ExpEriEncEs----Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn By Harold Heatwole Editor in Chief, ICB 2006-present When I was born into a rather conser-vative Mennonite community in the early 1930s, the chances of my becom- ing an academic were remote---a Sunday school teacher maybe----but a biologist teaching evolution!!?! My father was the first in our community ever to graduate from High School, my elder brother and sister, and I, were the first three to go to College. But, I had one singular advan- tage. My father, Elmer Heatwole, was an enquiring, open-minded person and deep- ly regretted that he never had the chance to get a college education. In his youth, Mennonite sons who took a job other than on their father’s farm gave their wages to their father until reaching the age of 21. My father went to high school against pa- s P R i n g a h e a d ! By Billie J. Swalla, SICB President Spring ahead! March came in like a Lion, but then the buds began ap- pearing on the trees, flowers began poking out of the ground, and spring is officially here. Now that we are operat- ing on Daylight Savings time, are you enjoying the longer days after the long hard winter that most of the U.S.A. en- dured? The winter storms affected SICB 2014 meetings in a harsh way, stranding East Coast speakers and leaving gaps in well-planned symposia. I heard stories of students in airports for 36 hours, only to be told that all flights were cancelled. Nevertheless, for those who DID make it to the SICB 2014 Austin meet- ings, there was something for every- one. We had some awesome plenary speakers who were still fielding ques- tions after the receptions were over. We had shortened talks to 15 minutes, to coordinate with the symposia and allow more speakers. There are those of you who really dislike this format, but when we polled SICB members after the meeting, most were overwhelmingly for it. We also went back to an hour and a half lunch, to allow participants to really go out, eat together and talk science in an informal atmosphere. This was also appreciated, as seen by the survey, so we’ll keep these in our schedule for SICB 2015. SICB is thriving and financially sound, but we are continuing to build our en- dowments so that the high level of sup- port that students have experienced will continue to be possible. One new aspect of the meeting in Austin was the pub crawl to get students acquainted and raise a bit of money. I went and talked to many students who were first-time at the meetings, and their enthusiasm for science and for the SICB meetings was contagious. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Donations Report 2 Treasurer’s Report 2 Program Officer 4 Search for Editor 6 Elections 14 DIvISIoNS of SICB: Animal Behavior Comparative Biomechanics Comparative Endocrinology Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology Evolutionary Developmental Biology Ecology & Evolution Invertebrate Zoology Neurobiology Phylogenetics & Comparative Biology Vertebrate Morphology Harold Heatwole, as a high school sophomore, lec- turing to the Natural History Club of Eastern Menno- nite High School, Harrisonburg, Virginia (1949) continued on page 7 continued on page 13 rental opposition and he was determined that his children would have the best edu- cation possible. One year his expenditure of money for his four children’s education exceeded his total income of that year, something I only discovered accidentally years later when browsing through his old income tax returns. It was his vision and support that gave me the opportunity to break out of an oppressive culture and fol- low my own dream. That dream was to be a naturalist. http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DAB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DCB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DCE.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DCPB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DCPB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DEDE.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DEDE.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DEDB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DEDB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DEE.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DIZ.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DNB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DPCB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DPCB.pdf http://sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2014/2014-1 DVM.pdf https://www.facebook.com/groups/SICBmembers/ https://twitter.com/SICBtweets SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 2 Your donations have a profound effect on this Society and the future of compara- tive biology. Prior to the 2014 meeting in Austin, the SICB Development Committee implemented a tiered donor recognition plan. Five levels of giving are recognized and acknowledge donations from January 2013 (including the San Francisco meet- ing) through the end of the Austin meeting this past January. The Society leadership wishes to extend sincere thanks to these individuals and encourages all members to consider donating to the Society’s endowment. Several funds make up the Endow- ment and you can request that your donation be applied to the fund of your choice. The Society plans to continue to recognize donors in this fashion. Please know that the Endowment is crucial to the continued success of the Society and that every dol- lar counts. Again, many thanks. Go to the SICB home page and click Donate to SICB on the lower left panel. D o N aT I o N S T o SICB a rEporT from THE DEvElopmENT CommITTEE Support your favorite SICB fund. Click on the “donations” button on the home page. Diamond ($500 and up) Ken Dial M. Patricia Morse Jared Simons Platinum ($250-499) Karen Burnett Louis Burnett Emily Carrington Thomas Hahn Darwin Jorgensen Robert Roer Kenneth Sebens Sherry Tamone Cheryl Wilga Gold ($100-249) Mark Chappell Jim Clegg Thomas Daniel Joan Davis Levin Scott MacDougall-Shackleton Duncan MacKenzie Duane McPherson Rita Mehta Donald Mykles John S. Pearse Robert Podolsky Mary Rice Michael Romero Michael Salmon Richard Strathmann Billie Swalla Silver ($50-99) Michael Greenberg Jon Harrison John Hermanson Matthew Lovern Sarah Woodley Bronze (up to $49) Elizabeth Davis-Berg Lisa Hazard Raymond Huey Matthew Landau Sara O’Brien SICB ExECUTIvE offICErS Billie Swalla President 2013-15 U. of Washington Ken Sebens Past President 2013-15 U. of Washington Peter Wainwright President-Elect 2013-15 U. of California, Davis Karen Martin Treasurer 2013-16 Pepperdine University Lou Burnett Secretary 2012-15 College of Charleston Sherry Tamone Prog. Officer 2014-16 U. of Alaska Southeast Jon Harrison Past Prog. Officer 2014-15 Arizona State Univ. Brett Burk Executive Director McLean, VA The finances of the Society are solid. The total assets have increased from $1,650,445 in FY 2012 to $1,766,371 in FY 2013, an increase of $115,926. Investments rose from $1,102,475 as of 30 Nov 2012 to $1,220,178 as of 28 December 2013, an increase of $117,703. The investments were re-bal- anced mid-year. Of these investments, approximately 75% are in the endowed (restricted) funds and 25% are in the unrestricted funds. Endowed funds received over $22,000 in donations last year, including a major gift of stock to the Hyman fund, auction funds for the Hyman fund, donations to the Symposium Enhancement fund re- sulting from the wine tour, and dona- tions to the Grants In Aid of Research SICB f I N a N C E S Treasurer’s reporT, Karen MarTin fund from the octopus travel mugs. In the coming year, new guidelines for fund maintenance and growth are being im- plemented so that the endowments will be able to support their missions sus- tainably and also grow in a sensible way. Annual meetings continue operating in the black, as they have since 2009. In 2013 the annual meeting in San Fran- cisco brought in revenues of $431,011 against expenses of $414,238. Travel support was provided to 452 students. The budget approved for FY 2013 predicted revenue of $748,525 against expenses of $785,845, with an expect- ed loss of $37,320. The actual revenue was $1,006,819 and expenses were $950,107, with a positive balance of $56,712. Over the past four fiscal years, http://www.sicb.org/ SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 3 approved budgets have anticipated finishing in the red, but results for the past four years have been in the black. Based on past per- formance and reason- able predictions, the budget for FY 2015 proposes expected revenues conserva- tively at $872,625 and expenses of $860,315. This results in a positive balance of $12,310. This is the first time, in at least ten years, that the SICB Executive Com- mittee has been asked to approve a balanced budget for the coming year. The budget for FY 2015 was approved at the SICB annual meeting in Austin. donations RePoRt Endowment funds receive gener- ous support from SICB members and friends over the past few years. A total of $22,044 was donated to SICB in FY 2013, spread over 11 of the 12 funds. www.SICB.org SICB f I N a N C E S , C o N T I N U E D Treasurer’s reporT, Karen MarTin In FY 2012, donations were $5,860. In the current fiscal year, FY 2014, gifts have already exceeded $22,750, thanks in large part to a generous donation of stock from Dr. Jarid Simons for the Libbie Hyman Fund. Again, eleven of the 12 funds received donations. As a nonprofit organi- zation, SICB depends on a budget with a narrow margin between expens- es and revenues. Dona- tions allow more support to be provided to student members and meeting ac- tivities benefitting a broad spectrum of the member- ship. Donations can be earmarked for any of the funds of the Society, or given unrestricted. Please consider a donation when you reaffirm