News from the Society, the Sections and the Committees
News from the Society, the Sections and the Committees
The 1999 Annual Meeting was held in conjunction with the International Botanical Congress held at America’s Center, St. Louis, MO from 1-7 August 1999. The scientific program and fieldtrips were subsumed into the IBC program. The BSA meeting program only consisted of the following social events and meetings: Executive Committee meeting (Sat, 31 July; 2:00 to 6:30 PM), Council meeting (Sun, 1 Aug, 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM), Business meeting (Tues, 3 Aug, 7:30 to 9:00 AM), AJB Editorial Board Luncheon (Tues, 3 Aug, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM), Social for North American Botanists (Thurs, 5 Aug, 7:00 to 10:00 PM) at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and Executive Committee meeting (Sat, 7 Aug, 4:30 to 6:30 PM). There is no Past-President’s symposium. The address of the President-Elect, Dr. Doug Soltis, will take place during the Social for North American Botanists. –Wayne Elisens, Chair Reports from the Committees
BSA Annual Meeting Committee
The archival material is still in the possession of Jim Mauseth in Austin, Texas, and no new material has been received over the course of the year. Over the past year, the Committee has dealt with two requests for information, one concerning the history of the Darbaker Award, the other concerning the role of the University of Wisconsin, and particularly Charles Reid Barnes, in the foundation of the Society.
–Alan Whittemore, Chair
The Conant Committee (Judy Jernstedt, Brian McCarthy, Pamela Soltis, Ruth Stockey, and Dan Crawford) awarded travel grants to 31 people in support of attendance at the International Botanical Congress. Three awardees are nontenured professionals, two are postdoctorals, 20 are graduate students. Recipients include attendees from three foreign countries. Awards of $325 were made to those traveling from greater distances and $225 were made to those within one travel day of St. Louis. The awardees giving posters were asked to display the BSA logo and acknowledgement of Conant Travel grants in a corner of their posters, and those presenting symposia papers were asked to mention the support.
–Dan Crawford, Chair
This year our activities included:
–Kayri Havens, Chair
The Corresponding Members Committee is forwarding three nominations to BSA Council for approval.
Prof. Friedrich Ehrendorfer -- Department of Higher Plant Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, Austria
Friedrich Ehrendorfer has made many significant contributions to plant systematics and evolution, including numerous original research papers and important syntheses in reviews and book chapters. His research has incorporated karyotypic studies, phenetic and cladistic analyses of morphological characters, enzyme electrophoresis, and DNA sequencing. He is widely recognized for his work on the evolution of insular floras, chromosome evolution, and the adaptive significance of major taxonomic characters. Prof. Ehrendorfer has influenced generations of students and colleagues through his enthusiasm and broad knowledge of plants, as well as service of director of the Institute of Botany and of the Botanical Garden, University of Vienna, and as editor of Plant Systematics and Evolution. (Nomination by Tod Stuessy, supporting letters from Mark Chase, Dan Crawford, Jeff Doyle, Doug Soltis, Pam Soltis.)
Prof. Wolfgang Hagemann -- Institute of Systematic Botany and Plant Geography, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Wolfgang Hagemann is widely recognized for his original and insightful contributions to plant morphology. He has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of shoot apical meristems and leaf development. Prof. Hagemann has elucidated the basic morphological principles of meristem behavior in both pteridophytes and seed plants, emphasizing the evolutionary context of developmental patterns. He also has made major contributions in the area of theoretical plant morphology, including the "organismal"nature of land plant construction, a view that has influenced many molecular biologists. He has hosted numerous international colleagues and has been a stimulating mentor to many students.(Nomination by Stefan Gleissberg, supporting letters from Peter Endress, Ryoko Imaichi, Judy Jernstedt, Don Kaplan)
Prof. Jerzy Rzedowski – Centro Regional del Bajio, Instituto de Ecologia, Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico
Jerzy Rzedowski’s extensive analyses of the ecology and phytogeography of the Mexican flora have culminated in the widely used Vegetacion de Mexico, floristic studies such as the two volume Flora Fanerogamica des Valle de Mexico (prepared jointly with Graciela Calderon de Rzedowski), and the multivolumed Flora del Bajio. He has also contributed significantly to the taxonomy of the Burseraceae and Compositae, and to the history of Mexican botany. Included amongst his major achievements is the development of the herbarium of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional as an outstanding research herbarium with over 200,000 specimens. Dr Rzedowski is widely recognized for his generosity to foreign botanists and for inspiring generations of students. (Nomination by Shirley Graham, Allan Graham, supporting letters from Chris Anderson, John Beaman, Richard Spellenberg)
–Nancy G. Dengler, Chair
The committee continued work on several major projects:
Improvement of Pre-College Science Education
GOAL: To support the improvement of science education through participation at conventions of science teachers.
