ASM News

Changes in Journal PublicationProcess Increase Timeliness,Decrease Production Costs

Following recommendations of the Journals Re-view Committee and budgetary approval by theCouncil Policy Committee, several steps are be-ing taken in the journals publication process todecrease production costs, maintain reasonablesubscription charges, and deliver content morequickly.

The Journals Review Committee raised sev-eral issues pertainingto journals publica-tions, according toPublications BoardChair Samuel Kaplan.“We are a Society,but not a boutiquepublisher, and havean obligations to pub-lish the broadestmicrobiology of thehighest possible cali-ber,” he says. In ad-dition, the timelinessof getting these qual-ity materials to thegeneral public is es-sential for the au-thors and for the sci-ence, he emphasizes.

The journals pro-gram is, however,facing major chal-lenges. “The costs ofproduction are risingfaster than our abil-ity to provide thesepublications at rea-sonable subscriptioncharges, and printsales are declining ata steady pace,” hesays.

Among the steps being taken to deliver con-tent more quickly is posting all accepted butnot-yet-edited manuscripts, which will be undersubscription control until the published versionappears. Through HighWire Press and PubMedCentral, ASM will continue to make availableall primary research free of charge 6 monthsafter publication and review articles 12 monthsafter publication. PubMed Central is also nego-tiating arrangements with institutions in othercountries who are establishing sites like PubMedCentral as “echo” sites, Kaplan notes.

ASM Journals in National Libraryof Medicine Pilot Project

ASM journals were selected in 2002 for a National Library ofMedicine (NLM) pilot project to produce a digital archive of lifescience journals back as far as available. This should provide thepublic with easy, online access to a broad spectrum of full-text PDFarticles and develop increased chances of long-term preservation.Posting of the archival ASM journals was completed in 2004.

NLM continues to scan a small subset of Medline journals that areparticipating in PubMed Central. PubMed Central is a digital ar-chive of life science journal literature managed by the NationalCenter for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at NLM. Each jour-nal is being scanned, cover to cover, from its earliest available dateof publication forward to issues currently deposited in PubMedCentral. OCR text of sufficient quality to build indexes for full-textsearching and to use for other background processing is beinggenerated automatically from the scanned images.

ASM provided copies of its available print issues to PMC forscanning and in turn received copies of the electronic files for its ownuse; these are currently being prepared for posting. Scanned articlesare freely available in PubMed Central as PDF files. Citations andabstracts for the articles will be included in NLM’s bibliographiccitation database, PubMed. Other journals identified for participa-tion in this project include the Journal of the Medical LibraryAssociation, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and Nucleic AcidsResearch. As with existing content in PubMed Central, copyrightfor publishers’ scanned material will remain with the publishers orwith individual authors, as applicable.A

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In addition to increased rejection rates, pro-duction costs are being reduced by reducing theamount of copyediting on manuscripts, whichalso speeds production time. “We are also at-tempting to reduce the length of published pa-pers, which has been steadily increasing over thepast decade, by changing our approach to pagecharges,” Kaplan says.

Under the new system, the price per page willbe $65 for the first six pages, but for every pageover six the price will be $200 per page for ASMmember authors. Nonmember authors will pay$75 and $250 per page.

“This approach has been taken by some otherjournals,” Kaplan says. “Although there arejournals that have no page charges, the cost ofsubscriptions to such journals is far in excess ofthe cost for ASM journals. All 11 journals, morethan 69,000 pages in 2005, can be purchasedelectronically for just $190 annually.”

Kaplan also points to a steady decline in totalsubscriptions which reflects the increasing avail-ability of the journals to all scientists throughinstitutional subscriptions. “Extrapolation ofthis trend suggests that costs for authors couldincrease in order to support publication,”Kaplan says. “By keeping the sizes of the articlesdown, we hope to be able to both increase ourtimeliness and decrease our production costs.”

To meet the decline in print sales, subscriptioncharges for print and electronic versions havebeen uncoupled, with print prices increasing to asignificantly greater extent than electronic, butthere has been no increase for ASM memberswho subscribe to all 11 online journals. “Weanticipate this approach will encourage sub-scribers to select the electronic version, whichwill permit us to more accurately assess the fateof the print version as well as effect considerablesavings by lowering the production costsuniquely associated with print,” Kaplan says.

International Committee AdoptsNew Strategic Plan

The CPC International Committee (IC) con-ducted a strategic planning retreat on 26–28August 2005 at ASM headquarters in Washing-ton, D.C. This was the third such retreat heldsince the activation of the committee in 1998,and was intended to update the strategic planadopted in 2001.

The retreat was led by newly appointed

IC Chair Keith Klugman(Emory University) and at-tended by 20 committeemembers, board liaisons, of-ficers, and staff. “The IC hasmade enormous strides inrecent years towards fulfill-ing its mission ‘to ensurethat ASM continues and ex-pands its global activities inthe field of microbiologicalsciences,’” said Klugman.“My hope is that we can continue to developprograms and services—both for our currentmembers and for the broader microbiologicalcommunity—that enhance ASM’s relevance andmake a real impact in people’s lives and ca-reers,” he added. The retreat was preceded by areception attended by Mirta Roses, Director ofthe Pan American Health Organization (PAHO),and other distinguished guests. The IC hasworked as a formal partner with PAHO since2001, and maintains formal relationships withthe United Nations Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (UNESCO), the Interna-tional Union of Microbiological Societies, andthe International Society for Microbial Ecology.

