In this issue:

Message to Members: A Year of Advancing the Global Scientific Enterprise

News to Note: Science Diplomacy, Forum in China, Partnership with Vietnam, Cruise Missile Proliferation, Climate Change Rescue Plan, Science Journalism Award Winners, ScienceInsider Blog, GE-Science Prize Winner

Advancing Science, Serving Society: S&T and Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Science Careers: Career Basics Booklet New Edition and Careers Events

Announcements: 2009 Annual Meeting Membership Offer, Science and Human Rights Coalition Launch, AAAS President’s Circle, Darwin 2009 Festival, Summer Internships

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Message to Members

A Year of Advancing the Global Scientific Enterprise

Dear AAAS Member,

As 2008 draws to a close, our past year of innovative programs serves as a springboard to a new year of initiatives to meet expanding global challenges.

The new AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy was established to enhance collaboration between the scientific and foreign policy communities in working to advance global science and international relations. We launched the AAAS-Chinese Academy of Sciences Distinguished Lectureship series, initially addressing sustainability. In a rare meeting with the Chinese premier in Beijing, AAAS officials marked the 30th anniversary of our first delegation to China. In Shanghai, we addressed conferences on both science diplomacy and science education. During a high-level meeting in Vietnam, AAAS signed a joint agreement with S&T leaders to develop new research and education initiatives. We traveled to the UK and Ireland to strengthen cross-Atlantic efforts on climate and energy. Science for All Japanese, a translation of our Science for All Americans, shared our education concepts for science literacy. AAAS international initiatives also included collaborating with Rwanda to provide science education curriculum materials as the country expands its S&T capabilities.

Sound science policy is essential to advancing the global economy and promoting worldwide innovation. Early in the year, we launched our US Election 2008 website to examine and track the candidates’ positions on S&T issues. Our annual Leadership Forum in S&T Policy brought together diplomatic, educational, governmental, and private sector officials to address the global financial crisis and the impact of the US election. Throughout the year, we tracked the federal budget and R&D funding, adding the new AAAS Policy Alert, which is distributed weekly to all AAAS members.

The underpinning of advancing science is, of course, science education that instills interest both for those likely to pursue science careers and for the broader citizenry. AAAS develops materials for students, teachers, and school boards; sponsors programs for underrepresented minorities and students with disabilities; and keeps educators at the forefront of fast-changing scientific fields. Recently, we co-hosted a major conference on undergraduate biology education. AAAS relaunched Science Careers, adding enhanced features to our comprehensive online resource for career development and job search, and we redoubled our Outreach Program efforts with additional career fairs, seminars, and workshops. To advance public education and the dialogue on S&T, we introduced a new website, Communicating Science: Tools for Scientists and Engineers.

Science welcomed Bruce Alberts as the 18th Editor-in-Chief since the journal’s founding in 1880. Science’s STKE became Science Signaling and now includes primary peer-reviewed research.

We applaud the four AAAS members who received 2008 Nobel Prizes in the areas of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, and Chemistry. We also applaud our entire membership of innovators who, each year, joins us in advancing science to serve society.

I wish a very pleasant holiday season to one and all.


Sincerely,


Alan I. Leshner, CEO, AAAS


P.S. Read about Science’s 2008 Breakthrough of the Year in the 19 December issue.

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News to Note

Interest in Science Diplomacy Gains Momentum
The consensus of a recent conference of top science leaders, diplomats, legislators, and educators at AAAS was clear: at a time of world financial crisis and geopolitical tension, the time is ripe for renewed efforts by US scientists and engineers to initiate capacity-building collaborations. Issues such as climate change, public health, and energy must be pursued despite unresolved questions about the financing and organization of science diplomacy. The experts also noted that even where US governmental policies may be unpopular, there is persistent respect for the nation’s S&T expertise, citing a delegation that traveled to Iran and reported positive meetings. Read more about the panel discussions and access details about the new AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy.

