President's Message

April 2013

I had a wonderful time at Schreiner last month, and hope you did not miss out on a great Annual Meeting! Members made almost 300 oral and poster presentations, 80% of them by students. Schreiner University staff and students showed us warm Hill Country hospitality and friendliness at the registration table and around campus.  And the food was excellent - did you see the science-related decorations on the buffet tables? If you were at the meeting Thursday night, you probably enjoyed one of the excellent workshops given by our own Romi Burks on scientists’ use of social media, Joe Beach with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on how to find your dream sciences job, and miniaturization of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy by Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of our vendors. Many of us enjoyed viewing Confluence, a new documentary about the Rio Grande. Some members contributed to the Art from the Republic of Science exhibit - a new event for the Annual Meeting, and one I hope will continue every year. Then came the banquet, always the highlight of Annual Meetings as top student researchers are recognized and rewarded with cash prizes. We honored our 2013 Distinguished Texas Scientist, Camille Parmesan of UT Austin, and our 2013 Outstanding Texas Educator, Kent Page of Carnahan Elementary School, Northside ISD, San Antonio. The banquet is also special because it’s the only time during our busy schedule that all participants are gathered together. Next year at Texas A&M in Galveston, the meeting will have a new format with talks beginning Friday afternoon and extending through Saturday, the awards banquet Saturday evening, and field trips on Sunday. Mark your calendars now: March 7-9, 2014!  So a successful meeting under our belts, and many months until we see each other again – what to do?

  • Get more active with your university’s TAS student chapter
  • Don’t have a TAS student chapter at your school? Start one!
  • Volunteer to serve on a TAS committee
  • Consider serving as a student director on the TAS Board of Directors in 2014
  • Submit a manuscript to the Texas Journal of Science
  • Finish up those experiments (or start them!), so you’ll be ready in November to submit your abstract for a talk at the 2014 meeting

Please feel free to contact me to find out how you can get more involved with Texas Academy of Science, or give me any comments or suggestions regarding your Academy.

Regards,

Cindy Hobson

President of the Academy

(512) 389-8195

cindy.hobson AT tpwd.state.tx.us

Website Design by Colony One