- Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award
- Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award
- The William A. Hinton Research Training Award
- The Scherago-Rubin Award
- 2000 Morrison Rogosa Awardees
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ASM News
Microbial Discovery Workshops Become International
Microbial Discovery Outreach Program
The Education Board's Microbial Discovery Program, begun by the Precollege Committee in 1994, has now reached across the border. The first Canadian Microbial Discovery Workshop was held in November 2000 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Two additional workshops and one mini-workshop were held in the United States last year.
As described by ASM Past President Julian Davies, "The Microbial Discovery Workshop missionaries (Ken Anderson and DennisOpheim) set up their tents at the University of British Columbia and rapidly disseminated the message of microbiology to an avid group of listeners, who soon became converts. We hope that after they have recovered from their strenuous initiation ceremony—5 days of intensive laboratory and field work—the teachers will spread the good news of microbes to the population as a whole.
"The event was so successful that it is hoped we will hold an annual reunion in Vancouver where more teachers can learn that microbiology is fun, creative, and easy to incorporate into science classes."
Anderson, who chairs the Precollege Committee, noted that other than being the first outside the United States, the workshop also was unique in that it was presented only to teachers and funded through non-ASM sources but followed the national MDW framework and guidelines. "It was very useful to incite another set of attendees into action to `infect' their students and colleagues with information about the important role microbes play in everyday life," he said.
The Canadian workshop was sponsored by the Foundation for Microbiology, the Departments of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of British Columbia, Council of British Columbia, and TerraGen Inc. For the 5 days, 23 British Columbia middle and high school teachers used fungi, slime molds, lichens, protozoans, and bacteria as model classroom systems and participated in a forest excursion observing mushrooms, rotten logs, bracken fungi on living trees, and lichens and collecting plant material for biodegradation.
Activities included a study of soil microbiology, water protozoans, "Microbingo," microbial bioluminescence, and the role of microorganisms in biotechnology. The highlight of the workshop was the presentation of inquiry-developed activities organized by six groups of teachers with themes such as "Yeast Murder Mysteries," "Spices and Preservation," and "When Tomatoes Go Bad."
Local site coordinators were Karen Smith and Diane Oorebeek from the UBC Department of Microbiology and Immunology. "Our enthusiasm for active learning, microbial wonders, and outreach programs has been renewed. The Department of Microbiology at UBC is committed to expanding its outreach programs and considers this workshop to be an excellent framework," says Oorebeek.
Activity leaders and lecturers were Vivian Miao, Tony Warren, Glenn Rabuka, Rumi Asano, Lauren Checkley, and David Ng. A participant commented that "this workshop opened our eyes to what is all around us and refreshes our passion for science."
U.S. Workshops
Participants in the 21-25 June 2000 Microbial Discovery Workshop at Florida Atlantic University. ASM sponsored a mini-workshop on October 13, 2000 at the meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). A total of 27 participants engaged in hands-on, inquiry-based activities designed to demonstrate how to use microorganisms to stimulate interest in science and the microbial world.
Activities included exercises focusing on the breakdown of biodegradable packing material, carbohydrate fermentation by baker's yeast, and applying these activities in various K-12 classroom settings. The beneficial roles of microorganisms were emphasized by considering items typically found at a grocery store or department store that are produced by microorganisms, contain microbial products, or contain living microorganisms. The participants also viewed the video Yellowstone Revisited, focusing on the microorganisms in the national park.
"The Role of the Infinitely Small Is Infinitely Large" was the theme of the 21-25 June 2000 workshop held at Florida Atlantic University in Davie, Fla. Coordinated by Nwadiuto Esiobu from Florida Atlantic University, it was attended by 14 people in teams of precollege science teachers and microbiologists from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Michigan.
Hands-on activities featured the versatile bacteria, the witty slime molds, the enchanting protozoans, the colorful lichens, the rising yeast, and the DNA blueprint. One of the highlights was a visit to the world's largest river restoration project at Kissimmee/Riverwoods field laboratory, where teams studied the differences in microflora of polluted and unpolluted waters. Each team also developed an inquiry-based activity for presentation to the group. These focused on protozoology and chemotaxis, mycology, antimicrobial agents and resistance, and indices of pollution in aquatic environments.
The keynote address was given by Colleen Cavanaugh, professor of biology at Harvard, who discussed her deep-sea explorations of life sustained by microbial symbiosis.
The University of Idaho hosted a workshop on 26-30 July 2000 conducted by Martina Ederer of the University of Idaho and Robin Patterson of Butler County Community College.