AAAS Leader in Global Cooperation Addresses Forum in China
"Diplomacy for science and science for diplomacy" was the focus of Norman P. Neureiter’s keynote address to the Shanghai Association of Science and Technology’s two-day international forum. Neureiter, the director of the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy, stated that AAAS strongly believes in "promoting international cooperation in science -- to solve common problems that affect all the world’s people...and as a basis for communication among nations where political relationships may be poor or even hostile." Read more about AAAS-China initiatives and access the full text of the address.

US Diplomat Advises Focus on Science
During an October discussion at AAAS, former US Ambassador Thomas Pickering stated that a shared interest in science and widespread respect for US S&T could help ease strained relations with Iran, Russia, and China. Pickering, who served in six countries, was joined by foreign affairs journalist and analyst Arnaud de Borchgrave, who spent 30 years with Newsweek. The two speakers talked about issues such as climate change, health, and water providing common ground in a world strained by geopolitical conflicts and stressed by the threat of nuclear proliferation. Read more.

New AAAS-Vietnam Partnership in Research, Education
A top-level symposium held this fall was AAAS’s first joint effort with Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology after signing an agreement earlier this year. AAAS will work with the country’s S&T leaders in guiding new research and education initiatives, including Vietnam’s first investigator-driven peer-reviewed funding agency. The AAAS-organized regional symposium was held under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. AAAS officials also met with top scientists and education ministers in Hanoi. Read more and access AAAS’s history of cooperative efforts with Vietnam.

Experts Express Concern about Cruise Missile Proliferation
A leading missile specialist told a November news briefing co-sponsored by AAAS that, while US and allied military planners continue to focus on the potential threat of ballistic missiles, land attack cruise missile programs are a growing threat. Countries such as China, Pakistan, and Iran are developing this complement to ballistic missiles, assuming even the best missile defenses are less capable of stopping the infiltration of the low-flying, maneuverable cruise missiles. Read more about factors influencing the proliferation, the possible use by terrorists, and a call to include cruise missiles in nonproliferation policies.

Ecologist Offers Climate Change Rescue Plan
In November, Thomas E. Lovejoy, a prominent ecologist and expert in biodiversity, delivered the inaugural AAAS-Hitachi Lecture on Science and Society. Titled "The Living Planet to the Rescue," the lecture addressed the daunting challenge societies face in reversing the impact of human-induced climate change and ways to work with the world’s natural systems to avert disaster. Read how aggressively restoring forests and grazing lands could move tons of atmospheric carbon back into the ecosystem, using the natural restorative process to help combat climate change.

Global Challenges Seminars Address Malaria and WMDs
The last of four Science and Society: Global Challenges seminars, sponsored by AAAS, Georgetown University, and the Smithsonian Institution, focused on world security and international health.
Containing the Spread of WMDs
In a wide-ranging discussion at AAAS, two influential nuclear weapons experts agreed that the most important way to check nuclear terrorism is to control the production and storage of fissile materials -- plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- from the outset. The experts noted that nine nations now have nuclear weapons or a presumed weapons capability, increasing the threat that rogue states such as North Korea might engage in illicit trafficking on the black market to terror groups. Read more, including strategies to reduce existing arsenals of warheads.
Solving the Malaria Epidemic
Although malaria is preventable, treatable, and curable, the mosquito-borne disease threatens millions in developing countries due to treatment challenges and geopolitical struggles, according to two researchers at the AAAS seminar. As many as 500 million cases occur each year, killing more than a million people, with transmission highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Read about strategies for the short term and a long-term initiative to eradicate malaria, using five approaches.

2008 AAAS Science Journalism Award Winners Announced
Memory and the brain, the search for life beyond earth, and a contentious battle over intelligent design in the science classroom were among the winners of this year’s prestigious Science Journalism Awards. The awards seek to advance science literacy throughout society by honoring excellence in the reporting of complex science concepts with thoughtful and understandable explanations. Winners in newspaper, magazine, television, radio, online, and children’s science news categories will be recognized during the 2009 Annual Meeting. Read about the winning entries.

