Final Call for ISCB Fellows Nominations: deadline April 30th

Dear ISCB Member,

The nominations period for the 2012 ISCB Class of Fellows is closing very soon. Our field is rich with accomplished researchers, and if you know of an ISCB member that has earned his or her place among ISCB's Fellows through exceptional and exemplary contributions to the field of computational biology/bioinformatics, please nominate him or her without further delay.

Information about the ISCB Fellows program, nomination requirements, selection criteria, and the names and affiliations of all current Fellows can be found at www.iscb.org/iscb-fellows

The nomination form is available at www.iscb.org/fellow-nomination (as only members can nominate, login is required; if you are not a current member please join today!).

The nomination deadline is just days away. Don't let this opportunity to help determine the next class of Fellows slip away.

Thank you for your considerate nomination!

Sincerely,
Alfonso Valencia, Chair, ISCB Fellows Committee

Call for Proposals to Organize ISCB-Asia 2013

>>Click here to download a PDF version of this CFP.

Dear ISCB Members and Colleagues,

ISCB is pleased to announce this Call for Proposals for individuals or groups interested in hosting the next open ISCB-Asia conference, slated for the third quarter of 2013, to co-organize this meeting with ISCB anywhere in the Asia region. The proposal deadline is the 1st of August, 2012. If you are not personally interested but know of someone else who could do an excellent job of organizing this event, please feel free to forward this mail. An overview of ISCB, its expansion into regionally-based international meetings, and the details of the proposal requirements are all specified below.

ISCB-Asia 2013 Meeting

The aim of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is to serve the worldwide computational biology community by addressing scientific policies, providing access to high quality publications, organising meetings, and serving as a portal to information about training, education, employment and news from related fields. ISCB currently has over 3000 members from more than 70 countries around the world. Among its many activities ISCB hosts annual meetings, including ISMB, the world's longest running and largest international bioinformatics conference (held jointly with ECCB every other year in Europe), as well as a series of smaller, newer meetings. ISCB also has affiliations in place with several other significant meetings in the field, such as PSB and RECOMB.

In an extension to its meeting activities, ISCB is participating in the organization of regional meetings in locations where ISMB has not been held. In 2009 and 2011 joint ISCB-Africa meetings were held in collaboration with the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB), and the 2013 meeting is now being planned for Tunis, Tunisia; in 2010 and 2012 ISCB-Latin America was held in Uruguay and Chile, respectively; the first ISCB-Asia was held jointly with InCoB 2011 in Malaysia, and the 2012 meeting is now being planned for China (Shenzhen). With the aim of continuing these successful regional meetings, ISCB is now soliciting applications for the co-organization of our next meeting in Asia for 2013.

A requirement that ISCB-Asia become permanently affiliated to an existing meeting or society is not intended. Having co-organised the ISCB-Asia meeting with the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network in 2011 and with BGI in 2012, ISCB now looks to continue expanding its network of affiliations by seeking proposals from other existing societies or conferences in the Asia region, or by working with a group that has a similar interest in organising a new bioinformatics community meeting in Asia.

Preliminary proposals should provide:

• Names and short CVs of local organising committee members and their proposed roles
• Evidence of previous experience in organising mid- to large-sized meetings
• Planned meeting dates and location
• Budget proposal including basic costs (venue rental, speaker travel, etc.) and preliminary commitments for financial support from sponsors.
• Estimated meeting size
• Focus of scientific program (required if a focus on a specialist research topic is planned)
• Plans for publishing or online dissemination of the proceedings
• Evidence of co-operation among multiple groups within the Asian region

ISCB will:

• Participate through elected ISCB scientific representatives on the organising committee
• Endorse and advertise the meeting through its extensive mailing lists
• Suggest keynote speakers
• Potentially provide funds to seed the meeting (funds repayable to ISCB from conference proceeds)
• Provide budget guidance
• Potentially provide travel funds to support student participation

Criteria for evaluation

• Proposals that emphasize and encourage attendance from a diverse range of regional groups and attendees will have an advantage
• The meeting should be in a place where there is expected to be a sizeable local community from which attendance can be expected, as well as reasonable international access to a nearby airport
• Budget is within the range which can be covered by reasonably estimated registration fees alone, in the event that sponsor funding does not materialize
• Preference will be given to organising committees with diverse representation
• Proposers should have experience with organising meetings

Proposals should be submitted via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 1 August 2012.

Thank you,
Paul Horton, Chair, ISCB Conferences Committee
Janet Kelso, Co-Chair, ISCB Conferences Committee

Aug 04: Rocky 2011 Call for Presentations is open.  Deadline:  Oct. 07, 2011

Reminder Call for ISCB Officer Nominations

Officer Nominations Deadline: June 3, 2012 

Also in progress: Student Council Leader Nominations - deadline June 3, 2012  

As a reminder, the International Society for Computational Biology is encouraging members to submit nominations for the Society's Officer positions of Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary; and the Student Council Leadership positions of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and SC Rep to the ISCB Board. Nominations are submitted at www.iscb.org/nominate (you must login to your membership record to access the nomination form). In all cases, self nominations will not be accepted.