The workshop began with a presentation on the great diversity of the microbial world. Other activities were focused on nitrogen-fixing organisms, bioluminescence, handwashing and antimicrobial soaps, fermentation, DNA fingerprinting, genetically modified organisms, and recycling. Ron Crawford of the University of Idaho presented a seminar entitled "Signature of Life: What Is Life and How Can We Detect Life Outside the Earth?"
The workshop was attended by 14 participants, including 6 ASM members and 8 teachers. Participants came from the local area as well as from Houston, Vancouver, Atlanta, and San Jose, Calif.
For more information and application forms for Microbial Discovery Workshops, please visit the website or contact EducationResources@asmusa.org .
General Meeting Awards
The Committee on Awards is pleased to present part two of the three-part series on the 2001 General Meeting Awardees.
BD Award for Research in Clinical Microbiology
Low Donald E. Low, M.D., FRCPC, Professor of Microbiology and Medicine, Head, Division of Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, and Chief, Toronto Medical Laboratories, Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, will receive the BD Award for Research in Clinical Microbiology. The award, affiliated with ASM Division C and sponsored by BD Biosciences, a division of Becton Dickinson and Company, honors a distinguished clinical microbiologist for outstanding research accomplishments leading to or forming the foundation for important applications in clinical microbiology. Low is recognized for research in the epidemiology of bacterial diseases and mechanisms of bacterial virulence and pathogenesis. He will present the Division C, BD Award Lecture, "Streptococcal Serendipity: from Antibiotic Resistance to Zoonosis," at the 2001 General Meeting.
A Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology, Low has contributed significantly to both basic and applied research in a variety of areas related to microbiology and infectious diseases. As a leader among clinical microbiologists in Canada, he organized a collaborative network of microbiology laboratories and infection control practitioners throughout metropolitan Toronto and greater Ontario in population-based studies of invasive bacterial diseases that show changing patterns of incidence, risk factors, and susceptibility to antimicrobials. In one subset of these population-based studies, Low and colleagues produced important findings on severe, invasive group A streptococcal infections, elucidating molecular and cellular mechanisms by which specific host immunogenetic factors control the immune response to superantigens and influence the clinical outcome of the disease. As a result of these findings, Low and the Canadian Streptococcal Study Group, in collaboration with researchers internationally, have carried out clinical trials showing that the use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) reduced cytokine response in vivo and can decrease rates of mortality associated with streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Further, Low's group analyzed virulence determinants of group A streptococci and was first to successfully clone and sequence an open reading frame associated with streptolysin production, designated sagA. Work in this area continues.
The surveillance studies for invasive bacterial diseases and antimicrobial resistance have yielded more important results. The fish pathogen Streptococcus iniae, a significant source of mortality in farmed fish, including tilapia, was identified as a cause of disease in fish handlers in the Toronto area. Low's group has described a particular, virulent strain of S. iniae associated with both the mortality in fish and cellulitis in humans. Low has also described the prevalence of known mechanisms of macrolide and fluoroquinolone resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae and other pathogens. During the course of his career, he has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, over 20 book chapters, and nearly 600 abstracts.
Accomplished in many areas of medical professionalism in addition to research, Low has proven himself in education, leadership, and service. He has twice been recognized with the Mount Sinai Hospital Teaching Award and received the Management Leadership Award in 1995. A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Low has served ASM as a member of the ICAAC Program Committee since 1996. He has been chairman of the Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Medical Microbiology and Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Board of Examiners in Infectious Diseases. He is a former president of the Canadian Infectious Disease Society and a past recipient of that organization's Janssen-Ortho Distinguished Service Award.
Low earned his B.Sc. and M.D. degrees at the University of Manitoba, Canada, and was an intern at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles County. He completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Centre, followed by two years as a resident in Microbiology at the University of Toronto. He was nominated for the BD Award for Research in Clinical Microbiology by Frank R. Cockerill, III, M.D.
Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award
Bennett The 2001 Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award will be presented to Joan W. Bennett, Ph.D., Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. The award, granted annually since 1968 to recognize an outstanding educator for exemplary teaching of microbiology to undergraduate students and for encouraging students toward subsequent achievement, is made possible through the generosity of Dr. Theodore J. Carski and the Carski Foundation.
At the General Meeting in Orlando, Bennett will deliver the Carski Award Lecture entitled, "My Mentors, My Muses, and Mycology." The presentation will emphasize the importance of strong mentoring and real passion for science, and promises to answer the question, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a field like fungal genetics?"