STATUS: Again this year, the Education Committee and the Teaching Section cooperated in representing the BSA at annual meetings of the National Association of Biology Teachers in Reno, NV (November 4-7, 1998) and the National Science Teachers Association in Boston (March 24-28, 1999). Rob Reinsvold has written a full report of these activities which are summarized here.
NABT: Rob Reinsvold and Ethel Stanley presented a workshop for secondary and community college teachers, "Leave It to the Plants." The room had a capacity of 50 persons but an additional 30-40 teachers stood around the edges of the room. Teachers asked for more workshops of this type.
NSTA: Rob, Ethel, and J. Shipman staffed the BSA booth. This was strategically located adjacent to booths sponsored by ASPP, American Phytopathological Society, Wisconsin Fast Plants, and C-Fern. This area was dubbed "The Plant Place" by convention participants and was very popular. Conference attendance totaled 21,154 teachers (of all the sciences) and we had direct contact with approximately 1,500 of them. Visitors to our booth started their own pocket gardens which were attached to their name badges. Each "garden" had an onion set with a label containing the BSA logo and the URL of our web site. In the course of several days the onion sets produced roots and shoots and the teachers learned how they could be used to teach a variety of principles of plant biology. A survey of booth visitors indicated a need for more workshops and hands-on plant lessons. Rob’s excellent report contains more details.
This outreach was supported by a $5,000 appropriation to our committee by last year’s Council. The success of this outreach effort attests to the need for expansion of these efforts. Rob and Ethel have been accepted as workshop presenters at the 1999 meeting of NABT, October 27-30 in Fort Worth, TX. We will not have a booth at that meeting because we missed the reservation deadline. The appropriation requested below includes funds for a booth at the NABT meeting in 2000 (October 25-28, Orlando, FL) because we must reserve space and pay for it before next summer’s meeting of Council. If funds are appropriated (motion below), we will participate again at the NSTA meeting, April 6–9, 2000 in Orlando, FL. Again, we have asked to be located adjacent to the other societies. If we can find BSA members who are willing to attend regional conferences of these organizations, we want to encourage that.
Motion: That the Council approves a sum, not to exceed $10,400 (for travel, lodging, registration fees, and booth rental) for selected BSA members to attend national, regional, or state meetings of organizations like the National Association of Biology Teachers and National Science Teachers Association for the purpose of presenting workshops on plant biology in the K-12 curriculum and distributing educational materials in support of expanding the quantity and quality of plant biology. The proposed budget:
1999-2000 PROPOSED BUDGET
| Budget for NABT: | |
|---|---|
| Booth | $1500 |
| BSA Volunteers (3 X $1000) | $3000 |
| Handout Materials | $ 500 |
| Sub-Total | $5000 |
| Budget for NSTA*: | |
| Booth | $1700 |
| BSA Volunteers (3 X $1000) | $3000 |
| Handout Materials | $ 700 |
| Sub-Total | $5400 |
| TOTAL | $10,400 |
*Expenses at NSTA are higher because it is a much larger conference (more attendees) and, therefore, tends to be in places that charge more for exhibit space.