Initially conceived of as a coordinating bodywithin ASM, the IC rapidly expanded its role toencompass international education and mem-bership issues, with the transfer of the Interna-tional Microbiology Education Committee as astanding committee of the IC, and the creationof the International Membership Committee.Together these three committees have overseenthe growth and maturation of such programs asInternational Fellowships and Professorships,ASM Ambassadors, and the Caribbean BasinResearch and Training Network on InfectiousDiseases. At the same they have established nu-merous online resources for members, such as avolunteer network to translate ASM materialsinto Spanish, Portuguese, and French; a mentor-ing service for international students; and a re-source clearinghouse. The IC was also selectedby ASM leadership to develop a system to man-age ASM and member contributions to reliefand reconstruction efforts following the Asiantsunami of December 2004. This resulted in theforming of a partnership with the Pan AmericanHealth and Education Fund and the establish-ment of a CPC task force that will respond onbehalf of ASM to future disasters.

Roses and Klugman

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A major new initiative—for which an agree-ment was just signed in November, 2005—is afour-year program through the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention to provide capaci-ty-building support to HIV/AIDS microbiologi-cal laboratories in Africa under the President’sEmergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Aprogram committee chaired by Steven Specter(University of South Florida) was created byCPC to manage the program, which will sendASM members to serve as mentors in PEPFARcountry laboratories.

The new IC strategic plan incorporates fivegoals: (i) promote microbiological sciencesworldwide by providing a diverse array of edu-cational programs and services; (ii) develop col-laborative relationships with national, interna-tional, and umbrella scientific organizationsworldwide; (iii) ensure the growth of interna-tional membership by offering ASM productsand services that meet member needs; (iv)PEPFAR: Building Capacity of HIV/AIDS Mi-crobiological Laboratories; and (v) ensure effec-tive communication and coordination of activi-ties with ASM Boards.

“I am pleased with the new strategic plan,”said Klugman, “and feel that with this new toolwe will be better prepared to support thebreadth of the four committee’s activities. It alsocharts out a course for targeted expansion of ourwork to some of the most underserved regionsof the world.” The full plan can be found inmultiple languages on the International Affairspages of the ASM website at www.asm.org/international.

ABRCMS 2005: ExcellentPresentations, Expectations ofInclusion

Over the span of three days, 2,600 undergradu-ate and graduate students and postdoctoralscholars, along with their mentors and recruit-ers, participated in the 2005 Annual BiomedicalResearch Conference for Minority Students(ABRCMS), held in Atlanta, Ga., 2–5 Novem-ber.

A unique component of ABRCMS is the sci-entific and professional development sessions.In harmony with previous years, ABRCMS2005 made way for comprehensive and candidtalks on the state of biomedical research and its

trajectory, focusing on the conference theme“promoting excellence and inclusion” in thefield. Offering the gamut of new biomedical andbehavioral sciences discoveries, as many as 35expert scientists and researchers engaged theyoung researchers in scientific discourse and re-vealed fertile areas for the student researchers toinclude their own research.

Norman Anderson, Ph.D., president andCEO of the American Psychological Associa-tion, opened the conference with a motivationaland insightful talk on solving the mystery ofracial and ethnic disparities. His presentationdescribed the need for more interdisciplinaryresearch to bridge most disparities amongAmericans. Scientific discussions began withNational Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmaptopics presented by three NIH Institute direc-tors—Jeremy Berg, Ph.D., Roderic Pettigrew,M.D., Ph.D., and Donald Vereen, M.D, M.P.H.“Nothing is as important as the care and nurtur-ing of young minds. . .I am proud to be in theircompany,” said Vereen. Following the NIHRoadmap sessions, 35 of the nation’s leadingscientists and researchers joined expert re-searchers Mina Bissell, Ph.D., of LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory, David Botstein,Ph.D., Anthony B. Evnin Professor of Genom-ics, Princeton University, Treena LivingstonArinzeh, Ph.D., winner of the U.S. PresidentialYoung Researchers Award for her stem cell re-search, and biochemist Fernando Gonzalez,Ph.D., of the University of Puerto Rico, RioPiedras Campus. Bissell shared the latest discov-eries in breast cancer during her talk, “How theBreast Forgets It’s a Breast and Becomes BreastCancer,” and Botstein captured students’ atten-tion with a video-enhanced presentation, “Us-ing Genomics to Study at the System Level” toexplore research in genetic sequencing. Arinzehadded special commentary encouraging the stu-dents to continue in biomedical and behavioralsciences research and advanced studies. Her sen-timent was echoed by all speakers.

ABRCMS’ professional development sessionsprovided additional strategies and tactics, en-abling the young researchers to prepare forgraduate school, publish scientific papers, pre-pare successful personal statements, and pre-pare for the professorate.

Shirley Malcom, Ph.D., of the American As-sociation for the Advancement of Science, en-couraged the students to seek out and get in-

86 Y Microbe / Volume 1, Number 2, 2006

volved in professional associations. Shetold them, “(Professional affiliations andnetworking are) the way to become em-bedded in your profession and in yourfields. . . [they] allow you to learn how youbecome a scientist and what the expecta-tions are for the science.”

Many student attendees said one of themost insightful experiences during theconference came once they entered the ex-hibit halls. An astounding 187 recruiterswere on hand to recruit for their rigorousgraduate programs or to connect the stu-dent’s work with existing research projectsor collaborations. Exhibitors use the conferenceas its primary minority recruitment event,knowing the caliber and competitive spirit thatmany of ABRCMS participants possess. Fromthem, students learn of opportunities in gradu-ate programs and research fellowships as well ascareer possibilities.

Approximately 1,000 students representingnine scientific disciplines presented their re-search through a poster or oral presentationduring the exhibits program and competed for a$250 monetary award sponsored by profes-sional societies and research organizations. Thisyear’s conference announced a record of 90students as winners. A number of professionalsocieties offered travel subsidies to their na-tional meeting and free membership in additionto the monetary award.