Bennett earned her B.S. in Biology and History from Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., then attended the University of Chicago, where she received her doctorate in Botany and Genetics in 1967. Her abilities as a teacher were evident early on, and she demonstrated her communication skills as a teaching assistant and through presentations in seminars. She continued to develop her talents as a researcher through postdoctoral work at Chicago and at the Southern Regional Research Laboratory in New Orleans, and began her career at Tulane in 1971.
An accomplished researcher with an impressive record of publication, Bennett has never wavered in her dedication to undergraduate teaching and to imparting her love of science to students. Her courses at Tulane have covered a range of subjects and have emphasized the larger social context in which scientific discovery occurs and the profound impact it can have. Course titles have included Genetics; Heredity and Society; Bioethics; Biology of Human Reproduction; and Biology and Literature. Throughout, her work as a teacher has been characterized by respect for the potential that students possess and a belief in the importance of independent thought. She has focused on training students to think critically, reason methodically, and express concepts precisely. Her classes, while academically rigorous, have been extremely popular among undergraduate students. Her high standards and tough, analytical exams are accompanied by approachability and kindness, and often delivered with considerable humor.
In addition, Bennett has devoted countless hours and invaluable guidance to undergraduate students in the laboratory, encouraging them to learn by working at the bench. Since 1971, she has supervised 74 undergraduate honors theses and worked with nearly an equal number of students not doing an honors project. Remarkably, nearly two-thirds of the resulting undergraduate honors papers have been published, a testament to the training in both research and writing they have received. Many of her students have gone on to pursue careers in science and medicine and attribute some of their success to Bennett's influence as a role model, a mentor, and a person.
Bennett has been recognized as an outstanding lecturer, teacher, and scholar through a variety of professional societies and institutions. She has been an ASM divisional lecturer and Foundation Lecturer, the Distinguished Woman Lecturer of Carleton College, and has received the Newcomb College Mortarboard Award for Excellence in teaching. In 1991, she was chosen Honors Professor of the Year by Tulane University. As an invited lecturer, she has delivered presentations to medical school classes, college commencement audiences, industrial and trade show attendees, community organizations, and many academic departments.
As president of ASM (1990-91), her demonstrated commitment to education was important to members and seen as instrumental in setting the stage for the founding of the educational division, Division W, inaugurated in 1994. She is currently president-elect of the Society for Industrial Microbiology. Joan Bennett is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. She was nominated for the Carski Award by John Lennox, Ph.D.
Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award
Ferry The ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award honors exceptional teaching and mentoring of microbiology students at the graduate and postgraduate levels and the inspiring of those students to future achievement. This year, the award will be presented to James G. Ferry, Ph.D., Stanley Person Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. In his Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award Lecture at the General Meeting, Ferry will discuss the importance of discovery in graduate training and developments in the field of methanogenesis by using examples from the scientific accomplishments of former students. The presentation is entitled: "The Field of Methanogenesis Is a Student Playground."
Ferry has been teaching courses and serving as advisor to M.S., Ph.D., and postdoctoral students throughout a distinguished, 25-year faculty career that began at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, included positions at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., and now continues at Penn State. Known as "Greg" to friends and colleagues, Ferry has trained and graduated 13 Ph.D. and 4 M.S. students, and has offered advanced training to 12 postdoctoral students and fellows. Currently, he is mentoring three postdoctoral students and eight Ph.D. candidates and serves as director of an NSF-sponsored research training grant that includes 14 Ph.D. students and 3 postdocs in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His dedication as a mentor is evidenced by the comprehensiveness of the training he has provided, advising students on the many components of a successful academic career. In addition to imparting scientific knowledge, teaching, and research skills, Ferry has enhanced the abilities of his students by providing travel funding for presentations at professional conferences and supporting research opportunities through his grantsmanship. He has encouraged students in their writing, walking them through the processes of submission and revision for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and applying for grants. A striking number of Ferry's more than 100 publications list his students as lead authors, and past students are quick to cite Ferry's focus on communication skills and developing the ability to critically evaluate their own writing as factors in their success.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology since 1992, Ferry is recognized as both an exceptional lecturer and a teacher whose style extends beyond the classroom. His well-known courses, including "Comparative Metabolism of Anaerobic Bacteria," "Molecular Biology of Procaryotic Anaerobes," and a wide variety of seminars, have always included the most current research and asked that students relate that research to observations made in the "real world." Ferry employs demonstrations and experiments in the field, casual conversations, and social gatherings as resources for enabling students to teach each other and become more independent in their research. He has always fostered the creative and exploratory aspects of science, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches, new techniques, and above all, a true spirit of discovery.