If the Council approves the expenditure, the Education Committee will select members to represent BSA in these activities and will authorize payments upon proof that the workshops and other outreach activities were performed as proposed.
Digitized Botanical Images
GOAL: To digitize the BSA's collection of 35mm slides, then to make the images available through a web page or CD-ROM or both.
STATUS: Thomas W. Jurik (Dept. of Botany, Iowa State University) chaired a subcommittee in charge of this project. Tom and David T. Webb (Botany Dept., University of Hawaii) have finished digitizing the slides. Scott Russell is nearly finished putting them on the BSA website. Temporary access for beta testing is at http://129.15.38.204/bsa/images.html. We have asked for a permanent address and expect to get approval for http://images.botany.org/bsa/images.html. This collection consists of 799 images in 14 categories. Some work on the web site remains to be done, but the initial databases are finished and a search engine is built. Each of the images is available as a thumbnail, medium resolution (640 x 480 range, i.e., a screen-full) and high resolution (1600 x 1200 range, i.e., more than a screen-full!).
Many of the captions need to be expanded now that the slides are available to teachers and students who may not be as familiar with the subject matter. Scott is programming a limited-access editing function so we can expand and correct the captions. We are enlisting the help of several Education Committee members and volunteers in that phase.
The Education Committee (and all members of BSA) are indebted to Tom and David for digitizing the slides and to Scott Russell for designing and mounting the web site. We think all members will find the images useful in their teaching and will be proud of having made this collection available to teachers throughout the world.
The Education Committee wants to expand this collection of images and is working with Scott Russell to determine the best way of doing that in the coming year.
Participation in Workshops of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)
GOAL: The Botanical Society should cooperate with other professional societies in plant biology to improve undergraduate education in the life sciences.
STATUS: David Kramer and Gordon Uno and other members of BSA will be participating in two round table discussions sponsored here at IBC by Project Kaleidoscope. Organized by Susan Singer, these discussions are scheduled for 7 am to 8:45 am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in the East Room of the Holiday Inn Select. The goals are "1) to identify critical issues in plant biology education for college and university faculty and 2) to create an agenda for a 3 day plant biology education workshop to be held in Keystone the week of July 16, 2000."
Additional Goals for 1999-2000:
GOAL: To publish hands-on, discovery-type plant biology exercises for use in schools as well as at colleges and universities. These could be published on our website and/or in hard copy.
GOAL: To offer assistance to publishers who are seeking professional review of manuscripts for plant biology books. We want to make sure the plant biology content is correct before it is published.
Final Comment
In addition to its appointed members, the Education Committee has a number of volunteers who help with various projects. Any member who wants to be actively involved with any of the committee projects should contact the chair.
The chair thanks all members and volunteers of the committee for their support and especially thanks the officers of BSA for supporting the work of this committee and encouraging the BSA to be more active in educational outreach.
–David W. Kramer, Chair
There were elections for the offices of President-elect and Program Director, with two nominees for each office. Patricia G. Gensel, University of North Carolina, was elected President-elect and Jeffrey M. Osborn, Truman State University, Missouri, was elected Program Director.
— Nancy Dengler, Chair
Purpose and Funding: The purpose of the Karling Graduate Student Research Award is to support and promote graduate student research in the botanical sciences. To be eligible, a student must be a member of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), a registered full-time graduate student, have a faculty advisor who is also a member of the BSA, and not have won the award previously. Funds for the Awards come from interest on the Karling and the BSA Endowment Funds, and from the sale of BSA logo items.
Committee Organization: During the previous two years, Karling proposals were submitted to the BSA Disciplinary Sections, reviewed and ranked by sectional officers, and then forwarded to the BSA Executive Committee for further review and funding decisions. This year has been the first year that the Karling Graduate Student Research Award Committee has been charged with the entire process. The Committee revised and distributed the "Call for Applications," reviewed all proposal submissions, made funding decisions, and communicated with all applicants.
