AOCS Biotechnology Division
Newsletter February 2007
Biotechnology Division Events at the AOCS Annual Meeting
by Tom McKeon
This year, we meet from May 13 through 16 in Québec City, where our Annual Meeting will be held jointly with the Japanese Oil Chemists' Society (JOCS), the Canadian Section of AOCS (CAOCS), and the International Society of Fat Research (ISF). Currently, five of our six Biotechnology Division sessions will be held jointly with JOCS, and we have approximately 50 talks scheduled in these sessions.
Our Division's oral presentations this year include three Biocatalysis sessions (Monday a.m. and p.m., and Tuesday p.m.), a session on Novel Oils (Tuesday p.m.), a session on Biobased Surfactants and Oleochemicals held jointly with JOCS and the Soaps and Detergent Division (Wednesday a.m.), and a General Session ending the meeting on Wednesday afternoon. A Biotechnology Division Honored Student, Shane Lal of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, is scheduled to present Wednesday at 4:40 p.m. in BIO 5. Click here for a complete schedule of oral presentations.
We also have a poster session scheduled on Monday from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. There will be approximately 30 posters presented there. It looks to be a very good and full schedule! Click here for a complete schedule of poster presentations. Please check back, as these schedules are still subject to change.
The Biotechnology Division Dinner will be held at the Hotel Delta Québec on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. As in the past, we will start with a no-host Happy Hour from 6:30 to 7:30, and a feast for the next two hours, during which we will introduce the newly-elected Division officers, and recognize Student Award recipients and the Lifetime Award recipient, Dr. Yuji Shimada. We will wrap up the evening with an after-dinner talk from Professor John Harwood, Head of the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Wales. The talk is entitled "Fascinating Lipids: From Brain to Plants and Back to Brain."
Professor Harwood's research interests throughout his career have related to the metabolism and function of acyl lipids. Current areas of interest include medical aspects of lipids (pulmonary surfactant, peritoneal dialysis, endotoxic shock, inflammation, role of dietary lipids in arthritis and Alzheimers), agricultural aspects (herbicides, control of metabolism, oil quality), and environmental effects (temperature, atmosphere constituents, heavy metals and xenobiotics). He is the author of over 500 scientific publications, a founding and continuing co-editor of The Lipid Handbook (presently going into its 3rd edition), a member of the editorial board for three journals, and a recipient of numerous scientific honors. John is also famous for his brief stint as the disc jockey "Avocado Johnny" during a sabbatical at the University of California, Davis. His talk will include observations on his research career, the meeting, some jokes and perhaps a song. It's guaranteed to be an informative and fun talk.
In addition to the Dinner, there are two other scheduled networking events for Biotechnology Division members. The Board Meeting is Sunday, May 13, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Roundtable Discussion is Tuesday, May 15, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. You may purchase tickets to social events when registering.
Updates and other conference information can be found at the official Annual Meeting webpage.
To receive the early registration fees, be sure to register by April 13, 2007. Click here for registration information.
Don't forget to think about proposals for Hot Topic Symposia. You'll find several Hot Topic Symposia already planned for this year's meeting on the Hot Topics Symposia webpage on the AOCS website. Additional proposals can be made until April 20 at the link at the bottom of the Hot Topic Symposia webpage.
International Symposia on Biocatalysis and Biotechnology (ISBB)
by Ching Hou
Invited speakers of the "First International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotechnology: Functional Foods and Industrial Products"
The first ISBB, held November 19-21, 2005 at the National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, was a great success. It was organized by Division members Ching T. Hou and Jei-Fu Shaw, with many AOCS members participating as speakers. A book based on this symposium's papers (35 chapters) is being published jointly by the AOCS Press and Taylor and Francis Company.
Invited speakers of the "Second International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotechnology: Biocatalysis and Bioenergy"
The second ISBB - focused on "Biocatalysis and Biofuels" - was held December 6-8, 2006, again at the National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. Another book is being composed from proceedings of this recent conference. Please contact Ching T. Hou at NCAUR, USDA, Peoria, IL 61604, at houct@ncaur.usda.gov for information about the conferences or books.
Division Awards
by David Hildebrand and Ching Hou
It is very fortunate that our division has been able to offer several awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award, The Schroepfer Award and the Student Awards.
Lifetime Achievement Award
This year the 9th Annual Lifetime Achievement Award is to be presented to Yuji Shimada.
2006 AOCS Biotechnology Division Lifetime Achievement Award, shown (from left to right) are: Ching Hou (Lifetime Achievement Award Chair), Kimberly Magin of Monsanto, Tom Foglia (Award winner), and David Hildebrand (Division chair).