Harold D. May, Ph.D., and Kevin R. Sowers, Ph.D., former students that nominated Ferry for this award, wrote, "Dr. Ferry was fond of an old saying that if you give a student enough rope he or she will climb a mountain." The fact that the 29 graduate and postgraduate students that Ferry has guided have become not only successful, but happy in their careers as scientists, teachers, and researchers, May and Sowers added, makes it obvious that he not only provided plenty of rope, but nearly unlimited time, patience, and attention.
Ferry earned his B.S. in Agronomy and Soil Microbiology from the University of Georgia, Athens, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Active in professional service as well as teaching and research, he is currently an editor of the Journal of Bacteriology and a member of the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology, Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Methanogenic Bacteria. He also serves as director of the Center for Microbial Structural Biology, Pennsylvania State University.
The William A. Hinton Research Training Award
Buckley Helen R. Buckley, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and director of the Mycology Laboratory at the Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa., will receive the 2001 William A. Hinton Research Training Award. Buckley is recognized for significant contributions toward fostering the research training of underrepresented minorities in microbiology. The award is sponsored by ASM and presented in honor of Dr. William A. Hinton, a physician-research scientist whose work advanced the field of diagnostic microbiology and one of the first African-Americans to become an ASM member.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Infectious Disease Society of America, Buckley began her training with a B.S. in Biology from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. She later earned a Diploma in Immunology from the University of London and a Ph.D. in Medical Mycology from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was Assistant Professor of Medical Mycology, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Mass., before coming to Temple in 1977. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, a position she has held since 1979.
A teacher and mentor in medical and basic science microbiology throughout her career, Buckley has served as advisor to 7 graduate students at the M.S. level, 13 Ph.D. candidates, and 6 postdoctoral fellows. As a respected researcher with expertise in human fungal diseases, she teaches the medical mycology portion of medical school courses in microbiology and immunology, dermatology, diagnostic microbiology, and seminar courses for pathology residents. Temple University School of Medicine has had one of the largest enrollments of students from underrepresented minority groups of any school in the U.S., excepting historically minority institutions, and Buckley has been instrumental in ensuring the success of students at all levels. Widely known to have an open-door policy, Buckley devotes considerable time to each student, guiding in such a way that students find her approachable, encouraging, and supportive. She has been honored with the Temple University Medical School George A. Sowell Award for Excellence in Basic Science Teaching and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Despite her other research training and mentoring achievements, it is perhaps Buckley's involvement with the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program that makes her uniquely qualified for the Hinton Award. The MARC Program provides research opportunities for interested high school and college students from underrepresented minority groups and aims to offer both the inspiration and the training necessary for the pursuit of further education in the biomedical sciences. As a participant in the program for a decade, Buckley has served as a research mentor to African-American and Hispanic high school students from Philadelphia and elsewhere. Buckley has often chosen the youngest students in the program in hopes of working with them over several years, and while students often spend days or weeks in any one laboratory, many of her students have decided to stay and to return in subsequent summers. Her work style is described as kind and patient, and she manages to convey the passion that she feels for her work to students, especially by emphasizing the ways in which the research they do will ultimately benefit sick people.
Peter Axelrod, M.D., Buckley's nominator for this award, wrote, "I have seen many students in the minority access program and believe that Dr. Buckley's impact upon her students is unmatched." Buckley's success as a MARC mentor has been evidenced by the growth of professional and personal maturity visible in her students and by their continued interest in medical microbiology and basic research. Individuals that she began to work with as ninth graders have gone on to do research in other laboratories during their last years of high school and then to attend college. The first student mentored by Buckley has already graduated college with honors and entered a joint M.D./Ph.D. program, fulfilling the mission of the MARC Program and the spirit of the Hinton Award.
Helen Buckley died on 28 February 2001, after a long battle with illness. The 2001 William A. Hinton Research Training Award will be presented in her honor at the 2001 General Meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Wallis The Scherago-Rubin Award was established by the late Sally Jo Rubin, an active member of the Clinical Microbiology Division of ASM, in honor of her grandfather Professor Morris Scherago. Given in recognition of outstanding performance in the clinical laboratory, the award honors clinical microbiologists at the baccalaureate and master's degree levels. The 2001 award will be presented to Carolyn K. Wallis, Clinical Technologist Lead and Mycobacteriology Section Supervisor at the Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, and Consulting Technologist, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute.
