With the appointment of Dr. Alan Guttmacher as the new Director of NICHD, a “visioning” process is moving forward over the coming year.  We in the Developmental Biology, Genetics and Teratology Branch would very much appreciate the active input of the broader Developmental Biology community in this process.  Below is a link to an NIH Guide Notice announcing the process and directing people to a special website dedicated to informing the extramural community of the ongoing process and soliciting their feedback. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HD-10-021.html. 

For more information about the NICHD Vision process, please visit: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/vision/ 

Education lectures delivered at current and past SDB annual meetings’ education symposia and workshops are now posted at: Education Lectures at SDB Annual Meetings

Interested in organizing a satellite symposium at SDB 70th Annual Meeting (Chicago, July 21-25, 2011)?  Please follow the guidelines http://www.sdbonline.org/2011SatSympProposalGuide.pdf.  Deadline for receipt of proposals: October 30, 2010.

Why Can’t School Science Be More Like Science?  Lecture by Maxine Singer of Carnegie Institution for Science, SDB 2010 Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize recipient is now available at: http://www.sdbonline.org/2010HamburgerPrizeTalk_MSinger.pdf

SDB will be at The USA Science & Engineering Festival, which will be held October 10-24, 2010 in Washington, DC.  SDB members living in the area are invited to volunteer for the closing event, an Expo on the National Mall October 23-24.  Please email the Volunteer Form to sdb@sdbonline.org with subject “Sci Fest Expo". 

For more information go to http://www.sdbonline.org/SciFest2010.htm. 

The 2010 Edwin G. Conklin Medal will be awarded Noriyuki Satoh, of the Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology, Japan, for his revitalization of the field of ascidian developmental biology in which Conklin himself galvanized in 1905. Satoh applied molecular methods to this classical system identifying the molecular clock in the ascidian egg, conducting molecular phylogenetic studies, and spearheading the sequencing of the Ciona genome. 

The Developmental Biology-SDB Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to Margaret Buckingham of the Pasteur Institute in France, for her continued contribution to our understanding of the molecular components of both skeletal and cardiac muscle development.  Her transgenic mouse work led to the identification of a second heart field. 

The Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize recipient is Maxine Singer of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, for her dedication to science education through programs like First Light, a Saturday science school for elementary school students in Washington, DC, and the Carnegie Academy for Science Education, a training program to enhance the science competency of primary school teachers. 

All three awardees gave talks at the 69th Annual Meeting Awards Lecture on August 8, 2010.

SDB Board of Directors invites members to actively participate in the many programs the Society carries out.  Find one that fits your personality and membership status and volunteer!  We also welcome suggestions and comments.  Details in “SDB Call for Volunteers”

2010 PASI Short Course: Concepts and Model Organisms in Regenerative Biology
http://www.sdbonline.org/2010ShortCourse/course.htm