- Janet Ginsburg Receives Microbiology Communications Award
- 2001 ASM Mass Media Fellows
- New from ASM Press-Recombinant Research Revisited
- CPC International Committee Holds Strategic Planning Retreat
- Strengthening Relationships between the Mexican Society for Microbiology and ASM
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ASM News
Janet Ginsburg Receives Microbiology Communications Award
Ginsburg Janet Ginsburg, special correspondent for BusinessWeek, has been named the recipient of the 2001 ASM Public Communications Award. Her winning entry "Bio Invasion," an article on the potential threats of foreign disease that appeared 11 September 2000, examines the dangers that arise when deadly pathogens, expanded global trade, and travel are mixed with limited inspection and surveillance. Halting trade and threatening public health, these pathogens have caused billions of dollars in damage and cost hundreds of human lives each year.
The annual award carries an honorarium of $2,500 plus expenses to attend ASM's General Meeting in Orlando on 20-24 May 2001. It recognizes outstanding achievement in increasing public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of microbiology. Judging this year's competition were Joe Neel of National Public Radio, Sally Squires of the Washington Post, and Carol Ezzell of Scientific American.
Janet's interest in foreign animal disease threats was first sparked by a short wire piece in 1997 about the discovery of thumbnail-sized African ticks discovered on an ailing African tortoise in Florida. The ticks were vectors of heartwater, an incurable ruminant disease native to Africa that is caused by an intracellular rickettsial parasite, Cowdria ruminantium
She interviewed heartwater expert Michael Burridge, whose research showed that the mortality for North American livestock and wild herds could range from 40 to 100%, depending on the species, if the disease were to become established here. For the next few years, Ginsburg continued to speak to Burridge periodically for updates. But it wasn't until the ticks actually tested positive for the presence of the heartwater bacterium in late 1999 that the story began to gain momentum.
Ginsburg was stunned to learn that the ticks had been sent to a lab in Zimbabwe for testing, which took five months. The U.S. Department of Agriculture facility at Plum Island, N.Y.—the only U.S. lab specializing in foreign animal diseases—had neither the setup nor staff to do the job.
Further exacerbating this situation was a report on the dire state of the USDA lab complex in Ames, Iowa and the realization that the United States had only a few hundred inspectors to handle nearly 40 million animals. And, since animal pathogens require little work to become weaponized, the Central Intelligence Agency was also raising concerns about agroterrorism.
Ginsburg concluded by noting that there have been several near-miss scares with diseases such as heartwater and screwworm, but so far the United States has escaped disaster. Unfortunately, the rest of the world hasn't been so lucky. Ginsburg sites several recent examples in Asia, Europe and Mexico, resulting in the slaughter of millions of cows, pigs and poultry, as well as trade sanctions. Her article emphasizes that it is not just known scourges, but emerging diseases that have scientists worried and have served as a wake-up call to the world.
Ginsburg is based in Chicago, primarily covering science and technology for BusinessWeek. A graduate of Indiana University, her background includes work in broadcast as well as print. She has traveled from Poland to Cuba for documentary projects for Discovery, National Geographic, and TBS. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she created and launched a nationally syndicated children's publication called curiocity, which was sold to Thompson Media. She has also curated several nationally touring art exhibitions and produced a major book based on one of the largest corporate photography collections in the world for ABN AMRO/LaSalle National Bank in Chicago. She pursues her deep interests in environmental issues by working as a volunteer Streamleader, collecting data on rivers near her home, for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and by writing an educational publication ("City Trees") on urban tree care for the City of Chicago. Ellen Licking of BusinessWeek was an editorial contributor to the award-winning article.
Runner-up in this year's competition is Daniel Haney of the Associated Press for his story "Eliminating Syphilis," about the federal plan to wipe out syphilis.
2001 ASM Mass Media Fellows
Davis ASM has selected Tinsley Davis, a third-year Ph.D. candidate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Lisa Rezende, a current postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, as the recipients of its 2001 Mass Media Fellowships. As Mass Media Fellows, Davis will spend 10 weeks this summer working at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper in St. Louis, Mo., and Rezende will work at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. Each will participate in the process by which events become news and develop skills in communicating complex technical subjects to nonspecialists in order to facilitate more accurate coverage of science and technology in the news.