Wallis, a Registered Microbiologist (RM) certified by the National Registry of Microbiologists (NRM) of the American College of Microbiology, holds a B.S. from the University of Washington and boasts 22 years experience in the clinical laboratory. Throughout a career characterized by dedication and commitment, Wallis has continually demonstrated growth and repeatedly sought new challenges. Before being promoted to her current position and while maintaining considerable skills in routine bacteriology, Wallis voluntarily assumed responsibility for the specialty areas of parasitology, mycobacteriology, and laboratory computer systems, all time-consuming and difficult to master. Her technical expertise has been honed by some unique experiences, including Harborview's history as a primary health care provider for the late-70s wave of immigrants from Southeast Asia. As patients presented with high incidence of rare or unusual infectious diseases, Wallis isolated organisms that might otherwise have gone undetected. She originally brought clinical isolates of Mycobacterium genavense and Tsukamurella species to the attention of clinical researchers, providing laboratory data that has earned her coauthorship on a variety of peer reviewed publications and abstracts.
Actively engaged in both her own continuing education and countless activities designed to pass along her expertise and enthusiasm, Wallis is an excellent teacher with exceptional communication skills. She regularly shares her knowledge with students, residents, and fellows training in the laboratory. In addition, she has prepared and presented case studies to a group of medical microbiologists in Seattle for over 20 years, and contributed the section on mycobacteriology specimen control and transport to ASM's 1992 Clinical Microbiology Procedures Handbook. As a presenter, she has led continuing education and staff training courses on subjects ranging from parasitic infections in the immunocompromised host, to BSL-3 biosafety practices and procedures, tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and treatment, and TB exposure control plan implementation.
Her invited lectures have taken her to various hospitals, professional conferences, state departments of health, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Recognized nationally for leadership in the field of mycobacteriology, Wallis was chosen as a consulting technologist and course instructor by USAID and the CDC. In 1998-1999, she taught with Project HOPE at the Tuberculosis Dispensary Hospital in Odessa, Ukraine. Last year, she followed that accomplishment by conducting mycobacteriology training for quality assurance and laboratory support for a tuberculosis program at the National Scientific Research Institute of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Always an empathic and conscientious professional, Wallis sets the highest standards for care, never forgetting that there is an individual patient behind every specimen. In interacting with colleagues, she is described as a superb listener that fosters communication between people and departments within the medical center, and often takes responsibility for problem solving. Carolyn Wallis was nominated for the Scherago-Rubin Award by Ann M. Larson, a Specialist Microbiologist (SM) certified by the National Registry of Microbiologists (NRM) of the American College of Microbiology.
Keuleyan The Morrison Rogosa Award recognizes the outstanding research accomplishment and potential of women scientists in former Eastern bloc countries. The award is given in honor of Dr. Morrison Rogosa for contributions to bacteriology and to ASM. For more information about the Morrison Rogosa Award, visit the website. Emma Edmond Keuleyan, Ph.D., and Modra Murovska, M.D., Ph.D., have been chosen to receive this year's awards.
Murovska Keuleyan was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She worked as an Assistant Professor in the Medical Academy of Pleven from 1976 to 1979, and since then she has worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Medical University in Sofia, Bulgaria, becoming Chief Assistant Professor in 1992. In 1997, she received her Ph.D. from the Medical University of Sofia. Her thesis concerned the problems of resistance toward aminoglycoside-aminocyclitoles among clinically important gram-negative microorganisms. She is now the head of the Antimicrobial Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology at the Medical University in Sofia and a member of the Expert Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance and Antibiotic Policy with the Bulgarian Ministry of Healthcare.
In addition to her studies at the Medical University of Sofia, she has undertaken specialized training in Paris (France), Nijmegen (the Netherlands), Delhi (India), and Cambridge (United Kingdom). In 1974 and 1975, she received research awards from the Bulgarian Union for Scientific and Technological Work of Young People.
In recent years Keuleyan has worked mainly on problematic gram-positive organisms and new treatment options. She is an active member of the Bulgarian Society of Clinical Microbiology, and is one of the founders and the Coordinator of the Bulgaria Chapter of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
The list of her publications and presentations is considerable. She is the senior author or coauthor of over 20 scientific papers, some published in prestigious international journals, and has presented her work at over 60 conferences.