If you know of excellent candidates that meet the eligibility requirements below, please be sure to submit your nomination(s) right away.

• In order to be eligible to be an Officer candidate a person must have served on the ISCB Board of Directors for at least one year prior to January 2013, and be an ISCB member in good standing, or renew a lapsed membership no later than June 24, 2012.
  
• All Officer candidates must pledge to make every reasonable effort to attend the weekly Executive Committee teleconferences beginning with a training period by mid-October, 2012, the bi-monthly Board teleconferences beginning with a training period in October 2012, and the annual in-person Board of Directors meeting (held at the ISMB conference) at their own expense through completion of the two-year Officer term that begins January 21, 2013.
  
• The elected Officers will also serve concurrently on the Board of Directors for a term that ends January 21, 2016.

Nominations for Officers and Student Council Leaders will be accepted through June 3, 2012. Election of the Officers and Student Council Leaders will take place via online voting by the membership in July, 2012, including availability to a dedicated voting booth at the ISMB conference.

Each nomination requires the name, affiliation, and email address of the nominee, along with an assurance that the nominee meets the qualifications and is willing to stand for election for the position in question. The nomination must also include a few sentences of justification that makes the strongest case possible for the nominee.

Full information regarding the 2012 nominations/elections timeline, call for nominations, and Director and Officer responsibilities can be found at www.iscb.org/iscb-leadership-a-staff-/officers-and-board-directors/nomination-election-procedures.

We are looking forward to an active participation by the ISCB membership in the nominations and election process, and we thank you in advance for your qualified nominations.

Respectfully,

Dietlind Gerloff, Scott Markel, and Anna Tramontano
Co-Chairs, ISCB Nominations Committee

ISCB President Election Results for the Term Beginning January 21, 2012

Burkhard Rost has been reelected as ISCB President through the ISCB President-elect online elections that took place from July 5-19, 2011.

Every other year ISCB members elect the next President-elect, a position with a one-year term that upon completion automatically converts into a two-year term as President. This year two highly esteemed and experienced candidates accepted their nominations to stand for election. Both found strong support in the membership vote and on August 18, 2011 the Board ratified Rost’s re-election based on the vote count. We are indebted to both candidates for their willingness to serve ISCB and its global membership over many years.

Professor Burkhard Rost has been a member of the ISCB Board of Directors since 2002 and an Officer of ISCB since 2005, when he was elected to a two-year term as Vice President. In 2006 he was also elected to serve concurrently as President-elect, and took office as President in 2007. He has since won three additional President-elect elections, thus securing his presidency until January 2015.

Thank you to all members who participated by voting in this election!

Note: Click on Burkhard’s name above to link to his nomination and candidate statement. 

For additional information on ISCB’s annual nominations and elections procedures please see http://www.iscb.org/iscb-leadership-a-staff-/officers-and-board-directors/nomination-election-procedures. The next call for nominations of directors, officers and student council leaders will open February 15, 2012, for terms beginning in January of 2013.

Aug 29: CSHALS 2012 Call for Oral & Poster Presentations is Now Open.

Sept 01: Register Now for Rocky 2011. Early registration rates and Academic Retreat discounts available.

First Call for Papers and Posters: ISCB-Asia/SCCG 2012

ISCB-Asia/SCCG 2012, co-hosted by ISCB and BGI, will be held in Shenzhen, China from December 17-19.  Confirmed keynote speakers include Gunnar von Heijne, Philip Greene, Piero Carninci, Takashi Ito, Eric Xing and Zhiping Weng.  They will be joined by several prominent invited speakers in special sessions including: computational tools for NGS, cancer informatics, and cloud and work flows for reproducible biology.  ISCB is known for hosting a variety of international meetings including ISMB, while BGI of Shenzhen is one of the world's largest sequencing centers.  Shenzhen is a booming city with easy access from adjacent Hong Kong and a pleasant climate during December.

We cordially invite you to submit original research in any area of computational biology, including, but not limited to: computational tools for NGS, cancer genome informatics, cloud and work flows for reproducible bioinformatics, protein bioinformatics, metagenomics, RNA informatics, machine learning, and open problems in computational biology.  Accepted proceedings papers will be submitted to a special issue of BMC Bioinformatics/BMC Genomics or recommended for publication in Omics, or Gigascience.  Submission of relevant review or trends in technology papers is also encouraged and will be considered for publication in a special issue of Briefings in Bioinformatics.

