Newsletter #7. AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR BIOPHYSICS WELCOME to the seventh 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) The venue for the 1997 ABS Annual Meeting (2) Report on the IUPAB Congress (3) Report from FASTS ------------------------------------------------------- (1) In the ASB Newsletter #6 I conducted a snap poll: Where to hold the next ASB meeting? Adelaide or Melbourne. There was a clear majority in favour of Melbourne. It will probably be held at The University of Melbourne, Parkville. We are negotiating with Ray Norton and Paul Pallaghy on this matter. ------------------------------------------------------- (2) Report on the IUPAB Congress The XIIth International Biophysics Congress was held i Amsterdam on August 11-16. There was a good contingent of ASB members there including a symposium talk by Carolyn Mountford. Other contributions were made by: A. Coster, H. Coster and C. dos Remedios, T. Mahaworasilpa, R. Norton. (Apologies to those whose names I missed). Issues arising from the Congress: (1) the new President is David Parry from New Zealand. He convincingly won a two-man race and will oversee the IUPAB activities for the next three years. Two new Vice-Presdients were elected: I Pecht (Israel), and I C P Smith (Canada). The new 11 member Council is: C R Cantor (USA), M Cortijo (Spain), C G dos Remedios (Australia), J Garnier (France), J R Grigera (Argentina), N Go (Japan), A Graslund (Sweden), D-C Liang (PR China), F G Parak (Germany), D Pietrobon (Italy), A B Rubin (Russia), and M Vijayan (India) Tony North remains as the Secretary General. The next Congress will be in New Delhi, India in 1999 and, in a surprising upset, the Congress in 2002 will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina convincingly beat the bid from the USA for this Congress venue. The IUPAB web site is located at: http://iupab.leeds.ac.uk/iupab ------------------------------------------------------- (3) Media release from FASTS: University cuts affect science FASTS: "All the wrong signals" Moves to cut science university funding by millions of dollars will jeopardise Australia's future as an innovative and technologically advanced nation. "The impacts will be felt a decade from now, "said Dr Joe Baker, President of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS). Science is being hit by a double whammy. HEC fees for undergraduate courses will nearly double, from $2442 to $4700; and long-delayed salary increases for university staff are being denied yet again. "This is sending all the wrong signals to students contemplating a career through university training," Dr Baker said. "Australia is trying to built a future as a 21st century leader in the Asia-Pacific region - a place where Asian nations can find solutions to their pressing problems. This particularly relates to natural resources, to the production of clean green food, and its value-added products." "What's the logic in making science a less attractive career to our best and brightest students?" The Minister has justified big increases on the courses that attract high remuneration for graduates. This is not true of science. Too many young research scientists face underpaid, uncertain careers on short term funding. "Australia is not being fair to its young scientists and technologists. We already expect these people to go through a rigorous and lengthy training process, and then reward them with poor salaries and a precarious career structure," Dr Baker said. "Young scientists spend six to ten years completing undergraduate and post-graduate degrees and gaining on the job experience, and then face the prospect of having to live on short-term grants. Higher HEC fees will just add to the burden." Dr Baker applauded moves by the Government to meet their pre-election commitments in boosting funding for university infrastructure, for post-graduate scholarships, and for collaborative research. ------------------------------------------------------- If you have newsworthy items please send them to me at "crisdos@anatomy.su.oz.au" Cris dos Remedios President Australian Society for Biophysics