your membership, especially as you have enjoyed this extended mem- bership year. Note that membership dues have been steady since 2007. Thanks to your involvement, SICB is financially sta- ble with an active, growing membership. “Thanks to your involvement, SICB is financially stable with an active, growing membership.” Endowment Fund 2011 2012 2013 2014 Carl Gans Award $170 $125 $1,100 $250 George Bartholomew Fund $535 $585 $1,170 $95 Libbie H. Hyman Fund $205 $1,655 $14,564 $17,622 Dwight D. Davis Fund $675 $745 $1,050 $2,125 John A. Moore Lectureship Fund $100 $25 $75 $1,190 Adrian M. Wenner Fund $100 $0 $0 $0 Dorothy M. Skinner Fund $1,660 $140 $530 $245 Symposium Enhance- ment Fund $165 $155 $580 $225 Charlotte Mangum Fund $425 $515 $415 $340 Grants-in-Aid-of-Re- search Fund $645 $410 $2,305 $405 Howard Bern Lecture Fund $4,010 $1,455 $230 $200 C. Ladd Prosser Symposium Fund $55 $50 $25 $60 Total $8,745 $5,860 $22,044 $22,757 SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 4 As the incoming SICB Program Officer, I want to congratulate the outgoing Pro- gram Officer, Jon Harrison, for putting to- gether an excellent program for the 2014 SICB meeting in Austin, Texas, this year. What a great venue! I hope you were able to get out, visit historical Austin, and listen to live music at some point during the meeting. I spent much of the meet- ing learning the ropes of being a Program Officer and attending SICB committee meetings and workshops. Nevertheless I was able to attend many talks, visit post- ers, get together with many colleagues, and walk the streets of Austin. The 2014 SICB meeting in Austin was the second largest SICB meeting ever with over 2000 registrants (2013 in San Francisco holds the record). We were able to accommodate 877 talks in 130 sessions because of the re- cent change to allot 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes for oral presentations. While fewer than 10% of SICB mem- bers disapproved of this change (online SICB meeting survey) most meeting participants (70.2%) were enthu- siastic about the change. Members overwhelmingly appreciated the lon- ger lunches and the ability to move seamlessly between regular talks and symposium presentations. Members noted that speakers often used the entire 15 minutes and there was no time remaining for questions, a nega- tive consequence of the 15 minute oral presentation time. I was guilty of this myself and will make appropriate changes next year so that there remains at least 2 minutes for questions and dis- cussions. Over 600 members contributed to the post-meeting survey which provides us with important information about our meetings. Most members (87.3%) rated this meeting as very good to excellent. It is encouraging to read the responses of members to this question because the survey responses reaffirm what a great society SICB is and what a great resource this meeting is for students and postdocs. 2014 - SICB a U S T I N r E C a p a N D 2015 U p D aT E S prograM officer, sherry TaMone SICB is particularly supportive of its members with families. Having children should not preclude members from at- tending and actively participating at SICB meetings. For over 5 years, SICB has arranged for childcare services at each meeting and past surveys revealed general satisfaction with this service. This year, SICB opted to subsidize over 50% of the cost to members, and partic- ipants who used the child care service in Austin were extremely satisfied and ex- pressed their thanks for the significant SICB subsidy of costs. Some members would not have been able to attend and present at SICB if not for the available childcare services. There was excellent attendance dur- ing all 4 days of the scientific program and the evening lectures (Bartholomew, Bern and Moore Lectures) were also well attended. The program committee makes a point of providing a meaning- ful program through the entire 4 days of meetings and, while some members do choose to leave early on the final day, oral sessions and symposia still attract- ed a sizable audience. For the second year, we incorporated a meeting App (Core-Apps) for use with mobile phones and tablets. Approxi- mately 40% of the members did not use this app at all (see figure below). In fact, more full members than graduate students or post docs chose not to use the app. Of those that did find the app useful, graduate students and post docs found it more useful than did full mem- bers. We received many excellent sug- gestions that we will consider for next “...the survey responses reaffirm what a great society SICB is and what a great resource this meeting is for students and postdocs.” continued on page 5 SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 5 year’s meeting app. The meeting app will not replace the hard copy program that many members feel is most useful. The symposia for the 2015 West Palm Beach meeting have been se- lected and are posted on the SICB web site (http://sicb.org/meet- ings/2015/). There are excellent symposia during each of the 4 days of the meeting (see below). January 4, 2015 • Towards a General Framework for Predicting Animal Move- ment Speeds in Nature Organizer: Robbie Wilson; Spon- sors: SICB wide; DAB, DCB, DCPB, DEE, & DVM • Physiology in Changing Land- scapes: An Integrative Perspec- tive for Conservation Biology Organizers: Christine Madliger & Glenn Crossin & Oliver Love; Spon- sors: DCE & DCPB • Integrative Biology of the Croc- odilia Organizer: Valentine Lance; Spon- sors: DAB, DCPB, DEDB, DNB, DEE & DPCB January 5, 2015 • Soft Bodies, Hard Jaws: Phylo- genetic Diversity of Prey Cap- ture and Processing in Jawed, Soft-bodied Invertebrates Organizers: Rick Hochberg & Eliza- beth Walsh; Sponsors: DIZ, DPCB & AMS • Origins of Neurons and Parallel Evolution of Nervous Systems: The Dawn of Neuronal Organi- zation Organizer: Leonid Moroz; Spon- sors: DEDB, DIZ, DNB and DPCB, & AMS • Thinking About Change: An In- tegrative Approach for Exam- ining Cognition in a Changing World Organizers: Timothy Roth II & Zoltan Nemeth; Sponsors: DAB, DCE & DEE 2014 & 2015, C o N T I N U E D prograM officer, sherry TaMone January 6, 2015 • Unsteady Aquatic Locomotion with Respect to Eco-Design and Mechanics Organizers : Frank Fish & Paolo Do- menici; Sponsors: DCB, DVM & DIZ • Neurohormones, Brain and Be- havior: a Comparative Approach to Exploring Rapid Neuroendo- crine Function Organizers: Rebecca Calisi & Colin Sandanha; Sponsors: DCE, DAB & DCPB • Leading Students and Faculty to Quantitative Biology Through Ac- tive Learning Organizers: Laura Miller & Lindsay Waldrop; Sponsors: SICB Wide; DAB, DCB, DCPB, & DVM January 7, 2015 • Chemicals that Organize Ecology: Towards a Greater Integration of Chemoreception, Neuroscience, Organismal Biology, and Chemi- cal Ecology Organizers: James Murray & Russell Wyeth; Sponsors: DNB, DCPB and DIZ • Linking Insects and Crustaceans: Comparative Physiology of the Pancrustacea Organizers: Jon Harrison & Sherry Tamone; Sponsors: TCS, AMS, DIZ, DEDB, DPCB, & DCE • New Insights into Suction Feed- ing Biomechanics and Evolution Organizers: C. Darrin Hulsey & Ste- ven Day & Tim Higham & Peter Wain- wright; Sponsors: DCB, DIZ, & DVM In addition to the symposia there will be regular talks and workshops through- out the meeting. Dr. Ken Sebens (Friday Harbor Laboratory, University of Washing- ton) will give the opening plenary talk as Past President of the SICB. Plan to come to the meeting early and enjoy a few days at the beach or in the Bahamas. I know that I will be enjoying a week away from the weather in Alaska. West Palm Beach, Florida Member Benefit: 25% Discount on Oxford University Press Books Go to the SICB Home Page http://sicb.org/meetings/2015/ http://sicb.org/meetings/2015/ SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 6 fRom the ReseaRcheRs database: DNB - Neuroendocrine mechanisms of social and reproductive behaviors, Lisa Mangiamele Hal Heatwhole, the Editor of the So- ciety journal Integrative and Compara- tive Biology (ICB), will be stepping down after 10 years of service. We thank Hal for his unparalleled dedication, and now open the search for a new Editor, to as- sure a smooth transition. Integrative and Comparative Biology (formerly American Zoologist) is one of the most highly respected and cited journals in the field of biology. Its Im- pact Factor has shown steady increases over the last several years, and the jour- nal continues to be ranked within the top ten journals in Zoology. With this strong foundation, we would like to encourage interested individuals who have both a strong sense of the journal’s relevance to the SICB community, and who have ideas for innovative expansion of the journal’s scope, to apply for the Editor position. The successful candidate will take up the post on 1 January, 2016 following a transition period of ten months working with the current Editor, starting in March 2015. The initial term of the position is five years, which can be extended by mutual agreement and approval of the SICB Executive Committee. Financial compensation and assistant support will be provided. The primary areas of responsibility for the Editor include the overall editorial re- sponsibility for the journal in maintain- ing and improving the Journal’s scientific quality; implementation of editorial poli- cies as identified in the Journal’s mis- sion statement; service as an ambas- sador and spokesperson for the Journal, promoting it at relevant meetings and workshops; management of submis- sions through Scholar One Manuscripts; to work within an annually approved page budget; to work closely with the ICB Editorial Board (divisional represen- tatives), the SICB Executive Committee, and the Publisher. We seek interested individuals who have knowledge and experience with scientific journal management and publication, appropriate oral and