The annual award is part of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program. Its goal is to strengthen the relationship between science, technology, and the media by encouraging educated scientists to develop the ability to write about science issues for a lay audience. Each year ASM selects and sponsors at least one fellow to participate in the program.
A native of Spartanburg, S.C., Davis earned a B.S. in Biology from Swarthmore College, in 1998. She will complete her Ph.D. in Microbiology in 2003 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she is currently serving as partial appointee in the Concurrent Student K-Infinity program sponsored in association with the National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin. As a K-Infinity Fellow, Davis spends seven hours a week working with teachers to enhance science instruction in the classroom. She is also a member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and ASM.
Rezende Rezende is from Santa Rosa, Calif., and earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 1992 and her M.S. in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1999, both from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She is currently pursuing postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. She is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Medical Writers Association.
The fellowship program places fellows at newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations throughout the country. They receive a weekly stipend and travel expenses. In early June fellows meet in Washington, D.C., to take part in an orientation session consisting of basic journalism workshops and visits to various newsrooms.
Prospective fellows must demonstrate a commitment to public understanding of science and technology and should be working on or have obtained an advanced degree in microbiology. Applications and further information can be found on ASM's website.
New from ASM Press-Recombinant Research Revisited
The Recombinant DNA Controversy: A Memoir--Science, Politics, and the Public Interest
The Recombinant DNA Controversy: A Memoir--Science, Politics, and the Public Interest, by Donald Frederickson, is the latest publication from ASM Press. Frederickson, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1975 to 1981, both chronicles and provides perspective on the controversy on recombinant DNA research that came to the fore in 1975 with the Asilomar Conference. The outcome of that conference gave rise to initial guidelines for laboratory work with recombinant organisms and led to the birth of NIH's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC).
As NIH director, Frederickson was the leading executive branch policy maker for recombinant DNA research during this period. He witnessed and participated in reactions to this new technology from a vast spectrum of interest groups, ranging from Congress and Federal agencies, the scientific and business communities, law and ethics experts, and the general public as well as scientific peers in other nations. His memoir recounts the actions that NIH and the RAC undertook to win society's acceptance of this new technology while keeping the science moving cautiously forward amid the controversy.
Relying on vast archives of hearings records, correspondence, and extensive personal records and diaries, Frederickson recalls the numerous scientific personalities involved as well as the leaders among Congress, presidential administrations, government agencies, environmentalists, and many others who played a role in this challenging matter. More than a chronology, however, Frederickson's account places the controversy in context of subsequent events, including attempts in the late 1990s to abolish the RAC, which were opposed by ASM.
"Since those first years of controversy over new technology for molecular genetics," Frederickson writes, "our successors have been faced with the realization that Asilomar was only the first act. In the last decades leading to the millennium, new controversies over molecular genetics have appeared, including, most prominently, the attempts to supply substitute genes for humans having serious illnesses." And, he may have added, stem cell research and the specter of human cloning.
In the foreword to the book, LeRoy Walters of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics writes that handling of the controversy provides an excellent model for the responsible introduction of a new technology. In large part because of Frederickson's dedicated public service "Recombinant DNA research techniques were introduced into the world's laboratories in a thoughtful, cautious, and ultimately innocuous way in full view of the public and public policy makers."
CPC International Committee Holds Strategic Planning Retreat
The International Committee (IC) organized a Strategic Planning Retreat in March 2001 at ASM Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to set new directions and goals for the IC. Only two years had passed since the adoption of the first IC strategic plan in 1999, yet volunteers and staff had accomplished nearly all of the goals set at that time. IC Chair Stephen A. Lerner, Cochair Anne Morris Hooke, and IC members felt that it was time to take stock of the IC's successes, the needs of ASM's international membership, and the status of microbiology worldwide to ensure the continued growth and relevance of IC programs. Assisting the IC in this task were ASM President Martha Howe, incoming President-Elect Ron Atlas, and Secretary Judy Daly.