Also, established this year is an ABRCMSTravel Grant Program which drew in over 100undergraduate students competing for 56 grantsof up to $1,500 to cover registration, travel andlodging. The focus of the travel grant is to re-cruit underrepresented minorities, first-genera-tion, and non-traditional students.

The 2006 ABRCMS will be held on 8–11November 2006 in Anaheim, Calif. Registrationopens in May. Scientists and faculty membersmay volunteer as an abstract reviewer, postersession judge, and on-site mentor. Visit www.abrcms.org for more information. The confer-ence is funded by the National Institute of Gen-eral Medical Sciences (NIGMS), Division ofMinority Opportunities in Research Program(MORE), and managed by ASM.

Irene Hulede

Irene Hulede is Manager of Student Programs in theASM Education Department.

First- and Second-YearMember Survey

In August and September, the MembershipBoard conducted a survey to learn more fromASM’s members about their membership expe-rience. Sent to ASM members completing theirfirst and second years of membership, the surveyinvited them to share their feedback on theirlevel of satisfaction with ASM and its productsand services. Response to the survey was good,with 21% of first-year members and 13% ofsecond-year members responding to the survey.The responses provided important informationto the Membership Board as it continues in itscommitment to serve the needs of ASM’s diversemembership. In the survey results, domestic andinternational member responses were separatedto offer insight about the member needs of thesespecific member populations.

In the survey, members were asked to sharetheir primary reason for joining ASM. First-yeardomestic members indicated that their top rea-sons for joining ASM were “to enhance myscientific credentials” (23%) and “to networkwith scientific colleagues” (22%). Similarly, sec-ond-year members named “to network with sci-entific colleagues” (domestic: 29%, internation-al: 36%) as their top reason for becoming amember. In contrast, first-year internationalmembers indicated that their primary reason forjoining ASM was “as an author, to pay for pagecharges and reprints at member rates” (32%).The responses from the survey showed a largeinterest in opportunities for networking, whichASM currently provides through e-mail, list-servs, and social functions at its meetings.

Members were asked to rate ASM’s servicesand products individually on a scale of 1 to 4

Student MembershipPatches

Beginning in January 2006,the Student MembershipCommittee will be thankingstudents for their member-ship in ASM by distributingthese colorful patches!

Volume 1, Number 2, 2006 / Microbe Y 87

(1�Poor, 2�Fair, 3�Good, 4�Excellent).Members were given the opportunity to select“not applicable” if they had never used the ASMservice or product. Among the list of servicesand products, ASM Journals garnered the high-est average rating among first-year internationalmembers (3.50) and all second-year members(domestic: 3.54, international: 3.54). For first-year domestic members, ASM Press rankedhighest, with an average rating of 3.57, withASM Journals following close behind with anaverage rating of 3.54.

Several products and services had more than70% of “not applicable” responses among allfirst- and second-year members. These productsand services included: ICAAC, networkingevents at ICAAC, certification and accreditation

programs, minority affairs programs, men-toring programs, and legislative activities.The Membership Board will explore bettermechanisms for sharing information aboutthese products and services so members canchose whether to use them or not. In partic-ular, the Membership Board will promoteproducts and services to particular popula-tions of the ASM membership which mayfind them more useful than other membersegments.

When asked how likely they were to re-new their ASM membership in 2006 on ascale of 1 to 4 (1�Very unlikely, 2�Un-likely, 3�Somewhat likely, 4�Very likely),members indicated being overwhelminglylikely to renew. First-year members had av-erage responses of 3.68 (domestic) and 3.62(international.) Second-year members hadan average response of 3.83 in both domes-tic and international responses. The increasein likelihood of members to renew in theirsecond year of membership seems to dem-onstrate an expanded value in membershipas the length of ASM membership increases.

The Membership Board is pleased to re-port that members were asked to rate theiroverall satisfaction with ASM membershipand overwhelmingly rated ASM with a highlevel of satisfaction. On a scale of 1 to 4(1�Very dissatisfied, 2�Dissatisfied, 3�Sat-isfied, 4�Very satisfied), first-year membersreported an average rating of 3.31 (domes-tic) and 3.13 (international). The rating oflevel of satisfaction increased with second-year members, with ratings of 3.26 (domes-

tic) and 3.34 (international). These high satis-faction ratings are consistent with past membersurveys.

As the Membership Board moves forwardwith its initiatives, it will continue to find themost effective means of communication foralerting members to ASM’s many products andservices. The Board also hopes that memberswill bring potential new services to its attentionso that it can always serve members needs at thehighest level. The first- and second-year membersurveys offer important information about themotivations for joining ASM, the frequencywith which ASM products and services are used,and the level of overall satisfaction with ASMand its products and services.

The Membership Board thanks the members

First- and Second-Year Member Surveys: Primary Reason for JoiningASM

Primary reason for firstjoining ASM

1st Year Members 2nd Year Members

Domestic International Domestic International

To network with scientificcolleagues

22% 19% 29% 36%

To attend the 2005 GeneralMeeting at member rates

11% 5% 18% 13%

To present a paper at the2005 General Meeting

2% 4% 9% 4%

To attend the InternationalConference onAntimicrobial Agents andChemotherapy (ICAAC) atmember rates

3% 4% 3% 3%

To present a paper atICAAC

2% 0% 1% 0%

To purchase ASM Journalsat member rates

10% 16% 7% 14%

As an author, to pay forpage charges & reprintsat member rates

8% 32% 2% 8%

To purchase ASM Books atmember rates

2% 4% 1% 1%

To attend ASMConferences at memberrates

8% 5% 9% 2%

To use the Members-Onlysection of the ASMWebsite

6% 3% 6% 5%

To enhance my scientificcredentials

23% 7% 14% 9%

To become certified inlaboratory management

1% 0% 0% 0%

To attend an ASMWorkshop at memberrates

2% 0% 1% 1%

To obtain life, health or autoinsurance offeredexclusively to members

0% 0% 0% 0%

88 Y Microbe / Volume 1, Number 2, 2006

who participated in the survey for their responseto the survey. The Board welcomes all inputfrom ASM’s members as it strives to best serveASM and its members. To share your inquirieswith the Membership Board, please contactLorna Kent, Director, Membership Services bye-mail at lkent@asmusa.org.