Manuscripts should be in PDF format at a maximum of 10 pages, including abstract, images/figures, and references.  The submission deadline is July 30th.

Poster abstracts in the same topic areas are also invited. A poster abstract should be no more than 500 words, and submitted as a one-page PDF file by September 17th

In all cases, submissions should be sent via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please see http://iscb.org/iscb-asia2012 for more details on the conference and paper submission process.

We look forward to receiving your submissions,

Victor Jin, The Ohio State University - Program Committee Chair

Paul Horton, AIST Japan - Conference Chair and Program Committee Co-Chair


 

ISMB 2012 Early Registration and Housing - Book Now

Dear ISCB Members and Colleagues,

While early registration discounts are still available, we encourage you to register now to attend this 20th Anniversary ISMB conference July 15-17, 2012, in Long Beach, California (optional pre-conference special interest and satellite meetings, tutorials, and the student council symposium begin July 13th). The link below will take you to a page full of details, including options, pricing, and the early registration discount deadline, as well as to the online registration form itself.

ISMB 2012 Registration

The Conference Schedule for this ISMB is nearly complete, and you can now begin planning which talks most interest you based on your specific area of investigation (please note the accepted Technology Track presentations are yet scheduled but should become available on the website soon). The Program menu of the site includes links to specific details about the conference tracks and sessions, which you might find helpful if the detailed agenda is insufficient. And finally, the General Info page includes links to helpful information such as housing, tourist info, and the availability of child/dependent care to ensure your conference experience is both successful and enjoyable.

Registered conference attendees are encouraged to book hotel accommodations very soon. The city is expected to sell-out due to ISMB and other events taking place before and after our meeting. ISMB has blocked a limited number of discounted rooms at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, which is connected to the Long Beach Convention Center and is serving as our Headquarters Hotel. Full details are available HERE, and rooms are only available until our room block is filled, or June 18th, whichever comes first. To take advantage of the conference rate of $169.00 single occupancy, plus taxes (currently 15.1%) for a stay anytime between July 7th and July 20th, book online at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/ISMB2012LB.

Help us spread the word by tweeting about your participation using #ismb. You are also invited to follow us on Twitter @ISMBinfo where we will begin posting news and updates about conference specifics very soon.

The ISMB 2012 Conference Co-Chairs and every member of the Scientific Organizing Committee look forward to welcoming you to Long Beach soon!

Sincerely,

ISMB 2012 Conference Co-Chairs:
Terry Gaasterland, University of California, San Diego, United States
Richard Lathrop, University of California, Irvine, United States
Burkhard Rost, Technical University Munich, Germany

LAST CALL FOR EARLY REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS TO ISMB 2012

Register now to secure the discounted early registration fees on the 20th Anniversary ISMB conference July 15-17, 2012, in Long Beach, California. The link below will take you to a page full of details, including a direct link to the online registration form itself.

ISMB 2012 Early Registration - Deadline June 1st

Note that the conference closes at 6:00pm on July 17th after the ISCB Senior Scientist Award Keynote Lecture by Gunnar von Heijne. This is a talk not to be missed, so be sure to plan your travel accordingly so you can stay through to the end of the conference.

The full Conference Schedule is now complete so you can plan your time at the conference to be sure to attend the topics or talks that most interest you based on your specific area of investigation. And the General Info page includes links to helpful information such as housing, tourist info, and the availability of child/dependent care to ensure your conference experience is both successful and enjoyable. Long Beach is a great jumping off point for all of southern California's major attractions, so be sure to bring the whole family and spend some extra time in the area on holiday.

ISMB has blocked a limited number of discounted rooms at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, which is connected to the Long Beach Convention Center and is serving as our Headquarters Hotel. Full details are available HERE. Rooms had already sold out during specific nights of the conference date range, but today we succeeded in securing additional rooms that are also expected to sell out fast. To take advantage of the conference rate of $169.00 single occupancy, plus taxes (currently 15.1%) for a stay anytime between July 7th and July 20th, book online at  https://resweb.passkey.com/go/ISMB2012LB

If you are interested in exploring alternative options for accommodations you might want to visit the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau website for hotels in the Downtown Long Beach area. There are several hotels within close walking distance to the Long Beach Convention Center.

Help us spread the word by tweeting about your participation using #ismb. You are also invited to follow us on Twitter @ISMBinfo where we will begin posting news and updates about conference specifics leading up to the conference dates.

The ISMB 2012 Conference Co-Chairs and every member of the Scientific Organizing Committee look forward to welcoming you to Long Beach soon!

Sincerely,
ISMB 2012 Conference Co-Chairs:
Terry Gaasterland, University of California, San Diego, United States
Richard Lathrop, University of California, Irvine, United States
Burkhard Rost, Technical University Munich, Germany