The new IC strategic plan for 2001 to 2004 places an emphasis on programs for the international community rather than discrete activities. While the mission of the IC remains the same—to ensure that ASM continues and expands its global activities in the field of microbiological sciences—the means it employs to accomplish its mission were revised with this new programmatic focus in mind. The IC will (i) ensure that ASM's products and services effectively serve its international membership and the broader international microbiological community; (ii) establish collaborative relationships with international societies and organizations; (iii) foster access to microbiological knowledge worldwide; and iv) develop programs that address issues of global concern.
Committee members and officers felt that the greatest priority in coming years should be the promotion of the microbiological sciences worldwide through a diverse array of educational programs and services. The ASM International Fellowship Program (IFP) and International Professorship Program (IPP)—currently operating in Latin America only—will be brought to other regions of the world. ASM workshops from the General Meeting and ICAAC will be taken to new international venues. The IC will work to develop a multidisciplinary program of minicourses for the international arena, especially focusing on expanding from the current medical topics to areas such as water, agriculture, and food production. International and Minority Activities Director Lily Schuermann is working with the IC and its two standing committees—the International Microbiology Education Committee (IMEC) and the International Membership Committee (IMC)—to develop an integrated strategy for microbiology education in Latin America.
The IC is committed to building strong, collaborative relationships with scientific organizations worldwide that will permit ASM members to pursue their work with the utmost support and collegiality. The IC is already engaged in substantial, long-term programs with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the National Academies of Sciences (NAS). These programs will be expanded, and opportunities explored to begin new collaborations. At the same time, the IC will actively pursue the deepening of its ties to international microbiological organizations.
ASM membership can and should provide an entry point for international scientists into the global microbiological debate. The IC and the IMC are continually seeking innovative means to add value to ASM membership for international scientists and facilitate their participation in ASM programs. The IC is launching new programs designed to expand the potential member base in developing countries, including a limited free membership and online journal access program, and a merit-based gift membership fund. Other membership initiatives will include an International Day before the General Meeting, and the establishment of an international equivalent to the Foundation for Microbiology Lecture Program.
An exciting new avenue was identified by committee members to contribute ASM's expertise to developing countries. The IC has already begun to experiment in implementing programs in developing countries through collaboration with PAHO to strengthen epidemiological prevention and surveillance systems in Latin America. Based on this successful effort, the IC will seek to enhance the ability of ASM to develop partnerships with international public health organizations in response to emergencies in developing countries by providing public health and capacity-building expertise through education and technical assistance.
The IC, through its ongoing collaboration with diverse international microbiological organizations, is ideally placed to develop a clear understanding of non-U.S. outlooks and attitudes towards microbiological issues. The IC will support the work of other ASM departments by providing them with this crucial information on a regular basis. The IC will also create a subcommittee of IC, the Academy, Public and Scientific Affairs Board, and Communications members to develop mechanisms for collaboration. At the same time that the IC is sharing information and perspectives within ASM, it will work to effectively communicate ASM's positions in meetings dealing with international microbiological issues.
The strategic planning retreat afforded IC members, ASM officers, and international staff an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to meeting the needs of ASM's international members, and continuing ASM's leadership of the global microbiological community.
The full text of the new IC strategic plan can be found on the ASM International homepage. For more information on ASM's international activities, please contact International & Minority Activities via e-mail at international@asmusa.org .
Strengthening Relationships between the Mexican Society for Microbiology and ASM
(l-r) Enedina Jimenez Cardosa, president of the Mexican Society for Microbiology; Martha Howe, president of ASM; Lily Schuermann, ASM Director for International and Minority Activities; Edmundo Calva, vice-president of the Mexican Society for Microbiology. ASM provided a significant level of participation in the XXXII Mexican Congress of Microbiology organized by the Mexican Society for Microbiology (AMM) and held 2-5 April 2001 in Guanajuato, Mexico. ASM President Martha Howe and Lily Schuermann, ASM Director for International and Minority Activities, made presentations and took part in several meetings and events during the congress. The ASM International Committee, through its International Requests for Assistance Program, provided financial support for the participation of two ASM speakers, Samuel I. Miller of the University of Washington, Seattle, and Guillermo Perez-Perez of the VA Medical Center, New York, N.Y.