ASM Joins the Fightagainst HIV/AIDS

ASM has signed a Cooperative Agreement withthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) to improve the capacity of HIV/AIDSlaboratories under the President’s EmergencyPlan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The four-yearprogram, for which ASM was selected through acompetitive grant process, has two main goals:(i) strengthening laboratory organizational andtechnical infrastructure especially as it relates toclinical microbiology for HIV and opportunisticinfection prevention, treatment, and care pro-grams, and (ii) assuring the quality of laboratorytesting and HIV test results by instituting sys-tematic approaches to delivering clinical micro-biology services to HIV/AIDS and opportunisticinfection prevention, treatment, and care pro-grams.

CPC approved the creation of a PEPFAR Pro-gram Committee to lead ASM’s role in the ini-tiative. The committee is chaired by Steven Spec-ter (University of South Florida) who is joinedby James L. Beebe (Colorado Department ofPublic Health), Ruth Berkelman (Emory Univer-sity), Ronald J. Harbeck (National Jewish Med-ical & Research Center), George Schmid (WorldHealth Organization), and Ronald B. Luftig(Louisiana State University). IC Chair KeithKlugman (Emory University), and Lily Schuer-mann (ASM Director of International Affairs)also participate on an ex-officio basis. ASMheadquarters is in the process of recruiting astaff manager to work full-time on the program.

To achieve the program goals, the committeehas developed a comprehensive five-part capac-ity-building framework to ensure that laborato-ries possess the necessary organizational andtechnical infrastructure to provide quality labo-ratory testing and results in support of HIVprevention, care, and treatment programs, espe-cially for opportunistic infections. Workingthrough ASM members serving as mentors cho-sen on the basis of their technical and cultural

expertise, ASM will support laboratories in theareas of (i) setting and meeting strategic goals,(ii) assessing and improving management sys-tems, (iii) mastering laboratory techniques andprocedures, (iv) quality assurance and monitor-ing, and (v) external relations/enabling environ-ments.

“Accurate and effective laboratory diagnosesare vital to reducing morbidity and mortalitydue to HIV and opportunistic infections,” saysSpecter. “ASM is uniquely situated to recruithighly skilled mentors to assist in creating thoselaboratories in underdeveloped nations. Withmore than 5,000 members who work in diag-nostic laboratories and extensive internationalconnections in diagnostic microbiology, ASMhas the critical mass to attain PEPFAR’s goalsfor laboratory diagnostics.”

A recruiting drive will soon be underway tobuild a database of members interested in par-ticipating in the PEPFAR program. Please visitthe International Affairs website—www.asm.org/international—for further details.

2006 General MeetingAward Laureates

The Committee on Awards is pleased to an-nounce the 2006 General Meeting awardees.Many very worthy nominations were receivedfor each award, making the work of each AwardSelection Committee as enjoyable as it was chal-lenging. The Committee on Awards thanks ev-eryone who participated in the awards programby making nominations or by assisting in theselection process, thus ensuring that ASM con-tinues to honor the best in microbiology. Bio-graphical sketches of the 2006 awardees appearbelow and in the next two issues of Microbe.

Abbott-Laboratories Award in

Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology

The Abbott-Laboratories Award in Clinical andDiagnostic Immunology is presented to RebeccaHatcher Buckley, M.D., Professor of Immunol-ogy and J. Buren Sidbury Professor of Pediatrics,Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.Supported by Abbott Laboratories DiagnosticDivision since 1992, the award honors Buckleyfor her accomplishments in basic and clinicalimmunology and for her pioneering work devel-

Volume 1, Number 2, 2006 / Microbe Y 89

oping clinical approaches to primary immuno-deficiency diseases.

Buckley received her A.B. from Duke Univer-sity and her M.D. from the University of NorthCarolina School of Medicine. She also com-pleted postdoctoral training in Immunology un-der Richard Metzgar at Duke.

Buckley is most recognized for her work withbone marrow stem cell transplantion in infantswith severe combined immunodeficiency(SCID). She has provided key leadership in boththe application of diagnostic testing in clarifyingspecific immunodeficiency disorders and intranslational immunology, having establishedan internationally renowned center for immunereconstitution of SCID infants using bone mar-row stem cell transplantion. Buckley’s careerhas had major impact on both clinical and diag-nostic immunology over the past four decades,and her contributions have proven to be ofmajor significance throughout this interval.Buckley actively contributes to the education ofnumerous medical students, residents, and post-doctoral fellows.

In addition to her work in the fields of clinicaland diagnostic immunology, Buckley has servedas president of several national organizations,including the American Pediatric Society and theAmerican Academy of Allergy, Asthma, andImmunology. Buckley has been an AssociateEditor of the Journal of Clinical Immunologysince 1981 and was also an Associate Editor ofthe Journal of Immunology. She has been amember of many committees and councilswithin the National Institutes of Health, in ad-dition to various other national organizationsand universities. Buckley has received manyawards and honors throughout her career, in-cluding election to the Institute of Medicine andthe National Academy of Sciences, the DukeUniversity Award for Merit, and the Outstand-ing Achievement Award from the Immune Defi-ciency Foundation.

Buckley was nominated by M. Louise Mark-ert, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Duke Uni-versity Medical Center.

