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BIOTECHNOLOGY SECRETARIAT STEERING COMMITTEE

Columbian Room

Hyatt Regency Chicago

Sunday, March 25, 2007

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM 

The meeting was opened by Secretary-General, John Finley at 8:05 AM with self-introductions by those present.  The minutes were approved with no discussion. The Treasurer’s Report was also approved. 

The symposia planned for Boston were discussed.  The main theme for Boston, Fall 2007, is Biotechnology for Health and Wellness with sub-topics in Materials Innovations: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Beyond, Nutritional Genomics and Chemistry of Systems Biology. Les McGuire is leading the topic of Systems Biology on behalf of BTEC.  The sessions will include 4 ANAL symposia, 2 CARB symposia, 3 BIOL symposia, 1 COMP symposium, 2 Chemical Toxicology symposia and 1 BIOT symposium. BTEC will also be contributing to Nutritional Genomics with symposia on Genomics of Obesity and Plant Genomics organized by John Finley. Kathryn Uhrich reported that POLY/PMSE has some topics to add to the various subtopics including Polymer Design for Food and Nutrition, Polymers from Renewable Resources, Scaffolds and Matrices for Tissue Engineering, Beyond Biocompatibility, and Polypeptide and Protein Materials.  

John also reported that COMSCI will be holding a brown bag luncheon in Boston which will feature a debate between two ethicists on genetics testing, “Do You Really Want to Know?”.  The debate will also be the subject of a webcast.  

Sharon Shoemaker expressed concern how BTEC was programming symposia for Boston without the approval of the member Divisions. John explained that due to the forces that seemed to be trying to eliminate Secretariats, he pushed hard for a leading role for BTEC programming in Boston.   

Guenter Grethe reported that ACS is funding thematic programming through DAC in a central location at the National Meetings. DAC wants to get out of the lead role in thematic programming.  Themes have been defined for New Orleans (Energy and Environment) and Philadelphia (Pharmaceuticals).  DAC would like to turn it over to a stand alone national program committee to facilitate this effort. They hope to transfer the work to this group with a defined structure by the end of the year. It is hoped that the process will continue to evolve such that each Division would send a designated individual to attend a Long Range Planning Activity with the national program committee at each P2C2. At this time, P2C2 is only for coordination of immediate programming with Program Chairs from each Division. 

After much discussion, it was agreed that BTEC’s new role would be to lead an effort in programming one of the meeting theme’s subtopics and organize symposia in support of one or more of the other subtopics. 

Sharon Shoemaker volunteered to chair an effort for BTEC Programming for New Orleans. . Sharon will enlist the aid of Gillian Eggleston (CARB) in this effort. The subtopics for the main theme of Energy and Environment include Clean Fuels, Renewable Fuels, Green Chemistry, and Remediation and Recovery. Sharon will solicit member Divisions for participation and support via a letter sent out by BTEC Secretary-Treasurer Lisa Nash. It was noted that AICHE will also be programming in New Orleans at the same time. Members of both organizations can attend each other’s programs. It was suggested that Kelvin Lee (AICHE) and Mike Morelo (ACS) might be called upon to co-organize a symposium for BTEC. 

Philadelphia programming was also discussed.  The main theme of Pharmaceuticals will include subthemes in Drug Discovery, Clinical Imaging, Biodetection and Biodefense. Fred Heineken (BIOT) will identify a representative to build an effort for BTEC in Philadelphia.  Bob Glass, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was suggested as a facilitator for Biodetection.  Sharon Shoemaker will contact him to see if he is interested.  

All the information on National Meeting themes and subthemes was communicated by Kathryn Uhrich.  As POLY Program Chair, she and all Division Program Chairs receive this information from the ACS. A motion was made and passed to create an equivalent position within BTEC to provide communication between the ACS and BTEC and coordination within BTEC for future programming efforts. Guenter Grethe and Kathryn Uhrich were nominated and elected unamimously as Program Co-Chairs. 

Webmaster Andy Berks was not in attendance and did not provide a report.  Last time, he was tasked with putting the theme information on the site, adding a counter and putting links to all divisions that are programming around this theme and link to their homepage. Guenter Grethe and John Finley will follow up with Andy for a status report. 

Lisa Nash will draft a letter to all member Divisions for approval of and participation in upcoming programming topics and to request dues for 2007. A second letter will be drafted to all non-member Divisions with a list of benefits of joining BTEC (minimizing conflicting programming and scheduling, additional parallel sessions, headcount money for attendance at sessions and co-listing of programs), future planned programming to gain new members and the present number of division active in program planning activities.  Each letter will be sent in triplicate to the Division Chair, Program Chair and the Treasurer. 
 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:53 AM. 

Attending:

Anna Wilson (CHED),

John Finley (AGFD),

Fred Heineken (BIOT),

Lisa Nash (PETR)

Buddy Ratner (POLY)

Sharon Shoemaker (BIOT)

Guenter Grethe (CINF)

Kathryn Uhrich (POLY)