Letter from the AGA President |
Letter from the AGA President
Dear members of the American Genetic Association,I wish to bring you up to date on a number of American Genetic Association (AGA)–related events that have transpired over the past year. Most notably, after 20 years of service, Steve O'Brien is stepping down as Chief Editor of the Journal of Heredity, and Diane O'Brien, whose service has been equally lengthy, has stepped down as Managing Editor. These duties have been taken over by Scott and Anjanette Baker, respectively, through Oregon State University, with Steve staying on in an advisory capacity during the transition period. Steve and Diane expended an enormous amount of energy in revitalizing the journal, bringing it from the brink of disaster to a successful revenue source for the Association, with the quality of papers generally increasing from year to year as well. We are extraordinarily grateful to both Steve and Diane for their efforts. We are equally grateful to Scott and Anjanette for agreeing to take over the central editorial duties and look forward to this new phase in the history of the journal.
As a formal statement of our appreciation to Steve, the AGA Council has established the Stephen J. O'Brien award for the best student paper published in the Journal of Heredity the previous year. Starting in 2008, the award will be announced at the annual meeting of the AGA and will include a cash prize of $1000. Please urge your students to submit their best work to the journal and to identify themselves as candidates for this award by e-mail to the Editorial Office (agajoh{at}oregonstate.edu).
A central priority of the AGA is to support special events in genetics. This year, the AGA will fund 4 proposals: 1) Pea Aphid Genome Annotation Workshop, matching US Department of Agriculture funds (Alex Wilson, University of Miami); 2) Costa Rica Conservation Genetics Course (James Hamrick, University of Georgia); 3) Symposium on the Evolution of Sex and Recombination—in Theory and Practice (John Logsdon, University of Iowa); and 4) AGA/Smithsonian Conservation Genetics Course (Stephen O'Brien, National Institutes of Health).
The 2007 meeting of the AGA on the "Mechanisms of Genome Evolution" was held at Indiana University, Bloomington, from 11 to 13 July, where Sally Otto also delivered the Wilhelmine Key Lecture. The meeting, which drew approximately 150 scientists, provided a broad overview of the interface between the molecular and population genetic issues central to understanding patterns of genome evolution. A special symposium issue will appear in the Journal of Heredity in 2008.
In this past year's elections, Trudy Mackay was elected President of the Association, and the newly elected council members are Kimberly Hughes, Mark Kirkpatrick, and Michael Nachman. We look forward to the participation of these individuals in future council business and also extend our thanks to departing council members Adalgisa Caccone, Andrew Clark, and Scott Edwards.
Next year's AGA meeting on the "Genetics and Genomics of Behavior" will be held on 4–7 June at the Raleigh Sheraton Hotel in Raleigh, NC. Mariana Wolfner from the University of British Columbia will deliver the Wilhelmine Key Lecture. This should be a truly path-breaking meeting, and we urge everyone to attend.
We are pleased to announce that Journal of Heredity will be moving to online submission through Manuscript Central in early 2008. This will expedite manuscript submission and review, as well as improve our ability to track revisions and communicate with Associate Editors and authors.
This is an extraordinary time to be a geneticist, and the AGA is in good shape to remain as a central contributor, and indeed expand its role, in this area. It has been a real privilege to have had the opportunity to serve as President of the AGA.
Sincerely,
President American Genetic Association
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