ASM Graduate Microbiology

Teaching Award

Mary E. Lidstrom, Ph.D., Professor, Depart-ment of Chemical Engineering and Microbiol-

ogy, and Vice Provost for Research at the Uni-versity of Washington, Seattle, is honored withthe 2006 ASM Graduate Microbiology Teach-ing Award.

Lidstrom is recognizedfor her 20-plus years ofexcellence in graduateeducation and for her ef-forts on behalf of her stu-dents in both laboratoryand field research in-struction and mentoringthrough their graduateyears. Through patienceand persistence, Lid-strom maximizes existing talents of studentsfrom considerably different backgrounds whileteaching them a remarkable understanding ofmicrobiology and molecular genetics. Many ofthose students have gone on to achieve Ph.D.degrees and now teach at top universities acrossthe country.

Through her HHMI Professorship, Lidstromhas developed innovative courses that teachbiology to engineering students and motivatethem to careers at the life science engineeringboundary. These courses are taught from anengineering perspective, using innovative stu-dent-centered learning tools. One of thesetools, an interactive, multimedia tutorial titled“Biological Frameworks for Engineers,” was re-cently awarded the Premier Award of theNational Engineering Education Delivery Sys-tem.

Lidstrom has been the recipient of a numberof awards, including the Caltech Award forExcellence, the National Science FoundationFaculty Award for Women, and the CaltechAssociated Students Distinguished TeachingAward. She is a Fellow of the American Acad-emy of Microbiology, where she was an electedmember of the Board of Governors from 1997–2000, and the American Association for theAdvancement of Science. She is also a member ofASM and the Society for General Microbiology.

Lidstrom holds a B.S. in Microbiology fromOregon State University and M.S. and Ph.D.degrees in Bacteriology from the University ofWisconsin, Madison. Lidstrom was nominatedby Colleen M. Cavanaugh, a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Microbiology, from theDepartment of Organism and Evolutionary Bi-ology at Harvard University.

Buckley

Lidstrom

90 Y Microbe / Volume 1, Number 2, 2006

BD Award for Research

The 2006 BD Award for Research in ClinicalMicrobiology is presented to Franklin R. Cock-erill, III, M.D., MayoClinic, Rochester, Minn.Supported by BD Diag-nostic Systems, Cockerillis being honored as an in-dividual who has madedistinguished researchcontributions to the dis-cipline of clinical micro-biology.

Cockerill received hisB.S. in Medicine fromCreighton University andcompleted his M.D. at the University of Ne-braska. Upon receiving his M.D., Cockerillcompleted his residency in Internal Medicine,followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases atthe Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Cock-erill then went on to complete fellowships inClinical Microbiology at Toronto General Hos-pital and Molecular Microbiology at the MountSinai Research Institute, both institutions at theUniversity of Toronto.

Since Cockerill’s appointment to the MayoClinic in the Department of Laboratory Medi-cine and Pathology, his research and clinicalcontributions have established him as a nationaland international authority in medical microbi-ology. One of his greatest contributions hasbeen in the application of molecular techniquesto the practice of diagnostic clinical microbiol-ogy. This groundbreaking applied research hastaken the field of clinical microbiology into the21st century. Specifically, his work with rapidreal-time PCR and rapid nucleic acid extractiontechniques has resulted in the use of these tech-niques in settings ranging from the routine diag-nostic laboratory to the reference laboratory.

Cockerill has held or currently holds positionson a number of national and international com-mittees, and scientific advisory panels or boardsincluding National Institutes of Health studysections, Food and Drug Administration panels,and Clinical Laboratory Standards Institutecommittees. Much of his contributions to thesegroups relates to his expertise with rapid micro-bial identification methods or the establishmentof antimicrobial susceptibility guidelines foragents of bioterrorism.

Cockerill is a Fellow of the American Acad-emy of Microbiology, the American College ofChest Physicians, the American College of Phy-sicians, and the Infectious Disease Society ofAmerica. He has published well over 100 peer-reviewed papers in the highest-quality journalsin the field of clinical microbiology and hasreceived numerous awards and honors, includ-ing the Ann and Leo Markin endowed profes-sorship and the Faculty Service Award, boththrough Mayo Medical School, and the MayoExcellence Through Teamwork Award pre-sented by Mayo Foundation.

Cockerill was nominated by Thomas F.Smith, a Fellow of the American Academy ofMicrobiology, from the Division of Clinical Mi-crobiology at the Mayo Clinic.

Carski Foundation Distinguished

Undergraduate Teaching Award

Proudly supported by the Carski Foundationsince 1968, the Carski Foundation Distin-guished Undergraduate Teaching Award is pre-sented to Professor Amy Cheng Vollmer, Ph.D.,Department of Biology, Swarthmore College,Swarthmore, Pa. Vollmer is being honored forher outstanding accomplishments: mentoringstudents and teaching undergraduate courses inCellular and Molecular Biology, Microbiology,Pathogenesis and Immunology, Bioethics, andBiotechnology.

Vollmer received her B.A. in Biochemistryfrom Rice University and earned her Ph.D. inBiochemistry from the University of Illinois. Asa postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, shewas supported by fellowships from the Dean ofthe Stanford Medical School and the CancerBiology Program.

During the past 16 years, over 50 studentshave completed independent research projectsunder Vollmer’s guidance. Fourteen Swarth-more students were awarded ASM Undergradu-ate Research Fellowships. Most of her studentshave continued on to graduate training in Ph.D.,M.D., or M.D./Ph.D. programs. Her researchhas been supported by funding from Monsanto,DuPont, the Research Corporation, the NSF,and Merck/American Association for the Ad-vancement of Science.