New Policy Blog Launched, ScienceInsider
ScienceInsider, the new policy blog from the journal Science, is your source for breaking news and instant analysis from the nexus of politics and science. Produced by an international team of science journalists, ScienceInsider offers hard-hitting coverage on a range of issues including climate change, bioterrorism, research funding and more. Before research happens at the bench, science policy is formulated in the halls of government. Make sure you understand how current events are impacting your work. Read ScienceInsider today.

AAAS Arctic Division Meeting Cites "Food Insecurity"
Record rainfall and flooding have made fishing more difficult -- but, in any case, gasoline has become so expensive that the people on the upper Yukon River cannot afford to run their boats. To researchers at the 59^th Annual Meeting of the AAAS Arctic Division, held in Fairbanks, Alaska, these signs suggest that climate change and global competition for fossil fuel supplies could undermine cultures that have been using the "old ways" to survive for thousands of years. Read more about the complex interaction that has created food-shortage risks, discussed during "Growing Sustainability Science in the North."

DNA Transfer Researcher Wins GE & Science Prize
Molecular biologist Ethan Clark Garner, a regional winner from North America, has been named the Grand Prize winner of the international GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists. Garner received the award for his research of DNA segregation, assembly, and regulation of bacterial actin-like proteins and cytoskeleton at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11 December. His essay was published in the 5 December issue of Science. Read more about the grand prize winner and four regional award winners.

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Advancing Science, Serving Society

AAAS Education and Human Resources: S&T and HBCUs
Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, AAAS organized the NSF’s 2008 Historic Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program Research Conference, following the format of a full-scale scientific meeting. The four-day event, held in Atlanta, Georgia, attracted more than 800 participants for some 200 talks and 275 poster presentations covering virtually every major field of S&T. The conference stressed that HBCU graduates are a critical source for science talent, urging support even in tough economic times. In fact, in 2004, 49 percent of bachelor’s degrees in physics and 39 percent in chemistry awarded to African Americans were earned by HBCU graduates. Read more about the early-career researchers who won awards in the poster competition and access information about the NSF program.

AAAS’s Education and Human Resources programs help advance science education through initiatives that focus on school curriculums, resources for educators, scientific career advancement, and work force training. Find out more about initiatives including public interest, families and communities, and Project 2061 -- the long-term AAAS program to advance literacy in science, mathematics, and technology.

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Science Careers

AAAS’s online career job and advice site, Science Science Careers has a new look and new features that make it easier to advance your career, whether you’re seeking a new job, advice on career advancement in your chosen field, or ways to stay current on industry trends. Some of the features you’ll find on the newly redesigned site include:

- Enhanced job searching
- Relevant job e-mail alerts
- Improved resume/CV uploading
- Search by geography
- Multimedia section

Visit ScienceCareers.org today. Your future awaits.

New Edition: Science Careers’ Career Basics Booklet
As part of the Science Careers Outreach Program for early career scientists, we have collected a series of articles addressing a broad range of career development issues. The 80-page booklet has the information you need to put your career on the right track: articles and resource lists providing guidance on choosing a career path, marketing yourself, honing skills needed in different career paths, and diversity issues.

Approximately 25,000 print copies of the first version of the Career Basics booklet, printed in 2007, have been distributed and many more people have accessed it online. The new booklet is available at www.sciencecareers.org/careerbasicspdf. For details on upcoming Outreach Program events, go to www.sciencecareers.org/outreach.

