a session in 2005 on ‘Plant phase changes’, one in 2007 on ‘Secondary Metabolites’, and then another in 2008 on ‘Biofuels - a field ripe for research or not?’ Sylvia serves on the Education Committee and the Student Awards Committee and is a former member of the Philip White Committee. Read More... |
Meeting UpdateScience in the Heartland –
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Before you know it, the 2010 Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) meeting will be upon us. This year’s meeting is being held June 6-11 in St. Louis, Missouri, in conjunction with the 12th International Association for Plant Biology (IAPB) Congress. IAPB congresses are held at four-year intervals and typically attract research scientists from wide-ranging fields of plant and agricultural biotechnology from around the world. SIVB annual meetings are international events focusing on the science, novel technologies, and advances of in vitro biology for both plants and animals. The scientific program at this year's meeting will continue to offer sessions on subjects pertinent to both animal and plant biotechnology while providing all participants with the high quality science and one-on-one interactions that SIVB members have come to expect.