Born in Saldus, Latvia, Modra Murovska, M.D., Ph.D., studied at the Riga Medical Institute where she received her M.D. degree in 1972. She then moved to the August Kirchenstein Institute of Microbiology and Virology at the University of Latvia, where she has worked as a Senior Laboratory Assistant, a Junior Researcher, and a Senior Researcher, and was appointed head of the Department on Oncology in 1986. She earned her Ph.D. in 1978 at the Cancer Research Center of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, Russia, where her thesis concerned the isolation and characteristics of retroviral particles isolated from normal cow embryonic cells.
In 1986-87 and 1989-90, she was a Guest Researcher at the Kochi Medical School, National Cancer Centre Research Institute, Institute of Atomic Diseases of Nagasaki University Medical School in Japan, in 1993-94 she was awarded the Nordic Medical Council Fellowship to work at the National Veterinary Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, and in 1998 she was a Guest Researcher at the Department of Medical Sciences at the University of Uppsala.
Her interests lie in virology, oncovirology,human retroviruses and the regulation of their replication, blood-borne viruses (human herpesviruses [cytomegalovirus and human herpesviruses 6, 7, and 8), virus and cell interaction, the transforming ability of HTLV-BLV group retroviruses and their role in pathology, methods of diagnostics and prophylactics, antisense polynucleotides as inhibitors of virus reproduction, and leukemogenesis.
Murovska is an energetic and accomplished researcher engaged in the search for viruses behind human malignancies whose open-mindedness when discussing and planning experimental work is highly esteemed by both her mentors and colleagues in the laboratory. She is one of the main organizers of international meetings on virology in Latvia, and her teaching skills are greatly appreciated by young researchers and students.
Murovska is senior author and coauthor of an impressive body of work of over 100 publications, most of them in highly respected international journals, and actively participates in international congresses and conferences.
Awards
ASM member Roger N. Beachy will share the 2001 Wolf Prize in Agriculture with James E. Womack for their achievements in biotechnology research.
Beachy, of the Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Mo., and Womack, of Texas A&M University, were cited the by Wolf Prize Jury "for the use of recombinant DNA technology to revolutionize plant and animal sciences." Beachy is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and member of the National Academy of Sciences and "is a recognized expert in plant virology and biotechnology of plants, having established principles for genetic engineering of plants, making them resistant to viral diseases. He is undoubtedly in the forefront of the plant biotechnology revolution," as stated by the jury. Womack was cited for his achievements in mammalian genetics.
Beachy received his Ph.D. in 1973 from the Michigan State University in East Lansing. He has been Research Associate at the Department of Plant Pathology, and USDA Nutrition Laboratory, Cornell University, New York. From 1978 to 1991, Beachy was associated with Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., initially as Professor of Biology, and since 1986 as director of the Center for Plant Science and Biotechnology. In 1991 he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Division of Plant Biology at the Scripps Research Institute, California, where he worked until 1999.
Deceased Member
Baron Louis S. Baron, one of the pioneers of bacterial genetics and editor of the Journal of Bacteriology from 1965 to 1970, died at the age of 76 on 2 June 2000 from complications of diabetes mellitus. He was born in New York, and though he lived in Washington, D.C. for over 48 years, he remained a consummate New Yorker. His interest in science, like so many of his contemporaries, was intensified while attending the Bronx High School of Science. Baron received his B.S. in biology from City College of New York in 1947, and he went on to earn his M.S. (1948) and Ph.D. (1951) in bacteriology from the University of Illinois under Sol Spiegelman's tutelage. After receiving his doctoral degree, Lou took a position at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; he remained there for his entire professional career. At Walter Reed, Lou launched a career studying Salmonella typhi, initially with the goal of finding a new vaccine. Baron recognized that the chemical approach being taken at the time would not suffice alone to develop a new vaccine strategy. Consequently, he began to learn the new discipline of bacterial genetics from Joshua and Esther Lederberg, as well as from the scientists then at work at Cold Spring Harbor. When Baron began his new life as a bacterial geneticist, bacterial conjugation was restricted to work on E. coli K-12. The Paris school of Monod, Jacob, Wolman and Lwoff was revolutionizing bacterial genetics. Bacterial virus research in the United States had evolved into a new kind of quantitative biology due to the energy of Salvador Luria, the exquisite experimental approach of Seymour Benzer, and the encompassing theories of Max Delbruck. Salmonella research in the mid-1950s was restricted to fine structure analysis using phage P22, itself, a recent discovery of Norton Zinder. Attempts at performing bacterial mating between E. coli and Salmonella had been unsuccessful. Baron and Zinder, at virtually the same moment, reported the first successful bacterial mating system between E. coli and Salmonella. Of course, Lou focused on S. typhi.
