2012 Subscriptions and grants
At the Winter 2011 meeting it was decided that the membership subscriptions for 2012 would continue at the same rate as 2011 - They have now been unchanged since 2004. Subscriptions for current members are due by 30 April 2012.
The provision of funds from the international secretariat, through sales of the society journal Insectes Sociaux has mant that we now have more funds available for student conference grants, and that there is a new application procedure with a new application form. The deadline for the first round of student conference grant applications is 31 March 2012.
The 2011 Winter Meeting
The Winter 2011 meeting of the North-West European section of IUSSI will take place at the University of Sussex on Thursday and Friday, 15-16 December.
The University of Sussex is located on the outskirts of Brighton, which is served by Gatwick Airport. Brighton is a lively, cosmopolitan, seaside town. The campus may be reached from Brighton by train, bus, or car.
The meeting will begin mid-morning on Thursday with registration/coffee. Lunch will be provided, and there will be a conference dinner that night. We'll convene again Friday morning, and the meeting will run until mid-afternoon, with breaks for lunch and tea.
Students will be offered a subsidy.
Posters will be displayed during a 1 hour poster session. Attendees are encouraged to bring a poster and stand by it during this session.
If you are interested in giving a talk, please submit a title and short abstract (< 300 words) to Roger Schürch (R.Schuerch@sussex.ac.uk) before the 2nd of September 2011. Please state your position (i.e. PhD-Student, Postdoc etc.). There will also be invited speakers.
For more details, see the meetings page
News from the 2010 International Congress
At the XVI international meeting of the IUSSI in Copenhagen, Denmark, the following officers were elected to serve on the international committee of the IUSSI:
Secretary General: Joan Herbers
President: Ben Oldroyd
Treasurer of the Congress: Madeleine Beekman
Editor of Insectes Sociaux: Johan Billen
Associate editors of Insectes Sociaux: Yves Roisin, Miriam Richards
Other officers that agreed to continue their previous positions at the meeting were:
Archivist: Chris Starr
Webmaster: David Nash
During the Congress, the IUSSI adopted a new constitution, which can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF file here.
The minutes of the International Committee meeting can be found here.
The report of the Secretary General can be found here.
Hamilton Award
A committee of IUSSI Section Presidents has chosen Charles D. Michener to receive the Hamilton Award 2010.
Professor Michener, who prefers to be called “Mich”, is the world authority on bees. He published his first paper in 1935 as a teenager, and in the ensuing 75 years his publications have included more than 400 papers, and highly influential books on bee social behavior and systematics. While his work has maintained a special focus on halictid bees, he has also made contributions to the biology of arthropods from moths to mites.
Mich has trained a legion of bee biologists during his long career at the University of Kansas; the list of his students and collaborators shows his strong influence on the development of social insect biology. He has inspired by example, and given his time generously to help his students do their best.
Few scientists have had the influence on our field as has Charles Michener, and we are honored to bestow this recognition on him
Hamilton Award 2010
The IUSSI honors a senior scientist at its quadrennial Congress with the Hamilton Prize. The highest honor we bestow, the Hamilton Prize recognizes lifetime achievement in the biology of social insects. We seek nominations of individuals whose scientific contributions are profound, and who has broadly influenced colleagues and students. The 2010 Hamilton Prize carries with it a plaque and $1000 honorarium.
The IUSSI hereby calls for nominations from Sections for the Hamilton Prize. Nominations will be accepted only from officers of Sections in good standing, and Sections are free to nominate anyone, including members from other sections. Nomination materials should include the following:
- Letter of Nomination from the Section Officer (3 pages maximum)
- One of the following:
- Current curriculum vitae for the nominee OR
- 2-page outline of nominee’s principal contributions to the field of
- social insect biology, with up to 10 citations of significant publications
- Three (3) supporting letters from members of the IUSSI
- All materials must be received via electronic mail sent to herbers.4 (at) osu.edu, by June 1, 2010.
