VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2 SPRING 1997
NEWSLETTER
AChemS Association for Chemoreception Sciences
fostering chemical senses research and understanding smell and taste in health and disease

• Letter from the Executive Chair, Mike Meredith
• Letter from the Executive Chair to NIDCD and Dr. Snow¹s reply
• Minutes of the Business Meeting of the Executive Committee, Nov. 17, 1996, including the Budget for AChemS¹ 1996-1997 and ISOT, 1997
• Items of Note
• Election Ballots for 1997 and Descriptions of Candidates
• Letter from Claire Murphy, ISOT Organizer, describing ISOT XII/AChemS XIX
• The Program for ISOT XII/AChemS XIX
• ISOT Special Event Reservation Form
• NIH Workshops at ISOT
• Call for Sessions for the 20th Anniversary of AChemS, 1998
• Message from the Public Affairs and Information Committee
• Positions Open

 
Deadlines/Events in 1997:

• June 6: Last date to reserve rooms at the Hotel Del with meeting discount
• June 20: Election Ballots must arrive at Panacea
• June 20: ISOT Special Events Registration must arrive at Panacea
• July 7-12: ISOT XII/AChemS XIX

 
A Letter from Michael Meredith
AChemS Executive Chairperson
 
This has been an unusual year. April has come and almost gone with no annual meeting -but the wait will be worth while. Claire Murphy and Charles Greer, our ISOT-Chair and AChemS Program-Chair have crafted an extraordinary conference. Symposia on important themes with a stellar international representation are planned for each day, in addition to an outstanding selection of volunteer presentations in slide and poster sessions. Some comments on the organization and financing of the meeting are included below. A preview of the program and a message from Claire Murphy about special ISOT events are also included in this newsletter.

Another unusual event this year was an uncertainty about NIH funding for chemosensory research that triggered an inquiry to Dr. James Snow Jr., the Director of the NIDCD. My letter to Dr. Snow on behalf of AChemS, and his reply, are reproduced in this newsletter.

We are making some progress in our efforts to strengthen AChemS' ties to industry. A message from the Industry Relations Committee and some details of a discussion session on careers in industry are included below.

Two POLLS are included in this newsletter in addition to the ballot for election of new AChemS Officers. They allow members who will not be able to attend the business meeting in San Diego to express their opinions.

The first poll asks whether we should change the title of our Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from "Executive Chairperson" to "President", beginning in 1998. (See below for further details).

The second poll seeks opinions on continuing the current mandatory subscription to Chemical Senses, whose authori-zation by the membership runs out this year (see below).
 
 
ISOT XII / AChemS XIX
The upcoming ISOT meeting promises to be the largest ever and a significant contribution to the chemical-senses research effort worldwide. It has been made possible by the hard work of Claire Murphy and Charles Greer, the Program Committee, Executive Committee, the Symposium Organizers, the committees handling minority, clinical and student support (chaired by Diego Restrepo, April Mott and Marilyn Getchell), the public relations and industry relations committees (chaired by Bob O'Connell and Grant Dubois), Panacea Associates and individual members who contributed ideas and information; and, of course, the hundreds of volunteer-paper authors whose insight, innovation and energy power the whole enterprise.

The ISOT/AChemS program will be mailed to all pre-registrants before the meeting and will also be posted on the AChemS home page: <http://www.neuro.fsu.edu/achems> and on the ISOT homepage: <http://sonofsun.sdsu.edu/Psy/ISOT>.

Our main financial support for the ISOT meeting comes from the National Institutes of Health, especially NIDCD, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and NIA, the National Institute on Aging, but with significant additional support from National Institute of Dental Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Support is also promised from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

In addition to federal government support, numerous corporations and companies with interests in the chemical senses have also contributed. These include the AChemS Awards sponsors and industrial members listed in the directory, and other supporters whose generous donations will be individually acknowledged at the meeting and in the Program. We welcome additional support at any time! With the support already committed, including expected registration receipts, we will be able to pay most of the expenses for symposium participants from overseas, and for distinguished speakers contributing significant perspective from outside the chemical senses field who would not otherwise be able to participate. We still hope to provide some support for the many distinguished invited-symposium speakers who are domestic AChemS members and who made commitments to participate without promises of financial support. Additional donations or a record-breaking attendance may make this possible. In any event the executive committee, the conference organizers and all concerned are grateful to these members for their enthusiasm and support.
 
This, my second, will also be my last newsletter-letter as Executive Chair. It has been and is an honor to serve our Association and you the membership. This unusual year continues to be stimulating and busy, with plenty more to do before July. My efforts to make the AChemS Web pages ever more useful will continue even after that (with all the technical innovation and much of the labor contributed by the indispensable David Lowe). If you have any comments or questions about items in this letter, the newsletter or AChemS business in general, please contact me directly (see below) or through the AChemS general office. I look forward to seeing you in San Diego.
 
