The 1996 annual meeting will be held at the OMNI Hotel at the CNN Center in Atlanta from June 14 - 19, 1996. At that time, the city of Atlanta will be in the final stages of preparation for the 96 Summer Olympics. The city should be brimming with excitement during our meeting, and there will be many distractions that will compete with our scientific program. We are therefore working very hard to assemble a topnotch program to compete successfully with these pre-Olympic diversions!
As Program Chair, I have received an almost overwhelming number of suggestions for Symposia and speakers. These suggestions came mainly from the five Division Heads who conveyed to me the views of the membership in their respective Divisions. Members of the Council and other officers of the Society were also extremely helpful in generating ideas. A number of general themes, symposia, and workshops are under consideration, and I expect that the preliminary Program will be in place by the time you receive this newsletter.
At this point in time I can provide you with a partial glimpse of what next year s meeting will look like. To honor Michael Kasha s 75th birthday there will be a symposium on singlet oxygen and reactive oxygen species that will be held. A string of symposia on various clinical and mechanistic aspects of photodynamic therapy is being planned. Suggested symposia from the Division of Photomedicine include optical diagnostics, and cardiovascular photobiology and photomedicine. The Environmental Photobiology Division suggested symposia on UVA effects, melanin, and photobiology in extreme environments. A string of 5 - 6 symposia dealing with new developments in photosynthesis is being planned. Another string includes symposia on microbial photoreceptors, photosensory transduction, and photomorphogenesis. The photochemistry of DNA and DNA repair will be the subject of another set of related symposia. Electron transfer in biological systems will be explored, and a symposium on mechanisms of photosensitized damage in membranes is under consideration. Finally, workshops on the effects of the ozone hole on marine organisms, UV radiometry, sunscreens, and a round table on photocarcinogenesis are in the planning stages.
Future issues of the newsletter will update you on further developments for the 1996 meeting.
For the fourth consecutive year attendance at the annual meeting exceeded 400. The 445 registrants included 235 members, 32 non-members, 65 students and 94 non-member speakers. In one form or another 186 presentations were made. Travels awards were made to 25 associate members. In spite of fears of another hot meeting (weather a la Scottsdale), Washington DC proved to be uncharacteristically mild (with low humidity) for the first few days of the meeting giving all a chance to acclimate prior to the more typical conditions that took hold by Wednesday. Mike Rodgers outdid his previous stint as Program Chair (1993) by putting together AAA+ meeting. The scientific program follow the ‘string' pattern established by John Hearst in 1991. The principal advantage of this approach is that symposium chairs develop a theme with a series of the best possible speakers to elucidate particular topics. While most submitted abstracts are from members, symposium speakers are often non-members who are recruited because of the significance of their research. As a by-product these guests are often exposed to the ASP for the first time. In gratitude they are extended a complimentary membership for one year this they are re-exposed to the ASP each month when they receive Photochemistry and Photobiology - many of these complimentary subscribers become dues-paying members the following year. Among the strings this year were photoimmunology, UV and AIDS, apoptosis, photodynamic effects and laser photomedicine.
Saturday prior to the welcoming reception a keynote address was delivered by Michael Kasha. On Monday the research awards were presented to Jim Cleaver (UCSF) who described a career-effort revolving around DNA repair ("Mending Genes"). Tom Sakmar (Rockefeller university) discussed the photoactivation step involved in the biological activity of rhodopsin. A new type of presentation (Perspectives) was included this year - PS Song - Photosensory Biology, J van der Leun - Environmental Biology, G Jori - Photodynamic Therapy, and L Dutton - Engineering Photosynthetic Reaction Proteins. In the president's address, Nick Geacintov discussed the mechanism of interaction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites with DNA and their elucidation with spectroscopy.
The meeting featured four other membership-wide gatherings. The Business Meeting was conducted in a rapid fire, abstract form (to everyone's delight) with a basic message - a vibrant society with a sound bottom line! The gavel and a substitute for ‘Hankey Bannister' passed on to Al Girotti who is president for the next year (In the photo shown above, Al is on the right). The business meeting was followed by the ‘commingling' where young-turk and gray-beard barriers were dissolved in liters of beer. On Tuesday the annual banquet was attended by more than a third of the registrants. After dinner repartee was led by Nick Geacintov with a special greeting by Dietrich Averbeck from the ESP who encouraged more cooperation between our two societies (akin to our ASP symposium at the upcoming ESP meeting in Cambridge).
On Saturday the meeting was preceded by a workshop - What is photobiology/" and a continuing education short course in photodermatology. The workshop (attended by 34 people) was designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of photobiology for the interested non-expert. Among the attendees were some early-arriving members, US regulatory agency and non-photobiology industrial personnel, and one science writer whose report appeared recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Aug 9, pp 445-446). Nik Kollias short course successfully updated 12 participants.
(Editor's note: More information from the annual meeting, including a summary of the minutes of the business meeting, highlights of the council meetings and the financial status of the ASP, is posted on our Internet Site, Photobiology On Line (POL).
The ASP evolved from regional photobiology meetings. Now the photobiologists in the Philadelphia area are getting together for a one day meeting on November 3, 1995 at Thomas Jefferson University in the Herbert Auditorium (Colge Building). The goal of the forum is to assemble local (and regional) photobiologists for a mid-year update on research activities. The rationale - a lot happens in the 12 months between annual meetings and to provide more opportunities for student presentations without the expense of travel. Students/residents and fellows are especially encouraged to submit abstracts. There wil be a keynote presentation by Al Kligman, MD PhD at 10 am. Student/Resident/Fellow presentation will follow from 11 to 12:30 PM. After a lunch break, presentations will resume at 2:00 PM. For information (and abstract form) contact Ben Vowels (Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania 215 898 9607; fax 215 573 9302; e-mail: vowelsb@mail.med.upenn.edu)
A symposium was held to honor Professor David Shugar on the occasion of his 80th birthday in Warsaw, Poland on September 2 to 5, 1995. Professor Shugar was a Founding Editor of Photochemistry and Photobiology in 1962 together with E.J. Bowen, S. Claisson, A. Hollaender and A.D. McLaren. The Symposium was sponsored by the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the Department of Biophysics, University of Warsaw. Thirty-three speakers, representing ten countries, presented lectures. A variety of topics were addressed mainly reflecting Professor Shugar's interests in fundamental aspects of nucleic acid chemistry and applications of nucleic acid chemistry in biology and medicine.
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