writ- ten communication skills, scientific ex- pertise, scientific review expertise and objectivity, evidence of leadership, cre- ativity, and innovation related to scien- tific publication, fiscal experience and administration skills related to scientific enterprises, and a willingness to attend the annual SICB meetings. A history of active involvement in SICB would be preferred. We will welcome personal applications and nominations. For the former, please provide a cover letter of no more than two pages with a summary of qualifica- tion and experience; a concise curricu- lum vitae of no more than 4 pages; a two-page vision statement for the jour- nal addressing personal ideas/philoso- phies on the operation of a journal like ICB, ideas for future development of the Journal, and estimated assistance needs for running the Journal. Please email applications materials to the Chair of the ICB Editor Search Com- mittee (Rich Satterlie – satterlier@ uncw.edu) no later than 15 August, 2014. Nominations or letters identifying potential candidates can be sent as well. Evaluation of applications will take place in the Fall, with the final decision sched- uled for the Annual Meeting in January, 2015. o p E N S E a r C H f o r E D I T o r o f i n T e g r a T i v e a n d c o M p a r a T i v e B i o l o g y Member Benefit: 25% Discount on Oxford University Press Books Go to the SICB Home Page mailto:satterlier%40uncw.edu?subject= mailto:satterlier%40uncw.edu?subject= SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 7 My first introduction to evolution was at the age of five, and strangely enough, it took place in a Mennonite evangelistic revival meeting. A visiting evangelist had come to hold a week- long revival meeting at our church. In one of his sermons, he ranted “If people think they came from monkeys, why don’t they go live with them?” I didn’t have any idea what evolution was, but his aggressive stance against monkeys repelled me. Monkeys were cute and anyone who was mean to them couldn’t be a very nice person. Whatever evolution was, it couldn’t be all that bad! The second person to have a profound influ- ence on my later life was my high-school literature teacher, Elizabeth Wenger. Although a conserva- tively dressed teacher in a Mennonite high school, she taught me that there was more to life than the stern authoritarianism of fundamental Christianity---there was humor in lit- erature, beauty in language, and noble emotions in poetry. She also pled my case in front of the high school disci- pline committee when I ran afoul of strict regulations. Years later, in her late ‘90s, she confided to me that she “had more time for the mischievous students who loved poetry, than for the pious ones who didn’t.” She revealed to me glimpses of a secular life that had meaning and excitement. The fact that I became a voracious reader and lat- er wrote books and became an editor stems directly from the gentle nudges she gave me in that direction during my formative high school years. Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole My third mentor was Prof. Samuel Wit- mer, of Goshen College1, a Mennonite college. He taught practically everything- --general botany and zoology, compara- tive anatomy, mycology, bacteriology, he- redity; in fact he would assemble the five, non-premed, biology majors near the end of the semester to ask what courses we would like the following semester. After discussion, we would agree upon a top- ic, and he would teach it. He never once mentioned the word evolution. Toward the end of my senior year, I asked Prof. Witmer: “You have never told us what you think about evolution. What is your opinion?” He eyed me quizzically and said: “Mr. Heatwole you mean to say that you have studied biol- ogy under me these years, and you still don’t know what I think about evolu- tion?” I did know, of course. He had taught it, but just didn’t use the word. Thanks to that gentle man, I was well-prepared to launch into my professional career. In looking forward to graduate school, I was peering down two different forks in the paths, simultaneously. One was whether to follow my original intention and go for a PhD in Zoology and study herpetology, or to change course and pursue a PhD in Botany (then including mycology). Prof. Witmer had inspired an intense interest in the higher fungi in me and I seriously considered making that change. The other choice was where to go for my PhD. The two decisions were intertwined. I applied to, and was accepted, both at Harvard and at the University of Michigan (UM) for a PhD program in Zoology, with a declared interest in herpetology. The decision to se- lect UM, rather than Harvard was because the renowned authority on the higher “After five cold, snowy winters in Michigan, and realizing that 95% of the biology is in the tropics but only 5% of the biologists, I made the decision to seek a job somewhere in the tropics.” continued on page 8 1Please note that my references to Goshen College, Mennonite high schools, and the Mennonite church in general relate to a particular place and time. Today, the church varies geographically in its degree of conservatism from something similar to the Amish on one hand to congregations one could scarcely distinguish from, say, Methodists, on the other. Temporal change has been enormous as well. In the con- gregation in which I grew up, most of the members wore distinctive clothing, women wore prayer head coverings, you could be excommunicated for the sin of owning a radio, and movies, bowling, jewelry (even wedding rings), and men appearing without a shirt in public were serious matters. Now, in the same congregation only the elderly wear distinctive clothing and everybody has a TV set. During my lifetime, apparently an immutable God changed his mind. Experiences - Part 16 in a series of articles about the research experiences of members of SICB. continued from page 1 “SICB members like a good story about an expedition, a lab experiment or another researcher.” SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 8 fungi at that time, Prof. Alex Smith, was located at the University of Michigan. I reasoned that if I went there, I could do my PhD in Zoology and at the same time take a course in the higher fungi under Prof. Smith, which is what I did. Jobs My first job after my PhD didn’t really involve a choice of alternatives. My ma- jor professor, Prof. Frederick Test, was going on sabbatical for the year following the completion of my PhD degree, and he asked whether I would take a year as In- structor at UM and teach his courses while he was away. That instructorship was the first time I had full responsibility for lec- turing. One of my courses was a gradu- ate course and my students were my peer graduate students of the previous year; most were senior to me in age. When that year was up, I opted out of making a choice and left the finding of my next job to fate. After five cold, snowy winters in Michigan, and realizing that 95% of the biology is in the tropics but only 5% of the biologists, I made the decision to seek a job somewhere in the tropics. What I left to chance was where. I shot-gunned ap- plications for every available job around the world’s tropics, wherever one could begin in English, and decided to accept the first offer made. It came from the Uni- versity of Puerto Rico (UPR). The third of my four university appoint- ments was unanticipated and also based on chance. One day in the biology build- ing at UPR, I crossed paths with a visitor who enquired whether this was the biol- ogy department. It was Prof. John Brere- ton from the University of New England (UNE) in Australia who had just complet- ed a sabbatical in Jamaica and on his re- turn to Australia had detoured to several other islands for a brief holiday. I gave him a tour of the department and spent the rest of the afternoon discussing water balance of frogs (my research) and the languages of parrots (his research). That led to cocktails and dinner at my house and subsequently a regular exchange of reprints. Several years later, I unexpect- edly received an invitation to apply for a position that had become vacant at UNE-- -one thing leads to another. Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole My final academic appointment was a consequence of the passage of time. When I took up my post at UNE my con- tract included the then standard require- ment of retiring on the 31st of December following one’s 65th birthday. Although Australian law had changed and such agreements were no longer made for new hires, 25 years later my contract may still have been valid and I decided to examine alternative possibilities. The result was that I accepted an appoint- ment at North Carolina State University (NCSU) carrying an obligatory five-year term as Head of Zoology. Having fulfilled that, I returned to the more satisfying primary roles of teaching and research. Research The topics of my research were decid- ed not only as choices of paths diverging in the woods, but also of one thing lead- ing to another. The resulting pattern was a rather tortuous path, much like the branching of a phylogenetic tree. Although a dedicated herpetologist, I couldn’t squelch the temptation to look into other mysteries. My PhD thesis was a comparison of habitat use by amphibi- ans in tropical and temperate forests, and part of it involved a study of terrestrial salamanders in a beech-maple-hemlock forest in northern Michigan. Every day I passed a large decaying log on which three species of ichneumonid wasps si- multaneously were going through an elaborate contortion of their ovipositors to drill into the wood and deposit their eggs on wood-boring sawfly larvae. Why the elaborate means of oviposition? Did these species compete? Males of all three species aggregated around a fu- ture emergence site of a female