The Secretary-General will convene a committee of Section Presidents, and the committee will review all valid nominations to identify the 2010 winner of the Hamilton Prize. The recipient will be honored at the 2010 Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
News update January 2010
Following the business meeting at the 2009 winter meeting, the section now has three new officers, to serve 2010-2012. The new president is Jeremy Field, the new secretary is Eamonn Mallon and the new treasurer is Elva Robinson. Contact details can be found on the officers page.
At the meeting it was also decided that subscriptions for 2010 will remain unchanged from 2009 (and indeed from 2005):
| £15.00 | |
| £ 7.50 |
Ross Crozier, 1943-2009
13 November 2009
It is with great sadness that we have learned of the sudden death of Ross Crozier yesterday while at work at James Cook University, Queensland. Ross was one of the great pioneers of modern social insect research, and was a key figure in many fields, not least the application of molecular genetic techniques in social insect research, and the theoretical exploration of many aspects of social evolution. He was the recipient of the IUSSI's Hamilton Award at the last IUSSI international symposium in Washington in 2006.
His approachability, good humour, and ability to present complex issues in an easily understandable way will be missed as much as his exemplary research.
Pess release from James Cook University: Leading Scientist Dies
Alex Wild's blog: Ross Crozier is gone
News update May 2009
Summary of main points discussed at the IUSSI North-west European Section business meeting, Nov. 2008.
- Our Section’s name: The Section’s name change from the ‘British Section’ to the ‘North-west European Section’ of the IUSSI was welcomed by the Section, but remains to be formally approved at the business meeting of the International Congress in Copenhagen in 2010.
- Our Section’s Health: The Section is flourishing, with 114 new members in 2008, and over 60 people attending the Winter (2008) meeting. Please continue to encourage both new and existing members of your research groups to support the Section by joining/renewing their membership. Despite Rob’s valiant efforts, we are unfortunately still unable to accept electronic online payment for membership subscriptions.
- Subscriptions to our Union’s journal, Insectes Sociaux: These fell by about 50% in 2008. This is thought to be a result of the transfer of the subscription process to the publisher, Birkhauser, and a subsequent ambiguous request for subscription renewals from them. The Union no longer handles orders, money transfers or other business relating to individual subscriptions to the journal. Birkhauser now sends subscribers a renewal notice, which must be paid direct to Birkhauser. They can accept bank drafts, credit card transactions and other forms of payment. Any queries, please contact the sales office at Birkhauser by sending an email to Petra.Stromberger@birkhauser.ch. This is our Union’s journal: please do support it.
- 2010 IUSSI International Congress: If you wish to receive email updates on progress being made in the organization of our Union’s next international meeting, please send an email to IUSSI2010@bi.ku.dk, with “Updates” in the subject header. Alternatively, visit the website, which is regularly updated.
- Website: Please continue to send all job adverts and meeting announcements to our Webmaster, David Nash (DRNash@bi.ku.dk). We would also like to encourage all members (new and old) to review the content of their “Who’s Who” section on the website (http://www.zi.ku.dk/iussi/whoswho.html), and send any appropriate updates to David. Many of the current entries are limited to a list of keywords, whilst other are an engaging description of current research interests.
Officer elections
At the Winter meeting this year, Andrew, Rob and myself will be sadly stepping down from our positions as officers of the Section. We have had a wonderful time over the last 3 years, and would like to thank you all firstly for appointing us, secondly for tolerating us, and finally for not giving us too much trouble (you do have a few months left to do so though!). So, the time has come to start looking for our successors for the posts of President, Treasurer and Secretary. Following the tradition of our Section, we would like to invite self-nominations. Each nomination must come from a proposer and a seconder from the Section’s membership. All nominations (with proposer and seconder names) must be emailed to me (Seirian.Sumner@ioz.ac.uk) by 1st September 2009. The results will be announced in the Autumn/Winter newsletter and a democratic vote held amongst the membership to resolve any positions with more than one nomination. The new officers will be confirmed by the 15th October and will take over from the existing officers at the close of the Winter meeting in November this year.
