New York Academy of Sciences eNews

To: Academy Members
Date: February 17, 2006
From: Ellis Rubinstein, President

Physics at last! I write these words because many of you have fretted that we are inexorably transforming ourselves into a life sciences academy. This concern arises largely from our most visible success — the blossoming of Discussion Groups with titles like Neurodegenerative Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Genomic Medicine, Chemical Biology and Systems Biology.

Truth is that the excitement of many of our new groups is precisely proportional to the mingling of disciplines engaged in them. Physicists, physical chemists, engineers and mathematicians are deeply involved in many of the groups, bringing their special and crucial knowledge to the life science community.

But just because we can prove to doubters that the physical science community remains embedded in Academy activities doesn't mean that I haven't wanted to broaden our pallet to include more "purely" physical science initiatives. And now we can and will, thanks to the arrival of a brand new program manager, Dr. Karin Ezbiansky Pavese.

Karin's background is so varied — despite her youth — that she is a veritable poster child for the Academy's commitment to bridging not only disciplines but sectors of society. After receiving her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, she joined the General Electric Company, where she graduated from its Technical Leadership Program and assumed a Six Sigma Black Belt role leading research projects in the area of nano-particle filled coatings for the optical media product lines.

Measured by her impressive list of research publications and several patent filings, Karin was having a successful life as a scientist. But suddenly, like the Academy's polymath founder, Samuel Mitchell, Karin was bitten by the bug of politics. Just as Mitchell took time out from science to become a senator from the State of New York, Karin left GE to experience a year as an AAAS Congressional Fellow sponsored by the Optical Society of America and the Materials Research Society. Selected by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, she played a key role in developing a landmark piece of legislation addressing American competitiveness and innovation in science and technology.

Now, your Academy has snagged Karin to be the sparkplug for cutting-edge endeavors in the physical sciences, math and engineering. The NYAS may have been founded by a bunch of docs, but it has been a leader in the physical sciences since as early as the mid-1830s, when Academy members played the leading role in convincing the New York Legislature to fund a geological survey of the state. That survey, which established the basic principles of stratigraphic geology, is still considered one of the most significant achievements of nineteenth-century American science.

Through the latter half of the 1800s, the Academy's Section of Astronomy, Physics, and Chemistry was particularly strong. The legendary James McKeen Cattell, an Academy member who purchased the journal Science when it was struggling, invigorated both Science and the Academy by promising the giants of the time — the extraordinary Columbia University engineer Michael Pupin, for example, and Nicola Tesla — that they would be published in Science if only they would give a talk at our Academy.

From Thomas Edison to Albert Einstein to Linus Pauling, the greats lectured and published in physics and chemistry within the Academy. Today, they still come: Brian Greene when he kicked off his NOVA television series on string theory and Amory B. Lovins on hydrogen cars, for example. And I'm thrilled to tell you that the Board of Governors has nominated Brian and Harvard physics Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek for seats as Academy Governors. You'll be able to vote for them this summer.

But Karin doesn't feel that these successes are sufficient to declare victory in our quest to reinvigorate the physical sciences in the Academy. She is in the midst of a series of conversations with provosts, deans and leading physical scientists in industry to identify needs that are not being fulfilled by our vibrant sister societies in those disciplines. If you have thoughts for unique conferences or Discussion Groups, don't hesitate to send them to Karin at kpavese@nyas.org or to me. As you know, I'm one association president who reads his e-mail.

In other news...

eBriefing on Shanghai Meeting
Here comes a landmark you won't want to miss! To share the advances that Chinese scientists have made in the biomedical sciences and to facilitate increased collaboration and partnerships among scientists from China, the U.S., Europe, and other parts of Asia, the Academy joined forces with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Institutes of Biomedical Sciences to host a groundbreaking conference late last year. A comprehensive online eBriefing of that "Frontiers of Biomedical Science" conference, which brought together more than 100 scientists in Shanghai, is now available on the Academy website. The eBriefing features a summary of the event, reports on many of the talks, multimedia presentations including a selection of slide shows and audio, extensive resources related to the topics covered, and biographical information about the participants in the event. And this is just the beginning. In the months to come, you will see an increasing interchange between the leading scientists in cities across the globe and others right here in New York.

Pathway Analysis; Biological Circuits
Pathway Analysis is an effort to take a broader view of cellular function and a systems response to stimulation and pathway modulation. This emerging area under the systems biology umbrella will be the subject of a mini-symposium, "Disease Target Validation and Compound Evaluation Using Pathway Analysis Approaches," set for February 28. Sponsored by the Biochemical Pharmacology Discussion Group, the meeting will feature speakers Yan Feng, Novartis; Paul Young, Avalon Pharmaceuticals; Peter Krutzik, Stanford University; and Ellen Berg, BioSeek. Reservations are required for this meeting, which is cosponsored with the NY section of the American Chemical Society. You should also reserve now for a March 9 meeting of the Systems Biology Discussion Group, which will take a look at "Reverse Engineering Biological Circuits." Among the speakers are Gustavo Stolovitzky, IBM, and Andreas Califano, Columbia University, who are spearheading a new systems biology-related initiative called the DREAM (Database for Reverse Engineering Analysis and Methods) Project.

Re: NYC Electricity
In recognition of National Engineers Week, February 19-25, the Academy's Environmental Sciences Section is joining forces with the Metropolitan Engineering Societies Council and the New York Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers to sponsor a special meeting, "Energy System Research and Innovation: New York City Electricity — Past, Present, Future." Set for Tuesday, February 21, a series of lectures will take a look at such topics as trends in engineering urban and energy infrastructures and how today's projects can provide models for sustainable, reliable energy tomorrow. Moderator for the meeting is Richard Koral, New York City College of Technology. Space is limited, so reservations are suggested.