Newsletter #6. AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR BIOPHYSICS WELCOME to the sixth ASB electronic newsletter. Please visit our WWW site and send me your comments. The address is: http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/ASB/ ------------------------------------------------------- NEWS ITEMS 1. Report on the 20th Annual Meeting of the Society held in the Department of Physics, University of Tasmania, July 4-6, 1996. Glenn King is the incoming President. 2. News from ASB members. 3. FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY WORKSHOP, February 4-7 1997. 4. WHERE shall we meet in 1997? ------------------------------------------------------- 1. 20th Annual Meeting of the Society. Ian Newman did a terrific job in organizing the meeting. He was very ably assisted by Sergey Shabala and by Andrew Knowles. THE PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE ON THE U. TAS. web site (http://physics_1.phys.utas.edu.au/PHYSICS/ASB96/). The Young Investigator Award of $1000 was presented to Dr. Pierre Moens and the Student Award went to Trevor Garnett.Congratulations to them both. In addition, all post-graduate students who attended and presented either lectures or posters were eligible for a $100 travel grant. Alex Hope hope was the inter-course speaker at the dinner and had us in tears of nostalgia for the old days of biophysics in Hobart. Registrations were understandably lower than usual but reached a tally of 29. In all an excellent time was had and, from the finanacial point of view, the meeting broke about even. AGM. The AGM elected Glenn King as the incoming President who will take over in July 1997. Tony Collings will remain Secretary, and Brett Hambly has formally become the Treasurer. YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD. I would like to remind members that this award carries a cash prize of $1000 which can be used towards travel costs of an international meeting involving biophysics. This reminder may stir young investigators to join the ASB so that they can qualify for condition #2 below. The conditions of the award are that applicants : 1. should be nearing the completion of a Ph.D. or be within 6 years following the award of a Ph.D. or equivalent degree. 2. be members of the Society of at least 12 months standing at the time of application. 3. make an oral presentation at the annual conference of the Society (finalists only). 4. submit four copies of the application to the Secretary at the time abstracts are due for the annual conference. ------------------------------------------------------- 2. Congratulations to Jan Anderson, a former Part President on her election to the Royal Society for her distinguished research in the field of photosynthesis. Jan although still with CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry has transferred to the Photobioenergetics Group, at The Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University. Her phone no: 062495895; fax no: 06 2798056; email anderson@rsbs.anu.edu.au Also, Wendy Russell has been invited to the Gordon Conference in her field and collected a cheque for $1000 for her Young Investigator award from 1995. ------------------------------------------------------- 3. FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY WORKSHOP. There will be a four-day workshop (Wednesday February 4-Saturday Febraury 7, 1997) on Fluorescence Spectroscopy run the Russel Grimwade School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The University of Melbourne. This meeting is immediatly prior to the Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function. The workshop will provide a theoretical as well as hands-on experience for researchers who currently or propose to apply fluorescence techniques to the solution of biological problems. The fourth day will focus on fluorescence imaging. International speakers include: Dr Enrico Gratton, University of Illinois, Urbana who will discuss Fluorescence imaging and frequency domain fluorometry Dr Robert Clegg, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry at Gottingen who will talk on fluorescence resonance energy transfer in protein and DNA systems Dr. Dave Jamieson, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Hawaii who will discuss applications of fluorescence anisotrophy to biological systems. Registration will be $280 for non-students and $250 for students if paid by December 1, 1996. There is a limit of 25 registrations. NB POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS: The AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE has provided funds to assist postgraduate students to attend this workshop. For FURTHER INFORMATION: Contact Bill Sawyer (03) 93445923, email: sawyer@biochemistry.unimelb.edu.au or Cris dos Remedios (02) 93513209, email: crisdos@anatomy.su.oz.au ------------------------------------------------------- 4. Where to meet in 1997? At the AGM in Hobart we discussed this question. Two venues arose, in Adelaide (perhaps with the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society) or in Melbourne in conjunction with ASBMB. I would like you to feedback to me on where you prefer to meet. The Secreary reminds me that it is AdelaideÂ*s Â*turnÂ*. Dates for these meeting are flexible and could either preceed follow or overlap with the APPS or ASB. The AVCC common week will occur Sept 29 thru October 4 in 1997. Please send me a sinple reply such as Â*I prefer .......Â* ------------------------------------------------------- Finally, visit the FASTS web site (http://bimbo.pharmacol.su.oz.au/fasts/fastshome.html). It can keep you up to date on the politics of science and much more. ASB subscribes to FASTS and we believe we get good value for our dollar. ------------------------------------------------------- ASB MEMBERS: Please let me have any newsworthy items, positions vacant or changes in your location, email phone etc. Note that Sydney members will have a Â*9Â* inserted before their telephone numbers from the end of July and they need not inform us about that change. Cris dos Remedios President ASB 1995-96/96-97 Muscle Research Unit ph: (61-2) 9351 3209 Dept of Anatomy & Histology fax: (61-2) 9351 28138 The University of Sydney, 2006 AUSTRALIA email: crisdos@anatomy.su.oz.au www address: http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/ASB/