Letter of the president of the Swiss Zoological Society (SZS)
April 2009 Dear Zoologists! After our annual meeting in the ‘Darwin year’ 2009 we would like to inform you about the activities of the SZS in the past year. This letter was written by two persons, as we had a change in the executive committee (see below). Our annual conference biology09, which we co-organized with the Swiss Botanical Society (SBS), the Swiss Mycological Society (SMS) and the Swiss Society for Systematics (SSS), took place on February 12th and 13th 2009 in Berne. It was organized by the evolutionary ecology group of the University of Berne and the Natural History Museum of Berne, represented by Heinz Richner, Salome Steiner and Marcel Güntert. This year’s main topic was Charles Darwin, whose 200th birthday is celebrated in 2009 and whose main opus, The Origin of Species, was published 150 years ago. The conference was attended by about 100 members of the four societies plus 170 additional participants. Thanks to the active attendance of master and doctoral students, 32 talks and 74 posters were presented. Keynote speakers were Nina Wedell (University of Exeter, GB), Fredrik Ronquist (Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, S), Clive Brasier (Forest Research Agency, Farnham, GB) and James Bullock (NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Oxon, GB). The talks of Anabelle Reber (Uni Lausanne) and Ana Pinto (Uni Neuchâtel), and the posters by Valérie Amsler et al. (Uni Zürich) and Anja Westram et al. (EAWAG) received this year’s prizes. Congratulations from our side! On the eve of biology09, the Natural History Museum in Berne opened its Darwin exhibition with great success. This event was open to the general public and frequented by about 250 people. On Thursday evening and also in the museum, about 200 people celebrated the traditional ‘Darwin’s party’, accompanied by the band Cocinando, a band comprising several biology professors. Their latino-jazz made a whole bunch of people explore the dance-floor. After the main course, John Pannell from the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford, GB, delivered his ‘Darwin lecture’, in which he dignified Charles Darwin as ‘most eminent botanist’. You can find and download the biology09 program and abstracts at http://evolution.unibe.ch/biology09/index.html. Nex years’ meeting, biology10, will take place on February 11th and 12th in Neuchâtel. Betty Benrey is the main organizer, with organizational contributions from the groups of Redouan Bshary, Ted Turlings and Giorgina Bernasconi. After the reform of the SCNAT and the new formation of the Platform Biology, we are facing budget cuts of about 10%. All platforms are urged to discuss their annual plans and budgets for the next five years. Also, there are ongoing discussions about how to finance the journals of the different societies in the future (in our case the Revue Suisse de Zoologie). In particular, SCNAT invites proposals for ‘high-visibility public events’ for the next years. The organization of the SZS, with voluntary board
members only, might not allow us to take much part in the planning and implementation of such events. However, we might be able to join the activities of the Forum Biodiversity, which is now part of the new Platform Science & Policy. Raphaël Arlettaz once again suggested linking their SWIFCOBmeeting with our biology meetings, and he will contact the Forum Biodiversity in this matter. The finances of our society are in good order and were approved by the revisers and at our board meeting. We currently have between 550 and 600 society members. In 2008, we awarded travel grants to eight junior society members to attend international meetings (total amount awarded was SFr 8’000.-); Ivan Hiltpold (Neuchâtel), Christelle Péré (Delémont), and Caroline Angelard, Anne Burkhardt, Pierre-Antoine Christin, Antonia Internicola, Joel Meunier & Yannick Wurm (all Lausanne). Congratulations to all! As already mentioned in the very beginning of this letter, there were some changes in the board. Walter Salzburger (Uni Basel), who joined the board last year, follows Wolf Blanckenhorn (Uni Zürich), who acted as president for the past six years. The execute committee is very grateful to Wolf Blanckenhorn, who will stay in the board as vice-president. He has led the SZS through the troublesome phase of the SCNAT re-organization. During his presidency, our major activities, biology and travel grants, were strengthened. He is a bit disappointed by his failed attempts to re-activate some ‘silent members’ by e.g. a mentoring program. Now, new impulses will come from Walter Salzburger. A second board change concerns the society’s secretary: Michel Chapuisat (Uni Lausanne) stepped down after four years of excellent work, for which we cordially thank him here. He is replaced by Pierre Bize (also Uni Lausanne). Last year’s proposal to more involve interested people who are not working as zoologists (interested laypersons, journalists, and particularly students) in the society has not yet succeeded. People interested in our activities are urged to contact board members. The annual rapport of SZS to the SCNAT, which also includes the annual report of the Revue Suisse de Zoologie, is available at www.scnat.ch/d/Netzwerk/Strukturen/Fachgesellschaften.
In closing, we wish you all the best for 2009! Regards,
Wolf Blanckenhorn Vice-President, SZS
Walter Salzburger President SZS
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