During the past few months, ABRF Associates were involved in several endeavors fundamental to our organization.
Most Research Committees completed their 1996 projects and began new studies that they plan to describe at our annual meeting in February, 1997. In addition, the Executive Board approved the formation of a new Research Committee to evaluate mass spectrometry technologies in resource laboratories. This new Committee, convened by Kristine Swiderek, plans to present the results of their first study at this meeting.
Planning for ABRF '97: Techniques at the Genome-Proteome Interface is well underway. Jack Shively and Lloyd Smith, the meeting organizers, have developed an exciting series of morning plenary lectures that will set themes for techniques-oriented afternoon workshops. The preliminary program and the call for abstracts will be mailed to all Associates this Fall. We hope to see all of you there.
The ABRF held a symposium immediately preceding the 1996 Protein Society Meeting, held on August 3 in San Jose, CA. Lowell Ericsson, Ron Niece, Nadine Ritter, and Laurey Steinke organized this afternoon event. Richard Smith and Curtis Monnig gave presentations on coupling capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. The highlight of this symposium was the presentation of the 1996 ABRF Award to Dr. David Lipman for his work in computational biology. We are particularly grateful to Hewlett -Packard for providing the financial support that makes this award possible. In addition, a committee led by Dan Crimmins organized the poster session for the Protein Society Meeting; the committee included Tom Andersen, Dan Marshak, Sheenah Mische, Kristine Swiderek, and Ken Williams.
In early July, ballots on proposals to amend the Bylaws were mailed to the voting representatives of member laboratories. This triggered additional discussion on our electronic mailing list indicating concern among some Associates about how voting representatives are designated. The Executive Board will consider this issue, and we encourage all Associates to express their opinions on this matter directly to Executive Board members and also through the electronic mailing list. This organization exists to serve its members, and we need to know your thoughts.
Ballots for election of two new Executive Board members will be mailed in September. We urge each member laboratory to vote in this important election.
Elizabeth Fowler
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