boring from the wood but two left before she emerged. How did they know she was there, and how did the two inappropriate species detect her specific identity before they could see her? I got a small grant to study this problem simultaneously with my PhD program---already I had di- verged slightly from herpetology. I hired two fellow graduate students (one being Adrian Wenner, later of honeybee fame and whose name graces one of SICB’s fRom the ReseaRcheRs database: Nereis virens burrowing in gelatin by crack propaga- tion, Kelly Dorgan continued on page 9 SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 9 awards) and we completed a small re- search project. We didn’t solve all the mysteries, but we satisfied our curios- ity on some points. The next divergence from my professional trajectory came while at UPR and during a herpetological survey of the islands and cays (keys) of the Puerto Rican-Virgin Island ar- chipelago. I became intrigued with island biogeography and col- laborated with Richard Levins on a grant to investigate that topic, expanding our taxo- nomic coverage to a variety of taxa, espe- cially ants. Those were the days when Robert MacArthur and E. O. Wilson were in the ear- ly stages of developing their subsequently fa- mous theory of island biogeography. MacAr- thur was a visitor to our laboratory and we were stimulated by his ideas. While at UPR, I spent three summers (1961-1963) in Pana- ma working on a joint research project with Owen Sexton on a study of the herpetofauna in a rain- forest straddling the proposed route of the PanAmerican Highway. The plan was to study the herpetofauna prior to the building of that section of highway, with a follow-up study after the road was completed to assess the changes wrought by opening the area to the on- slaught of human influence. The road took decades to build and by the time it had reached our study area, I had gone to Australia and Owen had moved on to other things. I understand the change in the habitat has been enormous, and if anyone wants to conduct the follow-up, the project is available. Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole There were four short-term divergences in research topics while at UPR, that at- tracted my attention. One was a study of the energetic advantage accruing to cattle egrets by following large animals, anoth- er was a study of the conservation status of mangroves in Puerto Rico, and a third was the comparative ecol- ogy and physiology of tree snails. A scorpion attracted my atten- tion by stinging me and my fourth project was research on scor- pion behavior. In Australia, at UNE, I pursued my herpetological inter- ests, primarily on reptilian thermoreg- ulation initially, but later concentrating on diving physiology, behavior, ecology, and taxonomy of sea snakes. In the early days, I relied heav- ily on opportunistic means to conduct my fieldwork: as an expert consultant for published articles (National Geograph- ic), a volunteer diver for underwater tele- vision films (Crawford Productions, Wild Kingdom, Ron and Valerie Taylor, Ben Cropp); I also hitch-hiked aboard an Aus- tralian naval minesweeper, HMAS Teale, on a sovereignty cruise in the Coral Sea, and aboard a supply ship of the Queensland Lighthouse Service. My sea snake work was put on a more professional footing that allowed for laboratory work by partici- pation in two Alpha Helix expeditions and an Acheron Expedition, both led by William Dunson (Ashmore Reef, Caroline Islands, Timor Sea, Philippines, Great Barrier Reef, Chesterfield Reef), the Belgian Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, and two Japa- nese expeditions led by the late Nobuo “A scorpion attracted my attention by stinging me and my fourth project was research on scorpion behavior.” continued on page 10 My tortuous foray into science, illustrated as a branching tree. The trunk was, and is, her- petology with some major limbs into island ecology, ant ecology, and various aspects of community ecology. Separate saplings grew up under that tree such as the applications of technology to teaching, and a miscellaneous one, dealing mainly with methods. There are also cauliflorous twigs dealing with side proj- ects (not all described in the text). The num- bers indicate the numbers of publications arising from these endeavors, and hence are a rough guide to the time spent engaging in those studies. Artwork by Suzanne Miller SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 10 Tamiya to the southwestern Pacific. These were followed by working on sea snakes in Prof. Tamiya’s laboratory at Tohoku Uni- versity in Japan, and in the laboratory of the late André Ménez at the French Nu- clear Centre (Centre d’Etudes Nucleares), Gif-sur-Yvette, France. In later years, I fi- nanced my own expeditions from grants, and most recently collaborated with Har- vey Lillywhite on his project on water bal- ance of sea snakes. A highlight of my sea snake research was a dissertation on the role of Cenozoic paleogeography in the distribution and speciation of sea kraits, for which in 2012 I earned a PhD in Earth and Environmen- tal Science (Ge- ography) from James Cook Uni- versity. My sus- tained work in ecological herpe- tology over the years also led to a thesis-based D.SC from UNE. In Australia I followed several of the divergent paths I had begun to tread in Puerto Rico. I con- tinued my studies of island biogeography by an intensive investigation of the community ecology of a small cay, One Tree Island, and a survey of the biota of the islands and cays of the Great Barrier Reef. Both of these projects not only involved me in biogeography, per se, but increasingly in the commu- nity ecology of insular biota, e.g., the impact of sources of instability such as erosion and prograding of islands, disturbance to vegetation by nesting seaturtles, washover during storms, and modifica- tion by sea birds of soils and vegetative succession on is- lands. This path also diverged; in one di- rection it led to the study of vegetation dynamics on small islands that became Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole the subject of a dissertation for a PhD in Botany (University of Queensland), and in the other direction to a long-term banding project on gannets that detailed their population changes and responses to instability. This emphasis on the ecol- ogy of insular communities, as well as my sustained interest in ant assemblag- es, developed into a general fascination with how communities are structured. I reasoned that the best approach to un- derstanding such a complex topic was to start with the simplest communities available and try to develop basic prin- ciples that might then be applied toward understanding more complex commu- nities. The simplest naturally occurring biotic communities on earth are those in Antarctica, so I carried out fieldwork at all three of the major Australian Ant- arctic bases and by camping for several months in a tent in the Prince Charles Mountains. One of the main components of Antarctic communities is the Phylum Tardigrada and because of the excep- tional attributes of these animals, such as ability to survive practically any en- vironmental insult while in a deeply dor- mant state (anhydrobiosis), and because they are personally endearing, I began a still-continuing research interest in them in collaboration with a former PhD student, Randy Miller. We expanded the geographic range studied to include the Subantarctic Islands. continued on page 11 A nunatak range in the Prince Charles Mountains, interior of Antarctica, 1990. Heatwole’s tent is located slightly to right of center of the picture. Harold Heatwole having a conversation with an olive sea snake, Aipysurus laevis, at Mystery reef, Swain Reefs, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, 1982. SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 11 A further spin-off from my interest in community ecology was in the inter- action of grazing insects and eucalypt trees. That interest was stimulated by Meg Lowman. Her first job after her PhD was a postdoctoral fellow- ship under me at UNE and we spent six years study- ing this plant-herbivore interaction, including its role in the die-back of trees in the New England region of Australia. I also continued my work on ants while at UNE, looking especially at the change in assem- blage structure across environmental and ele- vational gradients. Thanks to that Uni- versity’s generous allowance for over- seas research, I extended the project geographically to include sampling across tundra-birch forest-conifer forest ecotones in Finland; running transects from rainforest to above tree-line at Mt. Kinabalu in Sa- bah; comparing rainforests in Suri- name and Malaysia; and comparing vari- ous deserts (Ata- cama, Patagonian, Namib, Kalahari, Kara-Kum, Gobi, Taklamakan, and Arabian) with Aus- tralian ones. I was able to take part in the program of the US/IBP Desert Bi- ome Project, 1974- 1978, spending 2.5-8.5 months per year in the Sahara, examining the role of ants in that ecosystem. When I took up a professorship at NCSU, I maintained some of the major threads of my skein of research: rep- tiles, amphibians, insect-plant interac- tions, ants. Perhaps I should add anoth- Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole er cliché to the title of this article: “What goes around, comes around.” You may re- call that Meg Lowman was a postdoctoral fellow under my supervision for six years in Australia. Now, fast-forward a decade or so. In the meantime she had moved to the United States and had taken up an academic position there. She called my attention to the opening at NCSU that I subsequently filled. I sub- sequently became part of a French expedition to Mada- gascar, of which my part was to study the grazing of canopy leaves by insects, in collaboration with