Industry Careers in Europe: Cambridge, Massachusetts
During this year’s annual European Career Fair, Science Careers will hold a panel discussion on industry careers in Europe. Learn everything you need to know to get started on your international industry career track.
Sunday, January 25, 2-4 p.m.
MIT European Career Fair
Cambridge, Massachusetts
www.sciencecareers.org/outreach

How to Publish in Science: Chicago, Illinois
An editor from the journal Science will discuss the submission, review, approval, and publication process for the journal. The presentation will cover what editors look for in strong submissions and what reviewers are asked to consider when reading manuscripts. The editor will walk through the steps of submitting a paper through the review process and finally to publication, as well as explain what types of papers are suitable for publication in Science as opposed to a specialty journal. After the presentation, audience members have the opportunity to ask questions.
Saturday, February 14, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
AAAS Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
www.sciencecareers.org/outreach

Science Careers Project Wins Army ’Salute’
A US Army Freedom Team Salute Commendation has been awarded to Alan Kotok, managing editor of Science Careers. The project explored the challenges and opportunities awaiting an estimated 100,000 or more veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have enrolled in science and engineering programs or joined the work force in these fields. Read more.

New from Science Careers: Employer Profiles
Use multimedia tools to research employers before you apply. Our new Employer Profiles offer videos, photo galleries, and more. Get started researching employers.

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Announcements

Give the Gift of Science at Special Holiday Rates
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Attend the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Launch
On 14-16 January, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program will launch the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition at AAAS headquarters in Washington, D.C. A network of scientific associations, professional societies, and science academies that recognizes a role for science and scientists in the realization of human rights, the aim of the coalition is to facilitate communication and partnerships on human rights within and across scientific communities, and between these and the human rights community. The launch will open with addresses by AAAS CEO Alan Leshner; Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland; and Sidney Verba, Chair of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences and Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Government at Harvard University. The following day and a half program includes presentations, workshops, and planning meetings to prepare the coalition to contribute to the growing efforts to make human rights a reality for all. View the launch agenda and register to attend.

Join the AAAS President’s Circle
The coming years represent a unique opportunity for science and the nation. To stay at the forefront of these opportunities, AAAS needs increased individual support. With philanthropic contributions totaling $500 or more, you will be recognized as part of the newly launched AAAS President’s Circle and will join a select group that receives periodic briefings on key issues. Please visit us online, or call +1 (202) 326-6636 for more information.

Register Now for the Darwin 2009 Festival
Science and AAAS are proud to be a major sponsor of the Darwin 2009 Festival taking place in Cambridge, UK, 5-9 July. The festival celebrates both the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. The week-long event will engage everyone from scientists to schoolchildren, with talks from Sir David Attenborough, Ian McEwan, Richard Dawkins, A.S. Byatt, Lord Martin Rees, Lord Robert May, and Nobel laureates Sir John Sulston, Sir Paul Nurse, and Harold Varmus, plus many more. Early registration is recommended for this popular festival. Go to http://www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk/ for more information and to register.

Apply to Be a Summer Science Reporter at a Major US Media Outlet
The AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship seeks to increase communication skills in student scientists. The fellowship places senior undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate science and engineering students at media sites nationwide to work as science reporters for 10 weeks. Past sites have included the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and National Public Radio. AAAS selects 15 to 20 Fellows each summer who receive a $4,500 stipend plus travel expenses. Check here for an application and more information. Deadline: 15 January 2009.

Apply for a Minority Science Writers Internship with Science
Science is a global activity, but the demographics of the journalists who cover it do not reflect that diversity. The AAAS Minority Science Writers Internship is for students who are interested in journalism as a career and who want to learn about science writing. Interns spend 10 weeks at Science, the world’s largest interdisciplinary journal, under the guidance of award-winning reporters and editors. The paid internship includes travel to and from the internship site in Washington, D.C. Go to http://www.aaas.org/mswi for an application and information. Deadline: 1 March 2009.

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About AAAS

AAAS News & Notes appears in Science in the last issue of each month.
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Consider a Year-End Gift to Advance Science and Serve Society
During 2008, AAAS launched new initiatives that address critical issues in science and technology, in addition to our hallmark programs. To sustain this ambitious agenda, please consider AAAS as you assess your end-of-year giving, as it is through member contributions that we are able to promote science in all its forms. For more information, go to http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/giving/types/designate.shtml or contact the AAAS Development Office at +1 (202) 326-6636.