During the opening ceremony of the congress, which included the participation of a representative from the Ministry of Health, the President of the University of Guanajuato, and other local authorities, Howe delivered a brief welcoming address to participants in which she thanked the conference organizers for inviting her to participate and underscored that "ASM is enthusiastic to partner with you in achieving our common goals of fostering access to microbiological knowledge worldwide and addressing microbiological issues of global concern.
"Indeed," she continued, "my participation in ASM's international outreach efforts makes me realize how enriching they are and recognize in new ways that scientists truly have no borders."
AMM President Enedina Jimenez Cardoso, AMM Vice President Edmundo Calva, and Guadalupe Martinez, director of the Research Institute on Experimental Biology, University of Guanajuato, organized and requested ASM participation in a special meeting prior to the start of the congress of AMM leaders to discuss the creation of a new organizational structure for the AMM that would increase interactions among microbiologists with related interests and allow more widespread involvement of AMM members in society activities. The agenda included presentations from multiple AMM leaders describing their ideas for the generation of scientific divisions and geographical branches and the activities each might pursue. Then, Howe described the roles of Divisions and Branches within ASM and commented on the similarities and differences in these roles as described in the prior presentations. She also outlined the administrative structure of ASM, with the Council and Council Policy Committee, and how various ASM activities are managed through the actions of the relevant Boards and Committees. This meeting provided a valuable opportunity for exchange of ideas as to how the science of microbiology and the interactions between the two societies could be strengthened. "The new strategic plan of the ASM International Committee stresses the importance of providing institutional capacity building to national societies for microbiology when requested, and creating opportunities for learning and exchange between ASM and other national societies; this meeting has contributed to accomplishing this goal," said Schuermann.
Schuermann also made a presentation at the congress, in Spanish, on various ASM programs and international activities AMM members might find beneficial. Edmundo Calva, who is also a member of the ASM International Membership Committee and an ASM Ambassador in Mexico, had an eye-catching ASM booth where he promoted ASM's activities and recruited new members. The attendance at the Congress was in excess of 1,000, including participants from all parts of Mexico and other countries in Latin America. AMM expressed great appreciation to ASM for its assistance and cooperation in supporting national societies and strengthening relationships with institutions in Latin America.
American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology
New Diplomate
The ABMLI is pleased to welcome Cheryl Aslakson, Ph.D., the Specialized Testing Manager for Immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, Mich. Aslakson passed a written and an oral exam on 10 March 2001 and is now certified as a Diplomate of The American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology.
Award
The 23rd recipient of the Keith M. Keenly Microbiology Award established at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., by Maryanne S. Keenly Dixon was awarded to Kevin N. Brown, a Biology major at Muhlenberg College who is applying for admission to a graduate program. He will receive a one-year ASM membership and journals of his choice.
Deceased Member
Lloyd E. McDaniel, a microbiologist who was a pioneer in the production of penicillin, died on 2 April 2001 in Bridgewater, N.J. at the age of 86. McDaniel Joined the research laboratories of Merck and Co. in 1940. He developed a process for manufacture of penicillin and produced the penicillin used in the first cure of a human infection with that drug in the United States. He was also responsible for the initial production of the streptomycin used in the treatment of tuberculosis and for the production of vitamin B12 used in the treatment of pernicious anemia.
McDaniel was born in Michigan Valley, Kans. He was a graduate of Kansas State University and earned his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin. In 1961, he was appointed professor of microbiology at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University, where he taught industrial microbiology. He retired in 1984.
