The San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi
The Scientific Research Society
The San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi
The Scientific Research Society
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Sigma Xi of San Diego |
Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall 2000 |
Dr. Thomas R. Scott, newly-appointed Dean of the College of Sciences at San Diego State University, will inaugurate the Chapter's fall program with a lecture on "Why We Eat What We Eat: the Role of Taste in Food Selection." He finds that not only does the sense of taste control food selection in animals, but the interaction is reciprocal: food selection also affects taste. Dean Scott will review the taste system, its relation to the physiological condition of the animal, and how it provides guidance to nutrients that the animal needs.
The meeting will be held in room 130 of SDSU's Hepner Hall at 7:00 on Thursday, October 19th. Members, spouses, and children are all welcome.
Dean Scott graduated from Princeton University and then went to Duke University, where he obtained the doctorate in biological psychology. Since then, he has authored or co-authored about 100 journal articles..
Prior to his arrival at SDSU, Dr. Scott was at the University of Delaware, where he chaired the Department of Psychology for 9 nears and served as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences for another 5 years. He expects to remain active in research, at least initially, during his tenure here as Dean.
The Dean may spend time at the new Tony Gwynn Field as well as in his office, since he was a Pennsylvania All-State pitcher while in high school and All-East with the Princeton team.
Directions: exit I-8 at College Avenue and go south; you will see SDSU on the hill. Going up the hill, pass under 3 pedestrian bridges, make a U-turn at the first traffic light, pass back under the three pedestrian bridges, and turn right at the second entrace into Parking Structure 1. If coming from University Ave., El Cajon Blvd., or Montezuma Rd., turn north onto College Ave. After reaching the SDSU campus and starting downhill, pass under the three pedestrian bridges and turn right into Parking Structure 1 (as above). Park on the first or second floor. An elevator will take you to the top where the pedestrian bridge is. Proceed north through the campus, following the map on page 5 of this issue. Hepner Hall 130 opens off a shaded exterior walkway, approximately where the dark arrow ends on the map.
Important: Please check the Chapter's web-site (mentioned elsewhere in this issue) after October 17th or contact (619) 594-5595 after 2:30 p.m. on October 19th to ensure that there are no changes in the parking arrangements given above.
A generous grant to this Chapter last summer by Dr. Barry Quart will enable us to explore the feasibility of establishing a news bureau and to encourage greater participation in the San Diego County Science and Engineering Fair each spring. A Sigma Xi news bureau would provide local media with access to the scientific and engineering expertise that exists within our membership. Arrangements are being made now for a study of how best to set up the bureau and make its services known.
Noting that inner-city schools are often poorly represented at the Science and Engineering Fair, the Chapter's officers have met with the Science Coordinator for City Schools to discuss how how we might subsidize student research or otherwise provide support for their efforts to get their students involved.
The next issue of LabNotes will carry additional information on the progress of these two initiatives.
Continuing efforts by Canon George Hemingway and Past President Don McGraw enabled us to welcome to membership eight scientists from research institutions in Ensenada, Baja California, at last May's Initiation Banquet. As a courtesy, their $50 dues were paid by the Society's International Committee, and this chapter covered their initiation fees.
But because the Banquet fell on Mexico's Mother's Day, none of the eight were able to attend. So this Chapter will sponsor a field trip to Ensenada on Saturday, December 9th, which will include an initiation luncheon and a visit to one or more research laboratories there. Details of the visit are still being finalized. Those interested in taking part in this, our first trans-border activity, are urged to check our Chapter's web-site for additional information:
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/sigmaxi/SigmaXiSD.html
Hemingway notes that 18 members are required for the establishment of a new chapter, and that he will try to recruit another 10 members in Ensenada so that they can open their own chapter in the near future.
It will be my privilege to lead the San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi into the new millennium. Perhaps this is appropriate since it was I, almost a quarter of a century ago, who led the San Diego Club of Sigma Xi to Chapter status. This year, profiting from the hard work of my predecessors, especially Past Presidents Jim Baur and Don McGraw, Treasurer and web-site guru Terry Frey, and Executive Committee members Canon George Hemingway (International Affairs) and Norman Storer (editor of LabNotes), I am hoping for another major increase in the effectiveness and visibility of our Chapter.
This is not going to be an easy task, since my colleagues' activities (and some of mine) have attracted the attention of Sigma Xi headquarters. I list a few here; others are the subject of more detailed articles elsewhere in this issue.
Don McGraw has been appointed by headquarters to the Committee on Qualifications, and Sigma Xi also sent him on a mission to the Galapagos Islands. With all of this, Don still had time to publish an article in the most recent American Scientist; have a look if you haven't seen it already!
While working on some SDSU projects in Victoria and Tasmania, Australia, I had the chance to publicize Sigma Xi there. This, and my writings on the problems of financing R&D in Australia, have led headquarters to ask me to mentor Australian delegates at the year 2000 Sigma Xi general meeting next November in Albuquerque. LabNotes is being used as a model newsletter for other Sigma Xi chapters. I will work to see that Terry Frey receives some national recognition for his development of our web-site. Its address is given in another article, and it is well worth a visit. It will also carry announcements that are too late for the newsletter.
Don McGraw and Canon Hemingway have enthusiastically recruited new Sigma Xi members among the large and important scientific community in Ensenada, Mexico. As our "companions in research" in Ensenada grow in number, we are confident that a new Chapter of Sigma Xi will form there, only the second to be established in Mexico.