Last year's Lifetime Achievement Award winner was Tom Foglia, an AOCS president. The corporate sponsor of the award was Monsanto in 2006, and Nisshin Oillio Company of Japan generously sponsored it this year. Ching Hou has diligently and very effectively lined up the corporate sponsorship of this award. We have had extraordinarily accomplished nominees, making it difficult for the selection committee to turn many of the nominees down.
This year's awardee, Dr. Yuji Shimada, is the Director-General of Osaka Municipal Technical Research Institute, and past Head of Department of Biochemistry at the same institute. Dr. Shimada received his Ph.D. in Fermentation Technology at Osaka University in 1977, and was a visiting scientist in 1987-1988 at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the US National Institute of Health. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Industrial Technology Award, sponsored by Osaka Industrial Research Association. He served as President of Osaka Industrial Research Association from 2004 to 2006. Dr. Shimada is an Editorial Board Member of The Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society (1998-), has published 175 research papers, and holds 35 patents. Much of his research has focused on microbial lipases and lipids - a highly important area of biotechnology and lipids. Yuji has been an active member and supporter of the AOCS biotechnology division and has served as a division board officer. Dr. Shimada's Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture at this year's AOCS Annual Meeting in Québec City will be "Application of Lipase Reactions to Oil and Fat Industry," Tuesday afternoon at 1:55 p.m. You won't want to miss this informative lecture.
Schroepfer Award
Every even year the sterol group of our division sponsors the Schroepfer Award (in honor of the eminent sterol researcher Ingemar Schroepfer), and hosts the Schroepfer Award lecture. Last year's award winner was Dr. I. Björkhem of the Karolina Institute in Sweden. Contact Ed Parish for information concerning the Schroepfer Award or nominations for 2008.
Student Awards
A portion of our division dues is used to support student awards. All students who submit abstracts are invited to submit extended abstracts and letters of support. Every year a committee is formed to evaluate and select the student award winners. Winning students are given modest monetary awards ($300, $200 and $100 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners), a certificate, and free tickets to our Division Dinner, where they are honored.
New Board Members
by David Hildebrand
Our division board consists of a chairperson, a vice chair, a secretary/treasurer and three members-at-large. These are elected for three-year terms, and the terms of the current board members end this spring. New elections will therefore be held in coming months. It has been our tradition that vice chairs be the nominee-designate for the chair position if they are willing to run for these offices. Current and past board members and others active in the division have come up with the following nominees for our new board members:
Chair:
Tom McKeon _____________
(write-in) _____________
Vice-Chair:
Ramesh Patel _____________
(write-in) _____________
Sec/Treasurer:
Dan Solaiman _____________
Douglas Hayes _____________
(write-in) _____________
Members-at-Large:
Yuji Shimada _____________
Randall Weselake _____________
Hans Christian Holm _____________
Xuebing Xu _____________
(write-in) _____________
All of these nominees have been contacted and all are highly qualified and willing to serve our division in this capacity. All division members are welcome to nominate additional individuals for these board positions. Please send your nominations to the immediate past chair of the division, Dr. Casimir Akoh at cakoh@uga.edu by February 28. You will receive information from the AOCS on voting for these nominees and nominees you send to Dr. Akoh.
Obituary
by Tom McKeon
Professor Paul K. Stumpf passed away on Monday, February 12, 2007. Paul was considered by many to be a founder of the field of plant lipid research. He was the mentor to many researchers in the field of oilseed biochemistry; until his retirement, virtually everyone in the area of plant lipid biochemistry had come through his lab as a student, postdoc, or visiting professor. He was a visionary, foreseeing the impact of genetic engineering on plant research back in the 1970s, when gene cloning was still a decade in the future.
Paul received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Columbia University in 1945, in David Green's laboratory. He went on from there to become a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He moved 60 miles east to the University of California, Davis, where he founded the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and served four times as Department Chair. He and his colleague Eric Conn wrote the textbook Outlines of Biochemistry which was used worldwide, and possibly the best selling biochemistry text of all time. With additional co-authors, it is now in its 5th edition.
Dr. Stumpf served the American Society of Plant Physiologists as its president and chaired its board of trustees. He was recipient of many honors and awards, receiving the Supelco/Nicholas Pelick AOCS Research Award in 1974, the Stephen Hales Prize from ASPP and was awarded that organization's Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1978, and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences.
After Professor Stumpf became Emeritus at UC Davis, he took the helm of the Competitive Grant Program at USDA-CSREES, and helped develop it into the National Research Intitiative. In order to support education and research in the Department he founded, he and his wife Ruth endowed the Paul K. and Ruth R. Stumpf Professorship in Plant Biochemistry in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at UC Davis.
Paul Stumpf was a mentor and a colleague to a number of us in the Biotech Division, and his passing is a great loss to all of us.