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Newsletter Every third year is a busy one for the ISN, and 1998 is one of those years. Soon we will gather in La Jolla for what promises to be a splendid International Congress of Neuroethology. Bill Kristan, Jochen PflŸger, and their colleagues on the Congress Committee have worked hard to ensure that this will be a most stimulating and valuable meeting. Shortly after the Congress, the ISN will conduct its triennial election of officers and Councilors by postal balloting. Candidates for President-Elect, Treasurer, and Secretary/Editor are profiled in this Newsletter, and the slate of candidates for Council will be announced at the ISN Business Meeting at the Congress in La Jolla. In this season of transition in the ISN, I would like to recall a few of the ISN's accomplishments of the past three years:  Membership
in the ISN has grown from about 500 in mid-1995 to about 625 today. Members come from 32
countries (including USA 52%, Germany 15%, Japan 8%, Canada 5%, UK 4%, Australia 2%, and
Russia 2%).
Thanks
mainly to the great success of the 1995 Congress in Cambridge and Malcolm Burrows'
laudable fund-raising efforts as host of that Congress, to the dues increase enacted
shortly thereafter, and to masterful fiscal management by the ISN's Treasurer, Albert
Feng, the financial condition of the ISN today is stronger than ever before.
The Newsletter
now appears regularly in three issues per year, and under its creative and conscientious
Editor, Arthur Popper, it has become a substantive and valuable benefit of membership.
The
ISN began a contractual relationship with Panacea Associates, a management enterprise
specializing in small professional societies, and now for the first time has a permanent
home base for communication with current and prospective members, payment of dues, etc.
A Website has been established for the
ISN, at which members and others can access the Bylaws, learn about upcoming ISN meetings,
view recent Newsletters, consult the up-to-date Membership Directory, and send Directory
updates and other messages to the Society. Since the Website was established, essentially
all inquiries from prospective members have come to us via the electronic form offered
there.
It has been a great honor and genuine pleasure for me to serve the ISN for the past three years. I wish to thank all of you who have helped me and contributed to the successes of the ISN. At the Business Meeting in La Jolla, I will be pleased to hand over to Malcolm Burrows the Presidency of an increasingly prominent and vigorous Society. Please join me in offering him assistance and support for the next three years. John Hildebrand 1997 Annual Financial
Report
According to the Bylaws of the ISN, the Presidency will pass to the President-Elect, Professor Malcolm Burrows, at the business meeting that will take place during the Congress in La Jolla. At that time, Professor Randolf Menzel will complete his service as Past President. Shortly after the Congress – in the fall of 1998 – the ISN will conduct its triennial election of officers and Councilors. In addition to the offices of President-Elect, Treasurer, and Secretary/Editor, we must elect seven new Councilors to fill positions vacated by the present Councilors who will have completed their 6-year terms: Drs. Alan Gelperin, Michael Land, Lee Miller, Brian Mulloney, Gerald Pollack, Alexej Popov, and Melody Siegler. In preparation for the election, the officers and Councilors have been functioning as a nominating committee to assemble a slate of candidates. This important effort has been guided by a strong commitment to ensuring that the slate includes balanced representation of female and male colleagues who work in various areas of vertebrate and invertebrate neuroethology. Because the ISN's financial business is transacted in the USA, it is essential that the Treasurer be resident in the USA. For the other positions on the ballot, however, there has been an earnest effort to ensure that the slate of candidates represents the internationality of the ISN's membership (about 48% of the members come from outside the USA). The full slate, including 14 candidates for Council, will be announced at the business meeting in La Jolla, and postal ballots will be sent to ISN members in the fall. At this time, we are pleased to announce the following candidates: For President-Elect: Albert Feng: Professor, Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously Director of the Neuroscience Program, Associate Director of the Beckman Institute, and Head of the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the same institution. Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Acoustical Society of America. ISN Treasurer (1992-1998). Current research interest: neurobiology of sound communication in frogs and echolocating bats. Hans-Joachim PflŸger: Professor in the Department of Biology, Institute of Neurobiology, Free University Berlin, Germany. Adjunct Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, Division of Neurobiology. Local organizer of the 2nd Int. Congress of Neuroethology, 1989, Berlin. Chairman of the Int. Congress Committee for the 1998 San Diego congress. Current research interests: Analysis of motor behavior and the development of mechanosensory networks in insects, as well as the role of neuromodulatory neurons during behavior. For Treasurer: Christopher Comer: Professor, Neurobiology Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago. Program Director for Behavioral Neuroscience, NSF, 1993-1995; Currently Coordinator of UIC Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience (linking Biology, Psychology & Philosophy Depts). Current research interest: neuronal mechanisms underlying spatially directed behavior, concentrating on insect and amphibian models. Sheryl Coombs: Professor of Hearing Sciences, Parmly Hearing Institute, Loyola University Chicago. Previously Council Member and Chair of the Long Range Planning Committee for the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. Current research interest: sensory processing by vertebrate hair cell (lateral line and auditory) systems. For Secretary/Editor: Arthur N. Popper: Professor of Biology at University of Maryland and director of the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program. Formerly chair of the Department of Zoology (now Biology) at the same institution. Fellow of Acoustical Society of America and American Association for Advancement of Science. Co-Editor of Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. For past two years served as editor of ISN Newsletter. Research interests: Evolution of vertebrate hearing, auditory mechanisms of fishes. Please check your entry in the Membership Directory at the ISN's Website and notify Panacea Associates <ISN@panassoc.com> of any changes to be made. The Website URL is: http://www.neurobio.arizona.edu/isn/ Return to top of page | Section 2
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INTERNATIONAL