Today, some of the most intensely studied bacterial pathogens are members of the Salmonella group. One hears little of Baron's early accomplishments. But to those of us who worked and studied with Lou Baron, his accomplishments were the very foundation for much of our later work with enteric bacteria and remains so. Whether today's younger scientists realize it or not, Baron and Charles Brinton discovered the genes for type 1 pili 40 years ago as a result of examining the exconjugants from E. coli ´ S. typhi bacterial mating. The exconjugants were partial merodiploids and provided a wealth of information about the structure of the bacterial chromosome, the elusive F(ertility) factor, and Salmonella antigenic structure of both the flagella and that wonderful "typhi" antigen, Vi, that was so dear to Lou's heart because of his early work with Geoffrey Edsall and Maurice Landy. Few today recall that Lou Baron and his students discovered a naturally occurring F-lac factor in the typhoid bacillus from an epidemic outbreak, virtually at the same time that Ed Adelberg and Francois Jacob reported it from E. coli K-12 mating. This discovery led Baron to examine just how "promiscuous" bacterial gene transfer might be. The "episomes" Lou worked with were transferred to other bacterial species including Serratia and Vibrio cholerae. This inevitably led to the first molecular nature of episomes (the progenitor word before 1968 for plasmid). The work by Baron's group was important when Tsotumu Watanabe and Susumu Mitsuhashi discovered "infectious multiple drug resistance" in 1960 because it provided a theoretical basis for understanding this clinical phenomenon.
Lou Baron was a marvelous experimentalist. His view, which he attributed to Josh Lederberg, was that "if the experiment used more than four petri plates of selective media and two pipettes, the experiment was overdesigned." While he might not have exactly lived up to this stricture, it was true that Lou Baron could design simple experiments, using simple reagents, and come up with extraordinary insights about the biology of pathogenic bacteria. While he did not go on to work in molecular biology, he encouraged many of us who worked with him to do so and fought to get the appropriate equipment from a somewhat skeptical but, in retrospect, forward-thinking U.S. Army medical establishment. While many of us in Lou's group worked on DNA hybridization, Model E ultracentrifuges, and the like, Lou Baron went on to discover that lambda phage could be forced to plate on Salmonella. His work, again based on elegant bacterial mating and the direct selection of phage mutants on Salmonella typhi mutant and wild-type strains, were quite important in understanding lambda phage regulation and lysogeny.
Anyone who knew Lou Baron understood how much he loved sports. He followed the New York teams with passion and disappointment as he read the morning edition of the New York Times in his lab. Many of us gathered there each morning to talk and argue. Pretty soon the discussion turned to the latest experiments and what they meant. Not uncommonly, Lou would listen to our latest results and our interpretation with outright skepticism. However, he always came up with an alternative explanation that could be answered by some genetic cross from his extraordinary storehouse of mutant strains. Quickly he had a mating experiment set up, the selective medium prepared, and, with that lovely thing about plate genetics, the results could be seen the next morning. (It was indeed, as Luria said, the "Golden Age of Biology.") All of this scientific excitement was peppered by news and discussion of Baron's latest bowling score in the hotly contested Walter Reed League or, in the spring, his misadventures on the softball diamond or the handball court. In later years, racquetball became a passion. At other times, the discussion would center on his latest hobby which included photography, astronomy, ham radio, leather working, and others too transient to remember.
Inevitably, Lou's approach to science was swallowed up by the onslaught of molecular biology and recombinant DNA research. He remained a staunch supporter of his students and coworkers and he followed their work with the same enthusiasm. The current era of Salmonella research began 15 or so years ago; it is as much cell biology as molecular biology and not much bacterial genetics. Lou Baron was then ending his career. Yet, to those of us who knew him, he remained a wealth of insight and information about the biology of bacteria. It was available in a phone call or a chance meeting at the ASM national meeting, which he faithfully attended for all of his scientific career. He had, over the years, stored away an extraordinary amount of information about enteric bacteria, Salmonella, of course, and animal models of pathogenicity. Much of this information is difficult to find in today's scientific literature, which ends mysteriously on Medline at 1966 and is missing in the minds of most of us. His good humor and thoughtful advice will be missed.
Stanley J. Falkow
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif.Samuel B. Formal
Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences
Bethesda, Md.Dennis J. Kopecko
Food and Drug Administration
Bethesda, Md.ASM Ambassadors—Update on Activities
ASM Ambassadors are international members who have been selected on the basis of their knowledge of the governance programs and services of the Society to represent the Society's interests in and about their country. Currently, ASM has Ambassadors in Latin America and Eastern Europe. We encourage members interested in becoming Ambassadors to review the nominating procedures on the ASM International Activities website.