Vollmer has contributed to improving theteaching of microbiology at the national andlocal levels. She served as Chief Editor for the

Cockerill

Vollmer

Volume 1, Number 2, 2006 / Microbe Y 91

initial four years of the ASM journal Microbiol-ogy Education, was a member of the ASM Com-mittee on Undergraduate Education, and is cur-rently chair of the ASM Student MembershipCommittee. She has also participated in theSummer Institute in Preparation for Careers inMicrobiology for graduate students and post-docs, which is sponsored by the ASM EducationDepartment. She is a member of the EducationCommittee of the Eastern Pennsylvania Branchof the ASM. Vollmer also serves on the Board ofTrustees of the Waksman Foundation for Mi-crobiology. She has also organized a RegionalUndergraduate Microbiology Educators Net-work in the Delaware/Lehigh Valley of Pennsyl-vania. She has been invited to speak about herresearch and teaching at many major collegesand universities.

Vollmer was nominated by Jerald C. Ensign, aFellow of the American Academy of Microbiol-ogy, from the Department of Bacteriology at theUniversity of Wisconsin.

William A. Hinton Research

Training Award

The William A. Hinton Research TrainingAward is given in memory of William A. Hin-ton, a physician-research scientist and one of thefirst African-Americans to join ASM. This year’slaureate is Sally B. Jorgensen, Ph.D., AssociateProfessor Emeritus, Colleges of Biological Sci-ences and Veterinary Medicine, University ofMinnesota.

Jorgensen received her B.A. from WellesleyCollege and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees fromthe University of Minnesota Department of Bio-chemistry. She completed her postdoctoral fel-lowship at the University of California, Los An-geles, in the Department of Bacteriology.

For the past 16 years, Jorgensen has workedto facilitate and support the entry of minoritystudents into the profession of microbiology aswell as other fields of biological research. As theAssociate Dean of the College of Biological Sci-ences (CBS) at the University of Minnesota, herdedication to diversifying the field of biologybrought increased numbers of minority under-graduates into graduate study in microbiologyand other biological disciplines.

She expanded recruitment for the Life ScienceSummer Undergraduate Research Program to

entice a higher percentage of minority studentsto come to Minnesota for summer research. Akey factor in this endeavor was her creation of athree-week summer course for faculty from col-leges with high minority enrolments. These con-nections resulted in increased numbers of mi-nority students who came to Minnesota for thesummer and subsequently went on to gradateschool.

Jorgensen also noticed that many CBS fresh-men from underrepresented minority groupswere performing so poorly on their beginningscience and math courses that they changed theirmajors and left the field of science. She and herfaculty colleagues obtained a grant from theHoward Hughes Medical Institute and devel-oped several programs to improve retention ofthese students. The program for new undergrad-uates has been running for 15 years and is nowcalled Achieving College Excellence in Science.

Jorgensen retired in 1995, but her programscontinue. She was nominated by Paul T. Magee,a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbi-ology, from the Department of Genetics, CellBiology and Development, University of Minne-sota.

Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award

This year’s Merck Irving S. Sigal MemorialAward laureates are Manuel Llinas, Ph.D., and

Christina M. Hull, Ph.D.This award is supportedby an unrestricted educa-tion grant from MerckResearch Laboratories,and is presented in mem-ory of Irving S. Sigal,who was instrumental inthe early discovery oftherapies to treat humanimmunodeficiency virus/AIDS. The Merck Irving

S. Sigal Memorial Award recognizes excellencein basic research in medical microbiology andinfectious disease by a young investigator.

Manuel Llinas, Assistant Professor of Molec-ular Biology and member of the Lewis-SiglerInstitute for Integrative Genomics, PrincetonUniversity, Princeton, N.J., is being honored forhis pioneering work applying whole-genometranscriptional profiling to the parasite Plasmo-

Jorgensen

Llinas

92 Y Microbe / Volume 1, Number 2, 2006

dium falciparum and his overall work in biologyand genomics.

Llinas received his B.S. in Chemistry from Car-negie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., andcompleted his Ph.D. in Molecular and CellularBiology at the University of California, Berke-ley. He went on to a postdoctoral fellowship atthe University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department.

In Llinas’s postdoctoral work he demon-strated his ability to break new ground by usingnew tools of functional genomic analysis tostudy pathogenic organisms. He carried outcomprehensive experiments studying the biol-ogy of the human parasite that causes malaria.In this work Llinas made a major breakthroughby identifying the overall program of gene ex-pression as the parasite grows in human redblood cells, and identified numerous potentialdrug targets.

Llinas also used Fourier analysis to recon-struct the transcriptional cascade that domi-nates the intraerythrocytic lifecycle. The datarevealed that P. falciparum appears to have asimple, hard-wired expression program. Thisfact may lead to novel antiparasitic approaches.

Llinas’ work has been published in top jour-nals, and as a postdoctoral fellow he received aNational Cancer Institute/National Institutes ofHealth Molecular Biology of Eukaryotic Cellsand Viruses Postdoctoral Fellowship and partic-ipated in a UCSF Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow-ship program.

Llinas was nominated by Lynn W. Enquist, aFellow of the American Academy of Microbiol-ogy and chair of the Department of MolecularBiology at Princeton University.

Christina M. Hull, Assistant Professor in theDepartments of Biomolecular Chemistry andMedical Microbiology & Immunology at theUniversity of Wisconsin School of Medicine andPublic Health, is being honored for her signifi-cant contributions to understanding the basicbiology of microbes.

Hull received her B.S. in Biology from theUniversity of Utah and went on to complete herPh.D. at the University of California, San Fran-

cisco, in the Departmentof Microbiology & Im-munology, Program inBiological Sciences. Hullcarried out her postdoc-toral fellowship at DukeUniversity with JosephHeitman.