1998-1999 Committee Membership:
1999 Submissions: Forty three proposals for Karling Graduate Student Research Awards were submitted in 1999. A summary of the submissions by BSA sectional affiliation is as follows:
| Bryological/Lichenological | 1 |
| Developmental/Structural | 4 |
| Ecological | 8 |
| Mycological | 2 |
| Paleobotanical | 3 |
| Physiological | 1 |
| Pteridological | 1 |
| Systematics | 22 |
| Tropical | 1 |
The Committee was generally impressed with the overall quality of the proposals and found that there were a greater number of excellent proposals submitted than there were Awards available.
1999 Awards: Ten Karling Graduate Student Research Awards will be presented at the 1999 BSA 'Banquet.' Each awardee will receive a certificate and a $500 Award. The 1999 awardees are as follows:
1) Ms. Laura Boykin
Affiliation: University of New Mexico
Yr & program: 1st, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Systematics
Advisor: Timothy K. Lowrey
Proposal Title: "Evolutionary relationships of Orcuttieae (Poaceae) revealed: Transition from land to water?"
2) Ms. Amy B. Carroll
Affiliation: University of Missouri-Columbia
Yr & program: 3rd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Ecological & Physiological
Advisor: Candace Galen
Proposal Title: "Responses of floral traits to drought: Implications for attractiveness to pollinators"
3) Ms. Ranessa L. Cooper
Affiliation: University of Alberta
Yr & program: 2nd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Developmental and Structural
Advisor: David D. Cass
Proposal Title: "Structural adaptation of endemic willow taxa (Salicaceae) to the Lake Athabasca sand dunes"
4) Ms. Tara Forbis
Affiliation: University of Colorado at Boulder
Yr & program: 2nd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Ecological
Advisor: Pamela K. Diggle
Proposal Title: "Sexual reproduction and genetic structure in alpine plant communities"
5) Ms. Kristina M. Hufford
Affiliation: University of Georgia
Yr & program: 4th, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Tropical
Advisor: J. L. Hamrick
Proposal Title: "Viability selection at three early life stages of the tropical tree, Platypodium elegans"
6) Ms. Tatyana Livshultz
Affiliation: Cornell University
Yr & program: 3rd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Systematics
Advisor: Melissa Luckow
Proposal Title: "Systematics and evolution of ant associations in Dischidia R. Br. (Marsdenieae, Asclepiadaceae)"
7) Mr. J. Chris Pires
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin - Madison
Yr & program: 5th, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Systematics
Advisor: Kenneth J. Sytsma
Proposal Title: "Integrating biosystematics and phylogenetics: Floral diversity, polyploidy, and serpentine endemism in the recently resurrected plant family Themidaceae"
8) Ms. Valerie Reeb
Affiliation: University of Illinois at Chicago and The Field Museum
Yr & program: 1st, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Mycological
Advisor: Francois Lutzoni
Proposal Title: "Monophyletic circumscription of the family Acarosporaceae and the genus Acarospora (lichen-forming ascomycetes), and the origin of polyspory"
9) Ms. Jennifer A. Tate
Affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
Yr & program: 3rd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Systematics
Advisor: Beryl B. Simpson
Proposal Title: "Systematics and evolution of Tarasa (Malvaceae), an enigmatic Andean polyploid genus"
10) Mr. Michael Zanis
Affiliation: Washington State University
Yr & program: 3rd, Ph.D.
BSA Section: Systematics & Genetics
Advisor: Doug Soltis
Proposal Title: "Molecular systematics and floral evolution in monosulcate angiosperms"
An attempt was made to contact approximately 320 members of the Botanical Society of America who had previously agreed to serve as campus representatives for the Society - the responsibilities of representatives are to distribute recruiting materials and promote membership. On average, 65 percent of those contacted responded, with over 90 percent of them agreeing to continue in their role as campus representative. Materials including posters will be distributed prior to the beginning of the academic year. In order to increase the number of representatives, as well as the campuses represented, all members having e-mail addresses will be contacted in late July or August requesting their participation, as well.
