Transitions

The ISCB office has traditionally moved with the President of the Society. Thus, over the past two months we have transitioned the office from Stanford University to the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), an organized research unit of the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Thanks to Stanley Jacob for his administrative support and to Jon Dugan for his duties as Webmaster while the office was at Stanford.

SDSC and UCSD have made commitment to support the Society while it is here and offer significant resources, both human and machine, on an as-needed basis to support the membership of the Society. Central to this effort is the hiring of BJ Morrison McKay (see newsletter article) the Society’s Administrative Officer. McKay is available at admin@iscb.org to help with any problems related to ISCB. Web support includes Jennifer Matthews and Joshua Polterock. Web updates sent to admin@iscb.org will be added to the ISCB Web site, www.iscb.org within 24 hours.

With the move of the membership database to SDSC, the website was redesigned to improve functionality and to implement it using the free software MySQL. Future stewards of the site will not need to have a Sybase license to operate the ISCB membership database. The revised schema permits better tracking of membership and enables the production of monthly reports on membership activity. Tracy Zhao serves as our database administrator.

Matthews has also produced the template for this newsletter as well as an ISCB poster to display at meetings and membership flyers to distribute at major conferences. Thanks also go to Kim Baldridge for overseeing these staff efforts and to Chris Smith who interfaces the ISCB to UCSD’s HR and finance departments.

As the Society becomes more established, moving the office with each new President becomes impractical. We will explore the use of a management company or an organization like the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and their equivalents in Europe and Asia to help represent the membership and to provide a single voice in support of our science to government and society at large. This will allow the next President to hit the ground running with new programs and activities from which the Society can benefit.

ISCB Extends Gratitude to Stanley Jacob

ISCB wishes to acknowledge and thank Stanley Jacob for his dedication as the Society administrator for the past two years. March 31 2002 marked Jacob’s final day. For the past two years, Stanley Jacob has played an integral role in the Society. Jacob’s management of the ISCB’s membership, newsletter, book keeping, and administrative tasks required of a non-profit, has kept well apace with the Society’s rapid growth since 2000. During his tenure as administrator, Jacob has seen the ISCB membership more than double, in that same time, participation at ISCB’s primary conference, ISMB has grown from about 580 to over 1300.

Thank you Stanley. You will be missed.