International organization of theoretical biologists?
Dear Colleague:
We have been running a small Canadian Society Theoretical Biology (CSTB)
for the past decade which has been attracting 1/3 international
memberships. We charge only Can$25/yr for membership. We are at a
critical juncture, needing new people to take active participation. With
the cost of international travel and the lure of specialty conferences,
it is difficult for us to get together physically. Yet there is a need
for developing an intellectual community of like-minded scientists.
Theoretical biologists are in a difficult position right now, perhaps
analogous to theoretical physicists before quantum mechanics. There is
great potential; we know the experimentalists need us; but in general
they don't know that, and we have no niche.
We think it is time to rethink whether the CSTB should continue to
identify itself as a Canadian organisation, or whether we should become
more explicitly international. It seems that our common bond is not
Canadian residency, but rather a common international interest in
theoretical biology and a desire to communicate. The services we have
been able to offer to our members include a Newsletter, reduced rate
subscriptions to the Journal of Biological Systems, and an Email network.
We need to redefine our role, keeping in mind that there already exist
several other organisations with overlapping interests, such as the SMB
(Society for Mathematical Biology). The distinction between theoretical
biology and mathematical biology is discussed in:
Gordon, R. (1993). Careers in theoretical biology. Carolina Tips 56(3),
9-11.
which might be a good point for beginning our deliberations. If you would
like a copy of this just send a request to Dick Gordon at
GordonR at cc.UManitoba.ca
You are all encouraged to contribute to our discussion, whether or not
you are a member of CSTB at the present time. Please send your comments to
CSTB at biome.bio.ns.ca
so that we can continue this discussion. To join, send the message
subscribe cstb
to Majordomo at biome.bio.ns.ca
Dick Gordon, CSTB President
Department of Radiology, University of Manitoba
Room ON104, Health Sciences Centre, 820 Sherbrook Street
Winnipeg, MB R3A 1R9 Canada
Phone: (204) 787-1076, Fax: (204) 783-8565, E-mail: GordonR at cc.UManitoba.ca
Bill Silvert, CSTB Secretary/Treasurer
Habitat Ecology Division (HED), Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
P. O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2Y 4A2. Tel. (902)426-1577
InterNet Address: silvert at biome.bio.ns.ca Fax (902)426-2256
HED runs a WWW server at URL=http://biome.bio.dfo.ca