her and with Sybille Unsicker from Germany. Meg and I fur- ther collaborated on another project. She was in charge of a study of the biodiversity of remnant church-forests in Ethiopia, of which my part was to do an ecological sur- vey of ants. Thus, over several decades, we went from me being boss (Australia), to the two of us being collaborators (can- opy biology in Madagascar), to her be- ing boss (church forests in Ethiopia). The wheel does turn. One of the transitions in my research career was a shift from pure, curiosity- based research to more practical applica- tions such as conservation and manage- ment. My first excursion in that direction was the mangrove study in Puerto Rico and a study of the effects of radiation on snails in their natural habitat. Howard Odum, then of the Puerto Rican Nuclear Center, headed a project in which a patch of rainforest was to be studied first as its own control, then irradiated from a Cesi- um137 source, and the effects assessed by follow-up investigations. My task was to mark the tree snails and assess death rates and compare various attributes be- fore and after radiation. Although trees and some other biota were killed within a certain radius of the source, my snails sur- vived, including one whose home range included the source. Later, in Australia, several of my pa- pers on sea snakes were directed toward Harold Heatwole and research assistant Eliza- beth Broese van Groneau on Saharan sand dunes at Ksar Rhilane, Tunisia, 1978. www.SICB.org continued on page 12 “Thus, over several decades, we went from me being boss (Australia), to the two of us being collaborators (canopy biology in Madagascar), to her being boss (church forests in Ethiopia).” SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 12 questions of sustainability or manage- ment. My work on the island ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef revealed to me how interdependent the insular and ma- rine ecosystems are, and how fragile they are in the face of threatening changes in the global system. I was a Council Mem- ber (later President) of the Great Barrier Reef Committee, and participated in a consultancy to the Australian Federal gov- ernment to recommend a conservation strategy and zoning plan for the Great Barrier Reef. The broad outlines of the plan we proposed are still intact today, about 35 years later. As universities and governmental agencies took over many of the functions of the Great Barrier Reef Committee, I disbanded it and in its place founded the Australian Coral Reef Soci- ety. The emergence of the decline and extinction of amphibians pushed me much further in the direc- tion of management, and the most recent four of the 11 volumes of the series of books I edit on Amphib- ian Biology dealt with that topic, as have some of my individual papers. I was amazed to find in prepara- tion for this article that 34 (about 10%) of my 335 to- tal publications to date are directly related to conservation or other practical issues, most of these in recent years. The partial transition from pure sci- ence to conservation was not intended. Although interested in physiology, anato- my, histology, and various other medically related aspects of biology, I never had an interest in pursuing a medical career. I simply am not interested in that, wor- thy though it is. In a similar way, I am fascinated by ecological interactions and how animals and plants function and are adapted to their natural environments; I have an esthetic appreciation for the sym- metry between organisms and environ- ment, but I am not interested in crippled ecosystems or in how to repair them. My studies in that direction have been driven Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole more my duty and urgency, than by cu- riosity or pleasure. Editing Editing has been an important, and enjoyable part of my career, beginning with serving on editorial boards, later be- coming an editor of the Australian Jour- nal of Ecology, then of a series of books on Amphibian Biology, and finally Editor of ICB. The main challenge to editing ICB is the broad coverage of topics and taxa. My delving into different fields, formally receiving training in several disciplines, and taking a wide range of courses, has served me well. The diversity of the journal has been not only a challenge, but a delight and an educational experience. It is extremely difficult to keep up with the fast-moving pace of modern biology. The literature has burgeoned and there are now whole fields of study that didn’t even exist when I was a graduate student. Integra- tive and Comparative Biology is a most effective way of keeping abreast of de- velopments in a broad range of biological disciplines at a high level. Each sympo- sium is like taking a short-course on the prograding edge on an exciting field, but without having to pay tuition. One of the great challenges to re- sponsible editing is to expand the “com- pact” style characterizing modern scien- continued on page 13 fRom the dee ReseaRcheRs daTa- BaSE: What influence do de- velopmental processes have on evolution?, Christian Peter Klingen- berg Harold Heatwole using a helium balloon over rain forest in Madagas- car to sample leaves from the canopy, 2001. SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 13 Reflections: one thing leads to anotheR, but Paths do diveRge in the Woods, and the Wheel does tuRn - haRold heatWole tific writing into grammatically correct, meaningful, precise language. Do you know, for example, that there are “lar- val ecologists”---perhaps named Tad Pohl or Mag Ott; I wonder whether they will ever metamorphose into adult ecol- ogists. The “living language” and the coining of new scientific terms should contribute to, not detract from, the ef- fectiveness of communication. What Next? As I moved through my 70s, I decid- ed that, despite a family history of lon- gevity, I should be prudent and reduce my primary research to more modest levels and begin paring down and pub- lishing my rather voluminous backlog. Consequently, I am not applying for any more major grants but will concentrate on publishing results of the data I already have and on writing reviews and books. I will continue my teaching and strive to improve the quality of education at my university. In 2016, I will have served ten years as editor of ICB and have declined to consider a further term. I will reach my 80th birthday this year and will not celebrate further ones. Rather, from now on, on the appropriate day I will celebrate having reached another year beyond my life expectancy (assessed as 78.3 years at the time I was born). I have adopted a personal mascot who I try to emulate: the pink, drum-beating energiz- er bunny that advertises batteries on TV, and who “keeps on keeping on.” S p r I N g f o r w a r D presidenT’s reporT, Billie swalla Thank you to the SICB officers who work tirelessly to make the Society and the meetings run smoothly. The better they do their jobs, the less you notice, because it seems effortless. I feel privi- leged being involved with such a won- derful group of scientists and educators. So, what’s my biggest challenge for SICB in the 2013-14 year as SICB Pres- ident? Finding a new editor for the soci- ety’s journal Integrative and Compara- tive Biology (ICB). EDITOR SEARCH Current ICB Editor Hal Heatwole has been in this post since 2006. Hal is well into his second five year term and wish- es to step down when his appointment ends in January 2016. Under Hal’s lead- ership the journal has thrived. Strong symposia have been published in a most timely way, the journal’s reputation has grown and the impact factor is up. THANK YOU HAL!!! We have established a search com- mittee for Hal’s replacement, chaired by Richard Satterlie (Past President), with Mike Alfaro, Alice Gibb, Sandra Shum- way, Ian Sherman, and Peter Wain- wright (President-Elect). Please con- tact Rich Satterlie if you are interested in this position or know someone that would be excellent. Richard Satterlie sat- terlier@uncw.edu. Thanks! BE A SICB DONOR We have been carefully looking at our various funds and deciding whether to keep those that are not endowed to the $25,000 mark. You’ll be hearing more about this in the coming year. In the meantime, please consider giving some extra donations to your favorite fund when you renew your dues. Your contributions are carefully managed and used to sup- port SICB activities, and we are grateful for them. We would like to concentrate on increasing donations to our Moore fund this year, in order to sponsor educational speakers. If you would like to get involved with this aspect of SICB, please let me know, we can use your help. ON TO WEST PALM BEACH Finally, plans are underway for the meeting next year in West Palm Beach, Florida. We have chosen twelve interest- ing symposia and are busy helping the or- ganizers look for funding, and otherwise be sure that we have a dynamite program. We have some of the best symposia and symposia organizers to be found, and I would like to thank all of those involved in the effort, but especially our Program Officer, Sherry Tamone. Happy Spring! continued from page 1 Support your favorite SICB fund. Click on the “donations” button on the home page. mailto:satterlier%40uncw.edu?subject= mailto:satterlier%40uncw.edu?subject= SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 14 candidate PRofiles - sPRing electionsCandidates for President: • Lou Burnett • Dianna Padilla Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large Louis E. Burnett Current Position: Professor of Biol- ogy, College of Charleston, SC. Education: B.S. College of William and Mary (1973); Ph.D. University of South Carolina (1977); Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Aarhus, Denmark (1978). Professional Experience: Assistant through Full Professor, University of San Diego (1978-1991), Dept. Chair (1988-1991); Professor and Dept. Chair, College of Charleston (1991- 1996); Director, Grice Marine Labora- tory (1991-2011); Associate Editor, The Biological Bulletin (1996-present); Edi- torial Boards, Comparative Biochem- istry & Physiology (2002-present) and Journal of Experimental Marine Biology & Ecology (1997-2002). SICB Activities: Member for over 35 years; Secretary (2006-2015); Pro- gram Officer, DCPB (1989-1990); Chair, DCPB (1993-1995); associate editor, American Zoologist (1998-1999); In- ternational Union of Physiological Sci- ences repre- sentative for SICB (2006- 2009); Interna- tional Union of Biological Sci- ences, Section of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, r e p r e s e n t a - tive for DCPB; co-organized a number of symposia for SICB. Other Memberships: American Physiological Society; Council on Un- dergraduate Research; Coastal & Es- tuarine Research Federation; National Shellfisheries Association; Southeast- ern Estuarine Research Society; Southern Association of Marine Labo- ratories (President 2014-2015). Research Interests: Environmen- tal physiology of animals; influence of environmental variables, especially hypoxia and CO 2 , on the physiology, immunology, and disease resistance of animals; the transition from water breathing to air breathing. Statement of Goals: As SICB Presi- dent, I will work to strengthen our voice in public forums on things that we as biologists know something about and especially biological issues associated with climate change and species diversity and resilience. I will also work hard to continue to build our endowments which will enable us to continue our excellent meeting pro- grams and at a reasonable cost. SICB has grown and evolved because inte- grative and comparative biology reso- nates with the community. But SICB is also strong because of its emphasis on students and young professionals and its efforts to broaden the partici- pation in biology of underrepresented people. Our tradition of strong scien- tific meetings and our recent public stands on important educational and scientific issues have gained us na- tional attention. SICB played an im- portant role in how I view the world as a scientist starting in the 1970s when I was a graduate student; it is why I bring my students to SICB each year. I have had the honor and plea- sure of being involved in the leader- ship of this society working with some really great people. My service to SICB, most recently as society secre- tary, have allowed me to give back to SICB. I would be honored to be your president. SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 15 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Dianna K. Padilla Current Position: Professor of Ecol- ogy and Evolution and Affiliated Profes- sor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, NY. Education: B.A. University of Wash- ington (1978); M.S. Oregon State University (1982); Ph.D. University of Alberta (1987); Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University (1987-1989). Professional Experience: Professor and Associate Professor, Stony Brook University (1999-present); Associate and Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Madison (1989-1998); Pro- gram Director, Integrative Organismal Systems, Biology, National Science Foundation (2006-2007). SICB Activities: Chair, DIZ (2010- 2013); Editorial Board, Integrative and Comparative Biology (2004- 2012); Nominating Committee (2004, Chair 2013); Member-at-Large ( 2 0 0 1 - 2 0 0 4 ) ; Committee to In- crease Diversity (Broadening Par- ticipation) (2000- 2007, Chair 2000); Chair, DEE (1997- 1999); NSF-funded workshop with Dr. F. Thomas in 1998 to develop plan for broadening partici- pation in SICB and the field of Integra- tive and Comparative Biology, which led to the standing committee and current activities on Broadening Participation; co-authored (with Schwenk, Bakken and Full) the first paper in ICB articulat- ing the Grand Challenges of Organismal Biology; participated in several subse- quent workshops and papers on Grand Challenges of Organismal Biology; lead organizer of NSF-funded workshop and recent symposium (with Swalla and Tsukimura) on developing a research agenda to address the Grand Chal- lenge of “How animals walk the tight- rope between stability and change.” Other Memberships: Ecological So- ciety of America; AAAS (AAAS Fellow 2013); American Association of Uni- versity Women; American Malacologi- cal Society; American Microscopical Society; National Shellfisheries Asso- ciation; Sigma Xi. Research Interests: Functional Ecology; Functional Morphology; Evo- lutionary Ecology; Phenotypic Plastic- ity; Marine and Freshwater Ecology of Invertebrates and Plants; Invasion Biology. Statement of Goals: I am honored to be considered to run for SICB Presi- dent, and excited by the prospect of lead- ing our Society. We are in the midst of a renaissance in or- ganismal biology. Each of the Divisions in our Society is of growing relevance across biology. Re- cent efforts develop- ing Grand Challenge questions and pursu- ing a forward-think- ing research agenda has placed our So- ciety at the leading edge of our field. The past leadership of SICB has kept our Society financially secure and growing. My goals are to keep SICB sound, serve the needs of its membership, and keep us at the forefront of organismal biology. The members of SICB are clearly poised to be important intellectual leaders, as well as leaders in science policy and impacts of our science on society at large. One of my goals is to see that we do just that. Candidates for President: • Lou Burnett • Dianna Padilla Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 16 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Lara A. Ferry Current Position: Associate Direc- tor and Associate Professor, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Arizona State University, Glendale, AZ. Education: B.S. California Polytech- nic State University San Luis Obispo (1991); M.S. Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Francisco State Uni- versity (1994); Ph.D. University of California Irvine (1998); Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California Irvine (1998-99), University of California Da- vis (1999-2002). Professional Experience: Associate Professor (2010 to present) and Associ- ate Director (2014 to present), School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Arizona State University; Research Fac- ulty, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (2002-2010). SICB Activities: Member of DVM since 1995; Secretary of DVM (2010-2012); ICB Editorial Board member (2012 to present); judge of DVM Best Student Papers at two meetings. Other Memberships: Ameri- can Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (Gibbs Award and Broadening Participating Commit- tees); American Elasmobranch Society (Grant Funds Award Com- mittee, President 2012-2013, Ex- ecutive Board 2013 to present); Western Society of Naturalists (Treasurer 2004-2007); Arizona Nevada Academy of Sciences. Research Interests: Biome- chanics/Functional Morphology of fish jaws, particularly jaw inno- vations for feeding in the aquatic realm. Statement of Goals: Having served as the Treasurer for two different non- profit organizations, one of which was a scientific society, I am keenly aware of the importance of the society’s fi- nances. This is not just safeguarding our funds so we can pay the bills, but includes planning for the future and ensuring that our goals as a society can continue to be met for the long term. This is an exciting time for SICB as our membership numbers are fairly strong (compared with many societ- ies right now), and our finances are sound. However, that does not mean it is time to sit back and relax. This means it is time to plan, and to se- cure our strength heading into the next decade, and beyond. Our en- dowments could be shored up, and many divisions are looking to create new endowments. Endowments are lasting legacies that SICB can provide to honor some of our greatest mem- bers posthumously. I hope to work with our excellent finance committee members and with our professionals in this arena, as well as in meeting our other financial needs. SICB remains, to me, the standard of excellence by which I measure other societies. I am committed to helping to make sure that SICB can continue to provide the excellent programming, mentoring, and personal development opportuni- ties for which it is so well known. Candidates for Treasurer: • Lara Ferry • Karen Martin Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 17 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Karen L. Martin Current Position: Professor of Biol- ogy and Frank R. Seaver Chair in Nat- ural Sciences, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA. Education: B.S. and M.S. Univer- sity of Oklahoma; Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles (1990); Friday Harbor Postdoctoral Fellowship, Uni- versity of Washington (1990-1991). Professional Experience: Assis- tant through Full Professor, Pepper- dine University (1991-present; Frank R. Seaver Chair awarded in 2000); Research Associate, Scripps Institu- tion of Oceanography (2007-2013). SICB Activities: Treasurer (2013- 2015); Life member of SICB; Sec- retary, DCPB (1996-1998). Publica- tions Committee (1998-2004, Chair, 2002-2004); co-organized symposia “Aquatic Organisms, Terrestrial Eggs” with Richard Strathmann (1998) and “Environmentally Cued Hatching Across Taxa” with Karen Warkentin and Richard Strathmann (2011). Both were funded by NSF and many divisions of SICB, and published in our journal. Judge for student awards in DCPB and DEE multiple times. Other Memberships: American Soci- ety of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (Life Member, also on Board of Gover- nors since 