Recent Ambassador Activities
Martinique. Bernard Bucher, chair of the International Membership Committee (IMC), represented ASM at the Seventeenth Meeting of the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) Extended Program on Immunization—Caribbean Managers on 13-15 November in Trois-Ilets, Martinique, French West Indies. 70 health officials from 24 Caribbean countries, as well as representatives from numerous international, regional, and national bodies, were in attendance. Bucher's intervention on behalf of ASM supported the goal of identifying strategies to improve immunization coverage and disease surveillance, and better implementation of already existing elimination strategies. For more information on the meeting see his article on the ASM website.
Mexico. Edmundo Calva, IMC Member and ASM Ambassador in Mexico, organized an ASM booth at the 23rd Mexican National Biochemistry Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico, on 19-24 November 2000. Over 1,000 scientists participated in the meeting, at which Calva and three of his students promoted ASM membership and distributed ASM materials.
Costa Rica. Pamela Pennington, ASM Ambassador in Guatemala, participated in the Central American Congress on Microbiology, held on 15-18 November in San Jose, Costa Rica. Pennington made a presentation of ASM International Activities that was featured in the congress' program. Pennington also arranged an ASM booth where she distributed ASM materials and brochures.
Poland. Waleria Hryniewicz, ASM Ambassador in Poland, presented the 4th International Course on Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria: Basis and Laboratory Detection in Warsaw, Poland. Scientists from nine Eastern European countries and Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey attended the course, the aim of which was to show the methods commonly employed in antimicrobial susceptibility testing, the associated problems if the test is not performed properly, and the different types of resistance which may be encountered. Hryniewicz distributed ASM materials and brochures to participants.
For further information on the ASM Ambassadors Program see the ASM International Activities website or e-mail Daniel Lissit,Manager, International Activities atinternational@asmusa.org .
ASM Brings Workshops to Hong Kong
ASM recently brought two workshops and a speaker to the 7th Western Pacific Congress of Chemotherapy and Infectious Diseases, which took place 11-15 December 2000 in Hong Kong. ASM began collaborating with the Western Pacific Society of Chemotherapy, a regional affiliate of the International Society of Chemotherapy, in 1992. Since then, ASM has contributed workshops to five consecutive biennial congresses. This educational outreach program, supported by generous contributions from pharmaceutical companies, is now maintained under the auspices of the ASM International Committee. This activity affords ASM the opportunity to bring workshops from its General Meeting and ICAAC to scientists from various countries in the Western Pacific region and to acquaint them with ASM and the benefits to its members and the global microbiological community.
The Scientific Committee of the Congress selected two ASM workshops, and the convenor of each modified the program to accommodate a total of three speakers for each workshop. Leslie Hall of the Mayo Clinic and her colleagues, Robin Patel of the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation and Barbara Brown-Elliott of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, presented the Workshop "Mycobacterial Disease 2000: Clinical and Laboratory Perspectives" over a full day; and Matthew Bankowski of Viromed and his colleagues, Curt A. Gleaves of Providence-Portland Medical Center and Kelly Henrickson of the Medical College of Wisconsin, presented the Workshop "Molecular Sequencing and Genotyping in the Clinical Virology and Microbiology Laboratories: the Classic Approach and the Clinical Usefulness of the New Molecular Tools" over a half-day. Sixty-five scientists from 11 countries took part in the mycobacterial workshop, and 30 attendees from four countries took part in the virology workshop. The ASM speakers elicited spirited discussion from the audience that further enhanced the experience for both attendees and speakers. Stephen A. Lerner, chair of the International Committee, was responsible for organizing this effort with the Hong Kong congress leaders and the ASM workshop speakers, and for securing funding from Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer Incorporated, Pharmacia and Upjohn, and Roche Pharmaceuticals. In addition, he presented a talk requested by the congress organizers on "Antimicrobial Strategies for the Control of Resistant Gram-Negatives in Hospitals." Also representing ASM was Lily Schuermann, Director of International Activities, who expressed the interest and commitment of ASM toward the international microbiological community.
The warm and enthusiastic reception of this ASM activity was highly gratifying, and during the meeting Lerner already began discussions with organizers of the next two Western Pacific Congresses, which will take place in 2002 in Perth, Australia and 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand, regarding possible participation of ASM in those meetings.
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