Mike Meredith
Florida State Univ., Neuroscience Program (Campus Drop 4075)
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4075
Tel: 850-644-3427 mmered@neuro.fsu.edu
 
 
ACHEMS LETTER TO NIDCD AND Dr. SNOW¹S REPLY
 
 
TO:
Dr. James B. Snow Jr., Director
National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders
6120 Executive Boulevard
Rockville MD 20892
 
FROM:
Michael Meredith, Ph.D.
Executive Chair, AChemS
744 Duparc Circle, Tallahassee, FL 32312-1409
 
February 2, 1997
 
Dear Dr. Snow:
 
I am writing to express the concern of the chemosensory research community about recent changes in RO1 funding at NIDCD, and to ask your help in dispelling rumors that are flying about as to its cause. The sudden change in payline from approximately the 20th percentile to approximately the 12th percentile has caught many scientists unprepared. Of course, we realize that nothing is certain until the Council speaks, but the relatively steady levels of funding throughout previous budget years provided some stability for research planning, whether the funding level were high or low. Now, in mid-year, an apparent policy shift away from basic and academic-clinical research has our community concerned that there is a change in NIDCD's commitment to these fields.
 
Chemical senses research is felt to be disproportionately vulnerable to adverse changes in payline (although I know of no objective evidence for this view). Nevertheless, a shift in funding could discourage research in chemical senses if it is seen as a decreased commitment to the field. I believe that AChemS members, and the chemosensory research community at large, would appreciate any information you could give on the economic and political necessities underlying the shift in policy and, most particularly, the prospects for the future. We would be happy to include any information you could give in the AChemS Spring Newsletter, which will be published and sent to all members in early Spring 1997.
 
As always we hope that you will be able to attend the AChemS meeting, which this year is in combination with ISOT in July, and, as always, we appreciate your support of chemical senses research.
 
Sincerely,
Michael Meredith
Executive Chair, AChemS
 
**********
Dr. SNOW¹S REPLY
 
TO:
Michael Meredith, Ph.D.
Executive Chair, AChemS
744 Duparc Circle, Tallahassee, FL 32312-1409
 
FROM:
James B. Snow, Jr., M.D.
Department of Health and Human Services
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Bethesda, MD 20892
 
February 21, 1997
 
Dear Dr. Meredith:
 
Thank you for your letter of February 7, 1997 regarding the change in the automatic payline from the 20th percentile at the October 1996 National Advisory Council to the percentile of 12.1 at the January 1997 Council.
This change resulted from the unusually large number of grants between the 0 and 20th percentile at the January Council (actually 42 compared to 32 in October 1996) and an 18% increase in the average direct cost of the grants over the average cost in October. The concurrence of these factors would have placed the automatic payline at the 8th percentile. To improve the automatic payline, I increased the downward reduction from the recommended amount from 10% to 15% for R01s and from 10% to 20% for program projects and center grants and reduced the Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups cooperative agreements by 20% which allowed us to reach an automatic payline of 12.1 percentile. Additionally, the Council recommended reducing R01s over $200,000 direct cost by an additional 5% to a total of 20%.
 
In FY 1997, $33.8 million is available for competing grants with which it is estimated that 174 new and competing grants will be awarded, compared to $30.8 million in FY 1996, with which 163 competing grants were awarded.
 
In calculating the amount available for each Council cycle, the commitments for carry-over grants, AIDS Research, Requests for Applications and small grants are subtracted. Approximately 33% of the remainder is reserved for
each of the three Council cycles. $9.7 million was available for the October 1996 Council and allowed an automatic payline at the 20th percentile, funding 32 grants, and another 9 were funded through designation by the Council as high program priority. $9.663 million was available for the January 1997 Council, and a like amount will be available for the May 1997 Council.
 
Does the concurrence of an unusually large number of grants within the 20th percentile and an 18% increase in their average cost represent a chance occurrence or a trend? The unusually large number of grants within the 20^th percentile means that, at this round, scientists whose applications are assigned to the NIDCD are competing more effectively with those whose applications are assigned to other institutes.
 

The AChemS Newsletter is published twice a year. Those interested in publishing in the Fall 1997 Newsletter should submit material by September 1, 1997 to: Dr. Sarah K. Pixley, Secretary of AChemS, Department of Cell Biology, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, PO Box 670521, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0521; Tel: (513) 558-6086; FAX (513) 558-4454; EMAIL sarah.pixley@uc.edu