2010); American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists (Fellow; former Vice-Director of Southern Cali- fornia district); American Fisheries So- ciety, Cal-Neva Division; Southern Cali- fornia Academy of Sciences (formerly on Board of Governors); Society for the Study of Sandy Beaches; Beach Ecol- ogy Coalition (Board of Directors and Secretary). Research Interests: I am a physiolog- ical ecologist at the interface between water and land, particularly in coastal marine ecosystems. I study in- tertidal and air-emerging fishes, beach spawning fishes, and ter- restrial embryo development of marine and aquatic animals. I work with over 4000 citizen scien- tists in the Grunion Greeters pro- gram and am developing a new outreach for conservation of the sandy beach ecosystem in south- ern California. Statement of Goals: As Treasur- er, I am committed to supporting student research and travel, along with the many activities that en- courage professional growth and development of SICB members. I endeavor to increase transparen- cy of the budget process and sen- sibly grow the endowment funds. Candidates for Treasurer: • Lara Ferry • Karen Martin Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 18 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Richard W. Blob Current Position: Professor, Depart- ment of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC. Education: B.A. University of Pennsyl- vania (1992); Ph.D. University of Chi- cago (1998); NIH-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, Field Museum, Chicago (1999- 2001). Professional Experience: Assistant (2002-2007) and Associate (2007- 2012) Professor, Clemson University. SICB Activities: Member of DVM and DEE since 1994; member of DCB since its founding in 2007; DVM Program Of- ficer (2010-2012); chair of DVM Davis Award for Best Student Presentation (2004), and judge for student pre- sentations in DVM (2003, 2008, 2009, 2012) and DCB (2008, 2009); DVM (2001) and SICB (2013) Nominating Committees; SICB ad hoc Committee for review of Oxford University Press as ICB publisher (2009-2010); organized Southeast Regional Joint DVM-DCB Meeting at Clemson (2008); co-orga- nized SICB symposia “Going with the Flow: Ecomorphological Adaptations to Aquatic Flow Regimes” (2008), “Ver- tebrate Land Invasions: Past, Present, and Future” (2013), and “Terrestrial Lo- comotion: Where Do We Stand, Where Are We Going?” (2014). Other Memberships: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (Predoc- toral Fellowship Committee 2003- 2014; Chair, Awards Committee 2013-2014); Society for Experimen- tal Biology; International Society of Vertebrate Morphologists; American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpe- tologists; Herpetologists’ League; So- ciety for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles; Sigma Xi. Research Interests: Evolutionary and ecological morphology and bio- mechanics, including: Comparative musculoskeletal function during lo- comotion and feeding in vertebrates; Functional correlates of evolutionary and ontogenetic changes in habitat and behavior; Biomechanical model- ing of fossil taxa to gain insight into the evolution of function. Statement of Goals: The richness and diversity of the SICB program has helped the Society to grow even through the difficult economy of recent years. I will work to keep us build- ing from these strengths. During program organization, I will facili- tate communication across divi- sions, and help divisional program officers to coordinate sessions that maximize integrative oppor- tunities for attendees. Symposia form the core of our journal as well as a major cross-disciplinary focus of the meeting. I will work with divisional program officers to recruit forward-looking symposia, and provide advice to members who are developing symposia and seeking funds to support them. I will encourage members to advance creative ideas for strengthening the program, such as new presentation formats, particularly as our meet- ings become larger. And to ensure a strong future for SICB, I will promote workshops and other efforts that en- hance student training, broaden par- ticipation, and reach out to the public. Candidates for Program Officer: • Rick Blob • Jonathon Stillman Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 19 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Jonathon H. Stillman Current Position: Associate Profes- sor, Romberg Tiburon Center and De- partment of Biology, San Francisco State University, CA; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology, Uni- versity of California Berkeley, CA. Education: B.S. University of Minne- sota (1991); Ph.D. Oregon State Uni- versity (1998); Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University (1999-2000), Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford Uni- versity (2001-2003). Professional Experience: Assistant, then Associate, Professor, San Fran- cisco State University (2005-present); Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of California Berkeley (2009-present); Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii Manoa (2003-2005); Visiting Assistant Professor, Oc- cidental Col- lege (2000- 2001). SICB Activi- ties: Mem- ber since 1990; Pro- gram Officer DCPB (2013- 2014); Sec- retary DCPB (2006-2007); co-author of two Grand Challenges in O r g a n i s m a l Biology manu- scripts (2010, 2011); orga- nized sympo- sia, including “Physiological Responses to Simulta- neous Shifts in Multiple Environmental Stressors: Relevance in a Changing World” (2013) and “Recent Advances in Crustacean Genomics” (2008); orga- nized SICB workshops, including Mac- rophysiology (2013) and Grand Chal- lenges in Organismal Biology (2011). Other Memberships: past member of AAAS, Sigma Xi, American Physi- ological Society (APS); Society for Ex- perimental Biology; Protein Society; AIBS. Co-organizer of the 2014 APS Comparative Physiology meeting. Research Interests: Marine envi- ronmental physiology; thermal biolo- gy; ocean acidification; multi-stressor, integrative genomics. Statement of Goals: Since 1987, when I attended my first ASZ meeting as a freshman undergraduate, SICB has been an important mainstay of my professional career. The strengths of SICB as a broad and student-post- doc friendly meeting that still draws notable mid-career and senior re- searchers are important to maintain. I feel that many comparative biolo- gists have chosen to attend society meetings other than SICB (e.g., com- parative physiologists who solely at- tend Experimental Biology), which is a loss for SICB. Elizabeth Pennisi described the SICB flight phenom- enon in her Science article following the 2014 meeting (http://www.sci- encemag.org/content/343/6167/129. summary), but noted that SICB is now again on a steady growth trajec- tory. As SICB program officer I will focus my efforts on two goals: First, I will work towards ensuring that the SICB annual meetings remain a core high-priority meeting for comparative biologists to attend because of the im- portance to the field and the attrac- tiveness of the venues, paying par- ticular attention to retaining the many young and diverse scientists who have recently joined the society. Second, I will strongly encourage the develop- ment of interdivisional symposia that reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of comparative biology, that meet the grand challenges in organismal biol- ogy that SICB members have out- lined, and that promote fruitful future directions for strengthening the field of comparative biology so that SICB’s growth and prominence continues to increase. Candidates for Program Officer: • Rick Blob • Jonathon Stillman Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 20 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Bram V. Lutton Current position: Associate Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Endicott College, Beverly, MA. Education: B.A. Colby College (1995); Ph.D. Boston University (2007). Post- doctoral investigator in transplantation immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (2007-2008) Professional Experience: Associate Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Endicott College, (2009-2014); Visit- ing Professor, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA (2008- 2009). SICB Activities: Member of DCE and the DCPB since 2003, and I’m looking forward to the new Division of Ecoim- munology!; member of the Education Council (2010-2014); coordinated the first Ecoimmunology symposium, “Re- cent Advances and Applications for Conservation and Public Health,” with colleagues at Princeton, to foster inter- disciplinary collaborations among col- leagues studying various model species from both basic science and clinical perspectives (2006); judge for many SICB poster sessions; represented SICB Education Council at the 2012 AAAS meeting focused on involving professional societies with STEM edu- cation reform in the U.S., which led me to coordinating the inaugural SICB Teaching and Learning Workshop: In- troductory Biology - a huge success! Other Memberships: Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory Alumni Association (President); North Shore Chapter of Sigma Xi (Secretary); De- velopmental and Comparative Im- munology; Transplantation Society; Society for Experimental Hematology; American Society for Reproductive Immunology. Research Interests: Comparative cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuroendocrine-immune interactions in tissue regeneration. Through col- laborations with the Cat Cove Marine Laboratory (Salem State University) and the Mount Desert Island Biologi- cal Laboratory, my students and I are able to conduct in vivo, in vitro, and in situ studies in elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays). These marvelous species offer novel insight regarding