As a graduate studentwith Alexander Johnson,Hull discovered a crypticmating reaction in the pathogenic yeast Candidaalbicans and identified the molecular factorsthat control it. This work led to identifyingthe transcription factors essential for the controlof sexual development in another fungal patho-gen, Cryptococcus neoformans. Hull is cur-rently studying the molecular mechanisms thatcontrol infectious particle production in C. neo-formans. Recently, she led a consortium effortof 13 laboratories within the Cryptococcuscommunity to develop community resourcemicroarrays for the Cryptococcus genome,making this important resource available to allresearchers.

Hull has received many competitive awards,including a Career Award in the BiomedicalSciences from the Burroughs Welcome Fund,the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar ResearchAward from the March of Dimes, a Universityof Wisconsin, Madison/Howard Hughes Medi-cal Institute Career Development Start-UpAward, and a University of Wisconsin, Madi-son, Medical Education Research CommitteeNew Investigator Award.

Hull is also a member of many professionalsocieties, including ASM, the American Societyfor Cell Biology, and the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science.

Hull was nominated by Robert Fillingame,chair, Department of Biomolecular Chemistry,and Rodney Welch, a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Microbiology, chair of the Depart-ment of Medical Microbiology & Immunology.Both Fillingame and Welch are from the Univer-sity of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Medicineand Public Health.

Hull

Volume 1, Number 2, 2006 / Microbe Y 93

Education Board

Dates Announced for 2006 ASM

Kadner Institute

The Kadner Institute (formerly the Gradu-ate and Postdoctoral Summer Institute inPreparation for Careers in Microbiology)is a one-week, intensive, hands-on trainingin grantsmanship, scientific presentations,and teaching for ASM member senior-level graduate student or postdoctoral sci-entist with established a research in themicrobiological sciences. Sessions also ad-dress career opportunities in the microbi-ological sciences and scientific ethics.

The 2006 Institute will be held 29 July-2August at the University of Connecticut,Storrs. Space is limited to 36 participants.Applications deadline is 15 June 2006.For information visit www.asmgap.org ore-mail fellowships-careerinformation@asmusa.org.

Membership

Student Member Sponsors

The ASM Student Membership Commit-tee would like to thank the followingmembers for participating in the StudentMember Institutional rate by purchasingmemberships for their students at the re-duced rate of $12 when purchasing 4 or

more. The student Institutional rate isavailable for the entire 2006 member yearto all students of microbiology, so formore information, please go the ASMwebsite and click on Membership�JoinASM�Student Membership InstitutionalRate.

Joint Meeting of the Texas and

Missouri Valley Branches

Amy Vollmer, chair of the ASM StudentCommittee, was invited by the president ofthe Student Chapter at Oklahoma StateUniversity to attend and participate in theJoint Meeting of the Texas and MissouriValley Branches, held 10–11 November2005 in Denton, Tex. Sarah McIntirehosted the meeting, together with the Pres-idents of the Texas Branch and MissouriValley Branch, Heidi B. Kaplan and Hel-mut Hirt respectively. Following the meet-ing, she prepared the following reportabout her experience.

I was there because I had been invitedby Brent Raisley, graduate student andpresident of the ASM student chapterat Oklahoma State University, whom Ihad met at the ASM-GAP summer in-stitute last August. At his invitation, Iwent to give a lecture on my researchand on mentoring undergraduates. Themeeting had several concurrent scien-

tific sessions and a terrific postersession. Awards were presentedfor best graduate poster fromeach Branch as well as best un-dergraduate poster.

Faculty and students fromover a dozen institutions at-tended. The keynote speakerwas Michele Swanson, a Waks-man Foundation for Microbiol-ogy Lecturer, who gave a fabu-lous talk on Legionella. Thefinal panel was for graduate stu-dents and postdocs—several ofus talked about careers and fam-ilies and striking a balance. Itwas also well received.

I took advantage of the op-portunity to promote studentchapters—several faculty tookcopies of the 2005 StudentChapter brochure—and I con-gratulated the Branches on a

great idea for a meeting and encour-aged them to continue this tradition.

I hope that Phil Lister (who attendedthe meeting), the Regional PlanningCoordinator for Branch Region IV, rec-ognizes that the Regional PlanningFunds spent on this meeting were wellmanaged and had a high impact. Thestudents were very impressed at the in-teractions among the faculty. Studentsasked, “How do you all know eachother?” I took time to tell them aboutthe support that ASM offers to studentsand professionals at all levels. All of thedepartment chairs knew about the spe-cial academic institution student mem-bership rate, and many were workingwith their grad student chapters tocome up with their list of names for2006 ASM membership.

Finally, I had the opportunity to at-tend the dinner where the Branch offic-ers met and learned that Millicent(Mimi) Goldschmidt, a former memberof the ASM Council Policy Committeeand currently with the Department ofHealth Sciences at The University ofTexas Health Science Center-Houston,has written a “How to Organize aBranch Meeting” notebook. Mimi haspromised to send me her updated ver-sion and has given me permission toshare it widely. I hope to have that forthe Branch Organization Committeeby the beginning of 2006.

My attendance at the meeting inDenton was supported by ASM, sincetwo student chapters were involvedwith my invitation. I want to thankASM for that support. It was a pleasureto be there. As a committee chair of theMembership Board, I heard so muchpositive feedback from our membersabout ASM and its activities. ASMmembers value the support of the ASMand are happy to spread the wordabout it. I also met many young facultyand students who are interested in be-coming more involved!