International Activities
IC Members Select New Representatives to U.S. National Committee of IUMS
The U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Microbiological Societies (USNC/IUMS) is charged with representing the interests of ASM and the five other U.S. societies within the IUMS. The USNC/IUMS will play a leading role in organizing the 2005 IUMS Congress in San Francisco, for which the Meetings Department of ASM has agreed to provide support. The International Committee, at its March 2001 Strategic Planning Retreat, selected the following ASM members to serve as representatives to the USNC/IUMS: Stephen A. Lerner and Anne Morris Hooke, chair and cochair, respectively, of the IC; Stanley R. Maloy, Council Policy Committee member; and D. Jay Grimes, Communications Committee chair.
New Opportunities for Argentinean Microbiologists
The International Microbiology Education Committee (IMEC) is pleased to announce two new fellowship opportunities for young scientists in Argentina. Thanks to the generous support of the Asociación Argentina de Microbiología and the Fundación Antorchas, two new ASM fellowships will be available to young investigators from Argentina.
Both the Alfredo Sordelli Fellowship for Argentina and the ASM-Antorchas Fellowship for Argentina are designed to encourage research and training collaborations in the microbiological sciences between investigators from Argentina and North American host scientists. The ASM Antorchas Fellowship will focus specifically on young investigators working on non-medically related research programs, while the Alfredo Sordelli Fellowship will be available to Argentinean scientists working in any of the microbiology disciplines.
Each year, ASM will offer one Alfredo Sordelli fellowship and up to five ASM-Antorchas fellowships to young investigators from Argentina to work with microbiologists in the United States or Canada. Each fellowship will provide up to $4,000 to a microbiologist who has obtained or is in the process of obtaining his/her Master's, Ph.D., or other equivalent academic degree.
More information on these and other Fellowship opportunities, as well as information on all ASM's international programs, is available on the ASM International web page .
IMEC Welcomes New Committee Members
Steven Specter, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology at the University of South Florida, is the newest addition to the International Microbiology Education Committee (IMEC). Specter has been a member of ASM since 1972 and has a long history of volunteer service to the Society. He previously served on the Membership and International Committees, was a member of the Abbot Laboratories Award Committee, and was editor-in-chief of the ASM Press Cumitechs program. Specter's term with IMEC will run through 2004.
Lillian Waldbeser, of the College of Science & Technology at Texas A & M University and a member of the Underrepresented Members Committee, has had her ad hoc status on the IMEC changed to full regular membership. Her term will also run through 2004. The IMEC is proud of the addition of these dynamic volunteers.
IMC Selects New ASM Ambassadors
The International Membership Committee (IMC) has approved the nominations of the following International Ambassadors: Juan Carlos Tinoco in Mexico, and Sylvia Costa in Brazil. Tinoco is based in Durango, Mexico, where he heads the Internal Medicine Department of the Hospital General de Durango of the National Ministry of Health. He is a member of ASM since 1987, and has attended every ICAAC since then. Tinoco joins current ASM Ambassador Edmundo Calva—who is continuing in his position--to ensure that ASM continues to develop as a prime resource and collaborator for Mexican microbiologists.
Costa is an infectious diseases expert at the Hospital das Clinicas, University of São Paulo. A new member of ASM (she joined in 2000), Costa has nonetheless been a frequent presenter at ICAAC, as well as a contributor to numerous international conferences and journals. Costa replaces Flavia Rossi, whose term as ASM Ambassador to Brazil expired in 2000.
ASM Branches on the Web
The following ASM Branches have established sites on the World Wide Web:
New Jersey (Theobald Smith Society)
ASM Divisions on the Web
The following ASM Divisions have established sites on the World Wide Web:
Division A, Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Division B, Microbial Pathogenesis
Division C, Clinical Microbiology
Division D, General Medical Microbiology
Division I, General Microbiology
Division K, Microbial Physiology and Metabolism
Division O, Fermentation and Biotechnology
Division Q, Environmental and General Applied Microbiology
Division R, Systematic & Evolutionary Microbiology
Division W, Microbiology Education
Division X, Molecular, Cellular and General Microbiology of Eukaryotes
Division Z, Animal Health Microbiology
Members are encouraged to visit these Web pages, which are also accessible through the Membership section of the ASM Web site.
Email: webmaster@asmusa.org