McGraw has also developed a program for industries and individuals to donate to various Chapter projects. Dr. Barry Quart of Agouron Pharmaceuticals was the first to make a significant donation. His grant will be used in part to work with students at schools which have not been active in the San Diego Science and Engineering Fairs, encouraging them to develop research projects that will win awards at these Fairs. We hope as well to use a small portion of the grant to set up a San Diego Chapter News Bureau.
At this point, let me suggest some additional projects that will lead this Chapter to accomplish even more good. All of them could benefit greatly from continuing donations. One would fund small grants, as does Sigma Xi headquarters, to local college and university students, both graduate and under-graduate, to purchase small items needed for well-defined research projects. We might also be the first to offer competition for posters from students describing their original research results. The Chapter could provide funding for the most meritorious to travel to the annual Sigma Xi meeting or to other national scientific meetings.
Further ideas from you, our Chapter members, will be most welcome.
Why do we need donations from business and individuals to accomplish these things when Chapter members pay dues? The answer is simple-the dues don't bring in sufficient funding for such programs. Money from dues is used to pay for the publi-cation and mailing of LabNotes, other necessary mailings, the expense of sending at least one Chapter officer to the annual meeting, meeting costs (e.g.honoraria), and other services to Chapter membership. I do not believe we should increase Chapter dues; rather, a voluntary donation program is more appropriate for the science advancement programs that interest the Chapter and the local community.
Finally, I want to mention that next spring we must choose my successor, the person who will be elected President-Elect. This office is just one of the opportunities for you to become more involved in our activities. Instead of waiting to be offered a nomination and worrying about whether you can handle the duties, why not join us at meetings of the Executive Committee? You will see that running the San Diego Chapter isn't particularly hard (except when you are trying to meet a deadline for a column!) You might provide us with some wise observations, and if you decide to run for a Chapter office, you will be perfectly prepared for it when you are elected.
Think about it. If you want information, please e-mail me at:
Thanks for your attention. Bob Metzger
We said it in our first issue, and in our second: If this newsletter is to appear regularly, it's got to pay its own way. But since the Executive Committee doubts that there are enough philanthropists in our membership to provide support, you are (again) spared a mawkish plea for charity. This leaves only advertising as a realistic source of revenue. Those of you in industry might drop a word (or a copy of the box below) to your P.R. people that our newsletter reaches about 600 top scientists and engineers in the San Diego area who may well be interested in your product, service, or even in coming to work for you. See the box (above right) for details.
More information is available from Editor Norm Storer, at (619) 491-0342 or E-mail: nwstorer@peoplepc.com.
Not everything can be planned and set in place before LabNotes goes to press, and mailing announcements of late-breaking events to our nearly 600 members is prohibitively expensive. We invite you, then, to check in occasionally at our own website, which can be reached by going to:
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/SigmaXiSD.html
For instance, it will carry details of our December expedition to Ensenada, and perhaps some other items that will be of interest to you as well.
The officers of this Chapter are convinced that they can do a better job of serving you-planning activities, providing inform-ation, ect.-if they know more about you and your interests. Although our listof e-mail addresses is by no means complete (see the boxed request for addresses elsewhere in this issue), it is anticipated that a meaningful sample of members can be reached via cyberspace at minimal cost.
A short questionnaire can be distributed this way, and its blanks can be filled in and the whole thing returned with a simple click of the "reply" icon. Dr. Norm Storer, a sociologist Emeritus and editor of LabNotes, is experienced in such things and will direct the enterprise. He guarantees that names will be erased from all questionnaires and that the respondents' privacy will be totally protected. Look for it later this fall!
President
Dr. Robert P. Metzger Office: 594-6801
Dept. of Chemistry FAX: 594-4634
San Diego State Univesity rmetzger@sciences.sdsu.edu
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-1030
Treasurer
Dr. Terrence Frey Office: 594-6756
Dept. of Biology FAX: 594-5676
5500 Campanile Drive tfrey@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
San Diego, CA 92182-4614
Secretary
Dr. Joanne M. Bell Office: 619-552-3400
Quintiles CNS Therapeutics FAX: 619-799-3167
10201 Wateridge Circle jmbell@qsnd.quintiles.com
San Diego, CA 92121
Past President
Dr. Donald J. McGraw Office: 260-4553
Associate Provost FAX: 260-2210
University of San Diego mcgraw@is.acusd.edu
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
Editor
Dr. Norman W. Storer Home: (619) 491-0342
1417 Van Buren Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103-2339 nwstorer@peoplepc.com
Committee on Admissions
Steve A. Brody, ChairOffice: 619-265-4052 sbrody@cts.comArthur Getis
Office: 619-594-6639 agetis@sciences.sdsu.eduRobert P. Metzger
Office: 619-594-6801 rmetzger@sciences.sdsu.eduRichard H. Rosenblatt
Office: 858-274-8591 rrosenblatt@ucsd.eduAnn Sturz
Office: 619-260-4795 asturz@acusd.edu
Committee for Industrial Relations
James F. Bauer, ChairOffice: 578-3511 SciSolns@MSN.com
Committee for University Affairs
Matthew C. Bell, ChairOffice: 619-594-3089 mbell112@mail.sdsu.edu
Committee on Cross-Border Relations
Canon George Hemingway, Chairghemingway@ucsd.edu