I am reenergized—both scientificallyand socially—after attending the meet-ing, and the Texas and Missouri ValleyBranches are now among my favoritegroups in our vast membership! Some-times it is hard to know whether whatwe do as volunteers makes a difference,but a meeting like this confirms that our

Academic SponsorNo. of StudentsSponsored

Diane E. Griffin 42Mitchell H. Singer 33Volker S. Brozel 14Paulette W. Royt 12Stanley Maloy 11Anna M. Snelling 10Philip Mohr 9Gerald Goldstein 9Thomas M. Wahlund 9Jean A. Cardinale 9Ralph W. Robinson 7Daniel L. Clemans 7Joseph M. Carlin 7Juan E. Gonzalez 6Bernard R. Glick 4Anew J. Pease 4Gregory W. Buck 4Sharon A. Cantrell 4Min Ja Kim 4Patricia A. Sobecky 4

94 Y Microbe / Volume 1, Number 2, 2006

efforts continue to contribute to thestrong tradition that is ASM and aregreatly appreciated by our members.

Paul Phibbs, chair of the ASM Mem-bership Committee, and I are workingtogether to jump start a student chapterwhich will encompass three or foursmaller schools in Virginia, includingan institution where one of Paul’sformer postdocs serves on the faculty. Iam looking forward to working withPaul on this project and I would en-courage any other ASM members in theVirginia-North Carolina region to con-tact us if you want to become involvedin this project! Together we can make itwork for all our members!

Amy Cheng Vollmer can be reached atavollme1@swarthmore.edu if you are in-terested in working with any of theprojects of the Student Committee, espe-cially the Virginia-North Carolina projectthat began in December 2005.

Deceased Member

Myra Kurtz died on 1 November 2005after a brave struggle with cancer. She wasan early and important contributor toknowledge of fungalpathogenesis and isfondly rememberedby many membersof the fungal com-munity for her pio-neering work indeveloping geneticmarkers and a trans-formation protocolfor Candida albi-cans.

Born in New York City, Myra gradu-ated magna cum laude from Goucher Col-lege in Baltimore, Md., in 1966 with abachelor of arts and earned her doctoratein microbiology and genetics from Har-vard University. In 1972, she was a NewYork delegate to the Democratic NationalConvention. She did postdoctoral work inmicrobial genetics at the State Universityof New York at Albany. As a researchassistant professor, Myra embarked on thegenetics of Aspergillus at the Waksman

Institute at Rutgers University before mov-ing to the Squibb Institute for MedicalResearch in Princeton, where she appliedher skills to the then-young field of Can-dida genetics. In the mid-1980s she movedto Merck and Co. in Rahway, N.J., joininga department engaged in finding naturalproducts that exert antifungal activity. Sheplayed a very important role in the discov-ery and development of caspofungin, thefirst of a new class of antifungal agents,directing the group that first identified itstarget by genetic means in Saccharomycescerevisiae. She quickly extended knowl-edge on the conservation of the target inCandida and Aspergillus and was involvedin much of the work that led to the firstapproved drug in the echinocandin class.The group Myra directed also discovered anumber of other novel antifungal agents,providing basic information that has beenwidely used by others engaged in antifun-gal drug discovery. Her final role at Merckwas as senior director in microbial vaccineresearch, in which she contributed to de-velopment of several vaccines, includingone for anthrax.. Before she died, Kurtzendowed a lecture series at Goucher Col-lege; anyone wishing to contribute can doso at ’66 Seminars, Goucher College ,1021Dulaney Valley Road, Baltimore, MD21204–2794.

Alexander Sulzer died on 7 July 2005. Hewas a native of Emmett, Ark. He obtainedhis graduate training in microbiology atEmory Universityand spent his illus-trious career as a re-search scientist atthe Centers for Dis-ease Control andPrevention (CDC),in Atlanta, Ga.,where he retired inthe mid-1990s. Hewas peerless in hispursuit of perfectionin developing serological techniques to di-agnose parasitic diseases and mappingtheir epidemiology worldwide. His contri-butions to the field of serodiagnosis ofmalaria, toxoplasmosis, Chagas’ disease,schistosomiasis, and other diseases causedby protozoan and metazoan parasites be-

long to any anthology of the topic. He wasa Fellow of the American Academy of Mi-crobiology; Fellow, emeritus, of the RoyalSociety of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene;and Member, emeritus, of the AmericanSociety of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.His CDC laboratory hosted dozens ofguest researchers and trainees over a pe-riod of three decades. His frequent travelsto the jungles of Peru to help local epide-miologists tackle the critical threat repre-sented by hyperendemic malaria createdstrong scientific bonds that spawned theopportunity for training many SouthAmerican health scientists. His formertrainees have gone on to their own success-ful careers in public health and academia.His love for the field work and for being intouch with the people affected by the dis-eases he studied was contagious. His un-wavering support of the work of Peruvianscientists was justly rewarded by an hon-orary doctorate from one of the most pres-tigious universities in Lima.

Alex Sulzer was an intensely private per-son who avoided most social situations.Yet, he was disarmingly charming andfolksy with those he felt shared his valuesand an aesthetic appreciation for the sim-ple things in life. What a pleasure it was towatch his verve in speaking about vitralsin the old cathedrals of Europe, begoniasin his greenhouse, or subatomic particles.Those of us who were close to Alex Sulzer,the man, were blessed with a fountain ofyouthful “joie de vivre” and wisdom. Hewas a scientist who saw great beauty in themethods and objects of his trade. Hetaught me to let my own passion for sci-ence come to the surface. He taught me thesupreme virtues of integrity, of not beingashamed to admit that I had misinter-preted the results of my experiments. Hetaught me to be persistent, and to knowwhen persistence had paid off. Foremost,he gave me these pearls of wisdom byallowing me to see his own example as ascientist and a person.

Eduardo L. Franco

McGill UniversityMontreal, Canadaeduardo.franco@mcgill.ca

Kurtz

Sulzer

Volume 1, Number 2, 2006 / Microbe Y 95