the evolutionary mechanisms govern- ing physiological systems. Statement of Goals: If elected Edu- cation Council Chair for SICB my aim would be to continue working dili- gently with the other members on the Council, who I know from experience are highly motivated to continue in the footsteps of Bob Podolsky, Chair for the past two terms. I have had the privilege to serve with Bob since 2010, and his innovative approach to guid- ing society decisions that emphasize undergraduate and graduate student training need to continue as a prior- ity for SICB. Luckily, SICB has a rich history of supporting education, along with the leadership necessary to con- tinue with this goal. Candidates for Chair of the Educational Council: • Bram Lutton • Erika Iyengar Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 21 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Erika Iyengar Current Position: Associate Profes- sor of Biology, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. Education: B.S. Stanford Univer- sity (1993); Ph.D. Cornell University (2002). Professional Experience: As- sistant, then Associate, Professor, Muhlenberg College (2003-present); Visiting Assistant Professor, The Col- lege of Wooster (2002-2003); sum- mer course instructor, Shoals Marine Laboratory, Maine (2002, 2003). SICB Activities: Secretary of DIZ (2011-2013); Broadening Participa- tion Committee (2006-2008); auc- tioneer for two DIZ Libbie H. Hyman auctions. Research Interests: Ecology of in- vertebrates, especially gastropod and isopod feeding and predator-prey in- teractions. Statement of Goals: Cutting-edge re- search is critically important, but equally important is the ability to convey those findings and their implications, the sci- entific process, and a general excite- ment for science to the next generation of scientists, voters, and the general public. Therefore, SICB has an impera- tive to assist its members in examining, discussing, and disseminating the most effective ways to intermesh science in all aspects of education. As a graduate student, SICB encouraged me to contin- ue my research, helped hone my scien- tific communication skills, and provided me with an extensive network of scien- tific advisors/friends. As a professor, my students and I have benefited tremen- dously from my continued involvement in SICB through its extensive network of scientists and educators. I am commit- ted to benefit SICB members and the students they reach through facilitat- ing activities that promote understand- ing the issues facing science education today, current best practices, and new ideas, and creating a supportive struc- ture where educators can discuss fail- ures and frustrations and seek advice, as well as celebrating successes. I have taught two courses a semester over the past 11 years at a primarily under- graduate institution, and these classes span the range: the first semester of Introductory Biology (180 students, in both large lecture and weekly groups of 20 for interactive hands-on activi- ties), small (<15) upper-level courses with laboratories (both field-based and indoors), field-based intensive residen- tial courses, capstone courses for our majors, non-majors courses, and first- year writing seminars. For all of these courses, I am constantly investigating new ways to alter and improve my ped- agogy. Currently, I am in the second of my 3-year term on the board of the Fac- ulty Center for Teaching at Muhlenberg College, and served a 3.5 year term on this board previously. Candidates for Chair of the Educational Council: • Bram Lutton • Erika Iyengar Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 22 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections Jennifer L. Burnaford Current Position: Assistant Professor of Biological Science, California State University, Fullerton, CA. Education: B.A. Dartmouth College (1992); Ph.D. Oregon State University (2001); NSF International Postdoctoral Fellow, Arizona State University, Inter- cultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans, Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (2001-2003). Professional Experience: Visiting Instructor, University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories (2003); Vis- iting Assistant Professor, University of Puget Sound (2003-2009); Assistant Professor, California State University, Fullerton (2009-Present). SICB Activities: SICB member since 2000 (DEE and DIZ); Chair, Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Scholarship Commit- tee, DIZ (2010 – present); DIZ Student Poster Judge. Other Memberships: Phycological Society of America (Science and Public Policy Committee 2011-2013); Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science; Western Society of Naturalists. Research Interests: Plant-Herbi- vore Interactions; Physiological Ecol- ogy; Community Ecology; Habitat Modification; Invasive Species. Statement of Goals: I am strong- ly committed to all three prongs of SICB’s mission to foster “research, education, and public awareness.” My period of service to the society be- gan only recently, but my experienc- es have made me eager to become more involved and I welcome the op- portunity to represent and work with members from all divisions as mem- ber-at-large. At the annual meeting and year-round through the web site, SICB provides opportunities for con- nections and collaborations which are critical to advancing our understand- ing of our changing world. Our annual meetings set a remarkably high stan- dard in scheduling events that inspire interaction across study systems and sub-disciplines, as evidenced by the fact that more than 90% of the sym- posia in our last three meetings were sponsored by three or more divisions. The society’s long-standing commit- ment to supporting student research is shown through the large number of student grants, and I would work to continue and expand these funding opportunities which are so important to our new members and subsequent- ly to the future of the society. I also support the large number of programs designed to enhance the experience of students at our meetings, including the travel scholarships and the Broad- ening Participation Committee activi- ties. SICB’s continued commitment to science education and outreach, so evident with the recent establishment of the Morse Award and the expansion of the digital library, are important as- pects of the society. As member-at- large my priority would be to make and strengthen connections across divisions to support and expand all of these activities to help the society grow. Candidates for Member- At-Large: • Jennifer Burnaford • Jimmy Liao Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large SICB Newsletter, Spring 2014 Page 23 candidate PRofiles - sPRing elections James C. Liao Current Position: Assistant Profes- sor of Biology, The Whitney Laborato- ry for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Saint Augustine, FL. Education: B.A. Wesleyan Univer- sity (1996); M.A. Harvard University (2003); Ph.D. Harvard University (2004); Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University (2004-2008). Professional Experience: As- sistant Professor of Biology, The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bio- science (2009-present); Research Associate, Division of Vertebrate Zo- ology, American Museum of Natu- ral History (2011-present); Affili- ate Assistant Curator of Ichthyology, Florida Museum of Natural History (2009-present); Research Associate, Department of Neurobiology, Cornell University (2007-2008); NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell Univer- sity (2004-2007); Visiting Research Faculty, Undergraduate and Graduate Tropical Field Biology, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica and Pan- ama (2000-present). SICB Activities: Member of DVM since 1998 and, in the past several years, DCB and DNB. Best Student Presenta- tion Judge DCB (2014); organizer and Best Student Presentation Judge DVM (2013); Best Student Presentation Judge, DVM, DNB (2011). Other Memberships: Association for Research in Otolaryngology; Society for Neuroscience; International Society for Neuroethology; Society for Experimen- tal Biology; American Society of Ichthy- ologists and Herpetologists. Research Interests: Neurobiology of vertebrate sensory and motor sys- tems; biomechanics of aquatic locomo- tion; ecology, evolution and behavior of fishes. Statement of Goals: The professional opportunities that a young biologist has at SICB are unrivaled in today’s scien- tific societies. From precocious high school students to wide-eyed assistant professors, SICB has always provided a fertile ground to advance questions in the diversity of biological life. The fabric of science is experiencing some ripples, and among my interests are to keep the type of science we do relevant to the public. This comes through not only innovative techniques but a desire and understanding of how to connect our work with the society at large. I would also like to attract and maintain energetic and talented students from non-traditional backgrounds, as science progresses fundamentally by the invita- tion and vetting of creative ideas. SICB does a lot that is right; where else can a first year graduate student rub elbows with MacArthur Fellows, or discuss a pe- culiar finding with a leading expert in the field over dinner? I hope my cross- disciplinary research approach and ex- perience at small liberal arts universities as well as large research institutions will help me continue SICB’s noble mission of training and developing the next gen- eration of biologists. Candidates for Member- At-Large: • Jennifer Burnaford • Jimmy Liao Ballots will be issued later in the spring. Special thanks to the Nominating Committee: • Donal Manahan, Chair • Sarah Berke • Patricia Hernandez • Amy Moran, SICB Member-at-Large