—Leo P. Bruederle
Three people were selected to receive BSA Merit Awards for 1999: Dan Crawford, Ohio State University; Barbara Schaal, Washington University; and Tod Stuessy, University of Vienna. These awards will be presented at the BSA Social on Thursday, August 5.
—Greg Anderson, Chair
The Maynard F. Moseley Award was established in 1995 to honor a career of dedicated teaching, scholarship, and service to the furtherance of the botanical sciences.
Committee Structure and Purpose: The purpose of the Award, as stated in Article X, Section 4 (f), is as follows: "Moseley Award" consisting of a chair appointed by the President and two other members, chosen by the President in consultation with the Developmental and Structural Section and Paleobotanical Section chairs, each serving three-year terms with one new member being appointed each year. The prize is awarded to a student who is the sole or senior author of a paper, orally presented in the Developmental and Structural Section or Paleobotanical Section of the annual meeting, that best advances our understanding of the plant anatomy and/or morphology of vascular plants within an evolutionary context.
1998 Award Recipient: Michelle McMahon (Washington State University), for her paper entitled "Corolla-androecium synorganization in the flowers of the tribe Amorpheae (Fabaceae)"
1999 Committee Membership:
1999 Award: A Moseley Award will not be presented in 1999, as the annual meeting will be held in conjunction with the International Botanical Congress (IBC) and the majority of student presentations will be posters. The decision to not present a 1999 Award was made at the 1998 BSA Annual Meeting and took into consideration the formal guidelines for the Moseley Award, logistical issues planned for the IBC that were discussed at the 1998 BSA Council meeting, and the plans for other 1999 BSA student awards.
—Jeffrey M. Osborn, Chair
The Web Page Committee was formed by a 1998 amendment to the bylaws. The charge of the committee is to maintain the Society's Webpage and advise the President and the Council on policies and changes necessary for effective Internet communications. During the past year, the BSA site there have been over 239,000 page requests from over 100 countries. The web page includes the following major sections (use in % for the past 6 months in parentheses): Announcements (6.23%), Botany in the News! (0.54%), American Journal of Botany (42.63% of which 36.96% is abstract use), Plant Science Bulletin (13.30%, of which 11.79% is full electronic text access), Careers in Botany (6.09%), Botany for the Next Millennium (3.79%), an Online Directory, Annual Meeting Sites (2.97%), Membership Information Pages (bylaws, awards, officers)(1.83%), Section Home Pages (1.51%), WWW Botany Sites (3.53%), and Web Site Statistics (1.13%). The home page accounted for 15.70% of the visits, so the "average visit" reached a depth of five pages. New features: "Botany in the News" gathers articles about plants from the media (usually ABC News, which in contrast to most sites, has a stable archive). Although the archive is not commonly used, the feature is prominently featured on the home page and receives more attention during the school year. The "Careers in Botany" site moved from OU to the BSA server late in April; "Careers" is a very popular site, receiving about 17% of the hits in May and June. Many of the visitors are K-12 students looking for information on careers as part of a school assignment, and others are interested in careers in general. American Journal of Botany abstracts—posted on the BSA server for 1997 and 1998—became redundant with the opening of the AJB Online site at http://www.amjbot.org/ on January 15, 1999. Past abstracts have now been removed from the BSA server and a hyperlink has been placed on the error page to the abstract site at AJB Online.
New initiatives: (1) The Teaching Section's Slide Collection has been digitized largely through the efforts of Tom Jurik, Dave Webb and David Kramer, in cooperation with the Teaching Section and the Education Committee and the Webmaster. This has been mounted on a new server at OU located at: http://images.botany.org/bsa/. This server is a Pentium 120 operating under Linux providing a convenient interface to the 799 current images. If anyone has a newer computer that can be devoted to this, let me know! We hope to continue this through purchasing a slide scanner and soliciting future donation of teaching images. (2) The "Ask-a-Botanist" project has grown out of the one or two questions per day that I get on plants during the school term! Botanists are now accessible. I am planning to develop a listserv/website interface that will direct questions to a panel of botanist volunteers. The questions and their answers will be posted through the BSA web site. (3) We hope to develop further teaching resources to be available via the web pages on teaching using plants. (4) If you know anyone who would be particularly appropriate to serve as a member of this committee, please let Doug know, as we are still organizing this committee under our new "permanent committee" status.
