2013 was a great year for the SIVB Awards Committee. Our committee members took the initiatives to set up guidelines for award nomination, to evaluate candidate awardees at the Society level, and also participated in the survey required by the board for new award category suggestions made by society members. All of these activities promoted the SIVB as a whole to award the outstanding new and longtime members of our Society. In 2013 two long-term outstanding SIVB scientists won the “Lifetime Achievement Award”, Dr. Paul Price and Dr. William Smith. From the Plant Biotechnology section Dr. Lisa Lee won the “Fellow Award”. The newly resumed (since 2009) “Young Scientist Award” went to two young scientists, Dr. Addy Alt-Holland and Dr. Sadanand Dhekney, who are both energetic in teaching and research at the academic setting. There are five members in 2013 that were awarded the “Distinguished Service Award” by the SIVB President; they are: Eugene Elmore, Albert Kausch, Yvonne A. Reid, Sukhpreet Sandhu, and J. Denry Sato. There is one very special person who received the “President Award” in 2013, Dr. Michael E. Horn. Without the service efforts from these individuals it would be not possible for the society to have a successful In Vitro Biology congress each year. The SIVB and the Awards Committee are very grateful to all of the 2013 Award recipients as their efforts help to sustain and advance our Society. The SIVB Awards Committee believes that 2014 will be an even better year. The SIVB Awards Committee will continue to work hard to fulfill our mission in the last several months of our remaining 2013-2014 terms; and we look forward to the election of our new Award Committee Chair. We are also looking forward to receiving more nominations for the awards we give each year, and I hope each of our members could consider yourself as a possible candidate; or, consider nominating someone who you think deserves an award. Please remember to respond to the “Call for Award Nominations” which always appears in the December issue of the “In Vitro Report”.
Submitted by Amy Wang, SIVB Awards Committee Chair
