President’s Message
Dear Genetics Section Members,
I hope everybody is saving up their loonies and toonies for the AFS Annual Meeting in Ottawa. Program chair and soon to be section president Kim Scribner has participated in organizing two fine symposia: “Contributions of genetic principles and technology to sustainable fisheries: concepts, challenges, and case studies” organized by Chris Wilson and Kim Scribner, and “Cultured aquatic animals: Use and implications for stock enhancement, fisheries management and species diversity” co-sponsored with the Fish Culture Section. The first symposium will take place on Thursday August 21 while the second will take place over two days, Wednesday and Thursday August 20-21. Descriptions of the symposia can be found on the meeting web site at www.fisheries.org/afs08/program.html.
The section held a successful election with electronic ballots under the direction of past-president Jeff Hard. A total of 45 ballots were received (about 25% of section members voted) and we’ve elected a new Secretary-Treasurer and President-Elect. The results of the election will be announced at the section’s annual business meeting in Ottawa. The Genetics Section Business Meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday, August 16, in the Tudor Room of the Chateau Laurier from 5-6 PM, just prior to the trade show social. We’ll also be announcing the winners of the 2008 James Wright Student Travel Award and the Stevan Phelps Memorial Award for the best genetic paper published in an AFS journal in 2007. Finally, at that meeting I’ll be passing the gavel to Kim Scribner, who will be serving as section president for the next two years. It’s been an honor to serve as the president of this section and I plan to be active and contribute to the section for many years to come.
The application deadline is rapidly approaching for the James E. Wright Award to support travel to the annual meeting. The section will also be supporting travel for two students to attend the Coastwide Salmonid Genetics Conference in Olympia, Washington, and is contributing $100 to the AFS Equal Opportunity Section to support travel to the annual meeting for under-represented groups. I’m happy that the section spends as much as it does to support student travel and I hope we can do even more in the future.
Finally, I’ll be attending the AFS Governor’s Board meeting in Ottawa prior to the star of the meeting. As always, if you have any concerns about the section, including action items to be presented before the governing board on the section’s behalf, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Ed Heist
AFS Genetics Section President
Stevan Phelps Memorial Award
The Genetics Section created the Stevan Phelps Memorial Award in
2000 as a perpetual memorial to Steve who died prematurely from
cancer in 1999. The award, which honors Steve's strong commitment to
publication of applied genetic research in fisheries, is given
annually to the authors of the best genetics paper published in an
AFS journal the preceding year. The ranking and determination are
conducted by a panel of Genetics Section members.
The 2007 winner was:
Tymchuk, W. E. C. Biagi, R. Wither, and R. H. Devlin. 2006. Growth and Behavioral Consequences of Introgression of a Domesticated Aquaculture Genotype into a Native Strain of Coho Salmon. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 135:442–455, 2006
James E. Wright Graduate Award
The Genetics Section of the American Fisheries Society is pleased to announce the James E. Wright Graduate Award. This award is presented annually at the Genetics Section meeting at the AFS Annual Meeting and is intended to recognize excellence in graduate-level work in fisheries genetics and to assist graduate students with travel to the national meeting. In 2007 the section awarded Jocelyn Lin of the University of Washington with a $700 check to help attend the 2007 meeting in San Francisco.
The section anticipates awarding two checks for $500 each to attend the AFS annual meeting in 2008 Ottawa. For information, see the Awards Page.
Application Deadline extended to June 16, 2008!
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