—Scott Russell, Webmaster and Chair
Prior to the 1998 BSA Annual Meeting, then-President Nancy Dengler appointed a special ad hoc committee of six members to explore ways for significantly increasing the BSA endowment, especially the Conant Travel Fund and the Karling Graduate Research Fund. An immediate goal was to solicit contributions to the Conant Fund to support attendance at the International Botanical Congress in St. Louis.
A letter from the Committee requesting donations was included in the 1998 fall mailing to approximately 2,700 BSA members (all categories). Thirty-six members responded to this plea, with contributions ranging from $10 to $500, thereby raising $1,480 for the Conant Fund and $1,470 for the Karling Fund. Another $1,281 for the Conant Fund and $116 for the Karling Fund was included with members' renewals at the end of the year.
The challenges for the "development" committee for the coming year(s) include:
—Judy Jernstedt, Chair
Conferon provides many meetings-management services based on commission income from contracts negotiated with hotels and suppliers. Services from Conferon include: initial screening for site selection, facilitating contract negotiations with hotels and suppliers (AV, transportation, exhibitor decorators, etc.), pre-meeting planning, and on-site assistance. Hotel commissions also pay for services of an Account Planner to oversee meeting planning and on-site assistance.
II. BOTANY 2000 MEETING. Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR; 6-10 August 2000.
Contracts signed - Signed contracts in place with Oregon Convention Center (rental fee $13,300), host hotel (Doubletree/Lloyd Center), and overflow hotels (Best Western, Holiday Inn, and Comfort Inn).
Total contracted room block:
| Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
8/4 |
8/5 |
8/6 |
8/7 |
8/8 |
8/9 |
8/10 |
| 60 | 241 | 400 | 500 | 500 | 413 | 65 |
Contracts needed - Registration, AV services, Exhibit decoration and exhibit coordination, Transportation, Airline discount provider, etc.
Services where bids have been received - Registration, Exhibit coordination
Items under development - Budget, Exhibitor prospectus, Botany 2000 logo, T-shirt production, promotional and registration materials
III. BOTANY 2001 MEETING. Albuquerque Convention Center, Albuquerque, NM; 12-16 August 2001.
Contracts signed - Signed contracts in place with host hotel (Hyatt), and overflow hotels (Doubletree, Ramada, Plaza Inn). Letter of agreement signed with Albuquerque Convention Center (rental fee $5,000).
Total contracted room block:
|
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
Mon |
Tues |
Wed |
Thur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
8/10 |
8/11 |
8/12 |
8/13 |
8/14 |
8/15 |
8/16 |
|
73 |
340 |
440 |
500 |
500 |
420 |
50 |
Total room nights blocked = 2323
Contracts needed during FY 2000 - Albuquerque convention center, registration, exhibit coordination.
Items under development - Budget, Exhibitor prospectus, logo for meeting, promotional materials.
IV. BOTANY 2002 MEETING. Pyle and Lowell Conference Centers and UW campus buildings, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 3-8 August 2001.
Contracts signed - Signed agreement in place with UW-Madison Pyle Center and convention services. 133 campus hotel rooms reserved; a large number of dorm rooms are available (150 reserved).
Contracts needed during FY 2000 - Overflow hotels near campus (at least three)
Items under development - Budget, Exhibitor prospectus, logo, promotional materials, recruitment of PSA and International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA).
V. BOTANY 2003 MEETING. southeastern USA, particularly near Gulf or Atlantic Coasts under consideration.
VI. BOTANY 2004 meeting venue open for discussion.
— Wayne Elisens, Chair