David Songstad, SIVB President
WOW! This is the reaction I heard from many people that attended the SIVB meeting in Providence. It started with the Keynote Speaker, Steve Briggs, and his message regarding the maize proteome and understanding protein networks in assessing the proteotype in relation to phenotype. Steve’s presentation dove tailed nicely with last year’s presentation by Lee Hood from a systems biology focus.
I was very impressed by the number of presentations on gene/genome editing at this year’s meeting. Last year, when the plant and IVACS programs were in the planning stage, the focus was not specifically on a meeting highlighting this technology. However, this is the direction that the latest science guided our program and it was very impressive that SIVB was on the cutting edge of the various technologies involved with genome editing. This is why for next year, a joint session between plant and IVACS on Genome Editing is being planned for the 2014 SIVB-Society for Cryobiology joint meeting in Savannah, Georgia.
David Songstad (far left) presents the Distinguished Service Award to (L to R) Albert Kausch, J. Denry Sato, Eugene Elmore and Sukhpreet Sandhu
There was a tremendous amount of voluntary work that occurred to make the 2013 SIVB meeting successful. As President, it is my privilege to give the Distinguished Service Award to the individuals that put in an extraordinary effort. The following individuals received this award: Eugene Elmore, Albert Kausch, Yvonne Reid, Sukhpreet Sandhu, and J. Denry Sato. Eugene, Albert and Yvonne received this award for their work in organizing the Animal and Plant Components of the Advanced Tissue Culture Workshop. Sukhpreet worked diligently in writing another grant to provide funds to the SIVB which was awarded $14,000. Denry was the Program Chair for this year’s meeting and, from past experience, I know the amount of extra work that comes with this responsibility.
Other awards and recognitions that were delivered at this year’s meeting include Dr. Lisa Lee receiving the SIVB Fellow Award. Lisa has been an active member of the SIVB for many years and has worked mostly in the private sector for most of her career, most recently with The Scotts Company. We also recognized two individuals with the Young Scientist Award. Dr. Addy Alt-Holland of Tufts University and Dr. Sadanand Dhekney of the University of Wyoming were recognized for their accomplishments so early in their career with this award. I’m keeping my eye on Addy and Sadanand because I see the future of the SIVB in these individuals.
I also want to recognize again Marietta and Michele for their hard work in their efforts in making the 2013 meeting successful. They do a lot of work behind the scenes that sometimes goes unrecognized. I want to say “Thanks” to both of you for everything you do to support the SIVB.
Dave Songstad
SIVB President
