{ C O N T E N T S }
Volume 8, Issue 1

President’s Column

2005 Membership Registration
Don’t Delay!

ISMB 2005
Bound To Be the Best Yet

SIG Meetings
Kick-Off ISMB 2005

ISCB Thanks Sun
for Continued Support

KEY DATES
RECOMB, ISMB, ECCB

Calling All Leaders!

PLoS Computational Biology
Exciting Open Access Journal

Student Council
Announcements & Updates

Travel Fellowships Offered
Deadlines Approaching Fast

Public Affairs

Immigration Workshop
April 16, 2005 in San Diego

RECOMB 2005 Highlights

ECCB 2005

SCCB Computational Biology
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

News from the Field

Events & Opportunities



ACCESS NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES

Copyright © 2005
International Society for Computational Biology.
All rights reserved.

A Note From ISCB President Michael Gribskov

As I start the second of my two-year terms as ISCB President I can assure that I look forward to the upcoming election of my successor. While I never seem to have enough time to tend to both my paid job and that of president, and I truly enjoy working with colleagues from around the world to grow ISCB, it is definitely time for new blood. Nevertheless, there remains much to be done, and I expect to continue to make progress on the changes we have begun to make in the society and the way it is run. I welcome the chance to mentor the new president during his or her year as president-elect, and look forward to ultimately passing on the torch.

Nominations are now being accepted for a variety of ISCB leadership positions, from the Student Council, to the Board of Directors, to President-Elect; there are ample opportunities for any of our members to help lead us into the future. I encourage you to feel free to nominate yourself or a respected colleague for any of the open positions. Personally I have been on this journey for more than seven years, having served as a Board member, co-chair of ISMB 2000, co-Chair of both the Conferences and Education Committees, Vice President, and for the past two years as President. Each role has had its share of frustrations, but at the end of the day I have found it rewarding, and furthermore a wonderful opportunity to meet a great group of people drawn from all parts of the world. Full details on the nominations process can be found in the “Calling All Leaders!” article of this newsletter.

After several years of discussion of society journals, I am pleased to announce our partnership with the Public Library of Science in the launch of a new open access journal, PLoS Computational Biology. Our Past President/Past Publications Committee Chair, Philip Bourne, has taken on the role of Editor-in-Chief, and reports that developing a new journal, with a relatively new publishing model, is extremely exciting. The emphasis of PLoS Computational Biology will be on computational studies with real biological outcomes that can be appreciated by experimentalists. We are all looking forward to the June, 2005 launch of the first issue, coinciding with ISMB in Detroit, and hope you will consider submitting your best research work for publication in this, our new society journal.

As we begin to count down the months to ISMB 2005, I commend the dozens of people who are working to put on a scientifically exceptional and logistically creative conference. A review of the committee members listed on the ISMB website gives a view of just the tip of the iceberg, as much of the heavy lifting goes on beneath the surface. ISCB is heavily reliant on volunteers at every level of the organizational structure, and this is especially true of the ISMB conference. I could fill pages of this newsletter naming them all, but instead simply extend my appreciation for all the work already done, and yet to be done, by each and every one of our volunteers. I promise that on the last day of ISMB it will all feel worthwhile.

I also want to extend my thanks to Sun Microsystems for their loyalty in supporting the ISMB conference series through the years. Attendee registration fees would need to more than double in order to truly cover the full costs of producing ISMB were it not for our corporate sponsors and exhibitors. Sun Microsystems has been there since we first started seeking sponsorships in the 1990s, and has supported the conference for over ten years now. We are happy to present an article from Sun in this newsletter describing their contributions to computational biology.

All roads now seem to lead to Detroit for ISMB 2005; I hope I can count on seeing all of you there.