Seirian Sumner
News from the winter meeting 2008
The winter meeting 2008 was attended by some 60 delegates, including several who became members of the section at the meeting. The section membership now stands at a record level of over 100 members. Many thanks to Paul Eggleton and the Natural History Museum for once again hosting a very successful meeting.
Winter meeting 2009
Francis Ratnieks and Jeremy Field offered to host next year's winter meeting at the University of Sussex, probaby as a two-day meeting in the second week of December 2009. Full details still need to be confirmed, but the membership present at the winter 2008 meeting unanimously accepted this offer.
Insectes Sociaux
Although membership of the sectionhas increased substantially since last year, subscriptions to Insectes Sociaux have reduced dramatically, probably associated with the change in handling of subscriptions that took place last year (see news section below), and some rather confusing information sent out by the publisher. As this journal is an integral part of the IUSSI, all members were encouraged to consider taking out a personal subscription to show their support for the journal. Personal subscriptions to Insectes Sociaux still represent very good value for money, particularly to those without access to library subscriptions.
A dedicated section of this web site will be set up shortly giving information about the journal and subscriptions.
Membership subscriptions 2009
It was decided at the winter 2008 meeting that membership subscriptions would, once again, remain unchanged for the 5th year in a row. The two subscription types available are therefore:
| £15.00 | |
| £ 7.50 |
Important changes following the Winter 2007 Meeting
Several important changes were announced and agreed upon at the Winter 2007 meeting of the section on the 7 December 2007. The two most important are summarized below:
Section Name
It has been felt for some time that the name of the section ('British Section') did not accuately reflect the membership of the section, since almost half the members of the section are not resident in Great Britain. Following a discussion among the 66 members of the society present at the winter 2007 meeting, several alternative names for the section (and retaining the name 'British Section') were put to the vote. As a result of this vote, the section will henceforth be known as the North-west European section.
Changes to Insectes Sociaux subscriptions
Beginning in 2008, the IUSSI (North-west European section) will no longer handle subscriptions to Insectes Sociaux. Birkhauser will take over direct handling of all subscriptions from individuals. With the new arrangement, sections will no longer have any responsibilities for collecting subscriptions, handling money, negotiating complaints, etc. Birkhauser will soon communicate directly with subscribers concerning renewals for 2008. Gratis subscriptions will continue to be provided to the Editorial Board as at present. If you have questions, please contact Birkhauser directly at petra.stromberger@birkhauser.ch
The web page for the journal can be found at:
Student Grants
The standard amount for the student grants has been increased from £100 to £250
Newsletters
Please send any information that you may want included in the Newsletter to the secretary, by the dates given below:
Spring/Summer: 15 April | Autumn/Winter: 15 October |
Election of new officers
At the winter 2006 meeting, the following were approved as the new officers for the IUSSI British Section, to serve 2007-2009:
Section President – Andrew Bourke
Section Secretary – Seirian Sumner
Section Treasurer – Rob Hammond
News from the IUSSI international congress
At the XV international meeting of the IUSSI in Washington D.C., USA, the following officers were elected to serve on the international committee of the IUSSI:
Secretary General: Joan Herbers
President: Koos Boomsma
Editor of Insectes Sociaux: Johan Billen
Associate editors of Insectes Sociaux: Penny Kukuk, Yves Roisin
Other officers that agreed to continue their previous positions at the meeting were:
Conservation officer: Donat Agosti
Archivist: Chris Starr
Webmaster: David Nash
The election of Koos Boomsma to the office of president is in association with the selection of Copenhagen as the site of the next international congress in summer 2010, which will be organized by the British Section.
The first Hamilton Award was given at the same meeting, to Ross Crozier.