The American Society of Pharmacognosy
Discovering nature's molecular potential

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Support the ASP Foundation

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Dear ASP Members:


As most of you know, the American Society of Pharmacognosy Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Pharmacognosy; it was formed as an independent entity that would develop and fund various awards and grants for ASP members and their students. While the Foundation manages the financing and administration of the awards, the evaluation of nominations and applications and the selections of awardees is conducted independent of the Foundation by several committees
within the ASP itself. This arrangement eliminates any bias or influence, or the appearance thereof, in the selection process.

An extraordinarily generous bequest from Professor Audrey S Bingel provided sufficient funds to endow the Norman R Farnsworth Research Achievement Award fully and to permit the foundation to establish
a special fellowship for female scientists. The recent announcement of the Audrey S Bingel Fellowship for Female Scientists immediately stimulated two applications, with more expected before the upcoming deadline for the first funding cycle.

This year, we are highlighting the John Daly Field Work Research Grant fund. This fund was started some time ago by ASP members Richard Fitch and Kirk Manfredi to honor John Daly, a Farnsworth Research
Award winner and renowned pharmacologist famous for his discoveries of numerous neurotoxic alkaloids from the skin of brightly colored tropical frogs. The fund has not gained much traction, perhaps because it has been listed simply as the Daly Fund on our contribution sheet. We wanted to call
attention to this fund, because it represents efforts by the Foundation Board to find new mechanisms to aid our members in obtaining adequate funding for field research.

We are writing to ask for your support of the ASP Foundation and its extensive grants and awards program. Despite our financial growth over the past decade and the Foundation growing closer to
reaching a level of holdings sufficient to fund all our awards solely from the interest and dividends earned on the funds in hand, circumstances do warrant our appeal for funds this year. The steadfast commitment of the ASP leadership to our younger members is exemplified by a growing portfolio of awards, having already pushed our annual funding outlay to $70,000-75,000 per year.

The 2020 annual meeting of the ASP will be the largest in the history of the society, a joint effort by the ASP and six scientific societies from Europe and Asia. San Francisco is the venue, an awesome city and area to visit, but one that comes with a higher cost than our last several meetings. This means that the ASP has to have more cash reserves than customary to cover the upfront expenses associated with the meeting site and the sites for special events. That financial pressure led the ASP treasurer to withhold the usual annual contribution of the society to the foundation. In turn, this puts pressure on our traditional increase in the number and size of travel awards for students, postdocs, and young members early in their careers.

Our first step in dealing with this financial squeeze was to look at two travel grant accounts that have never reached anything near a corpus sufficient to sustain the awards continuously. After consulting with individuals known to have made contributions to those funds, the ASPF Board of Directors has
decided to use the funds accrued to date to fund travel awards to the 2020 international meeting. These will be the Ken Rinehart and Bill Pelletier Travel Awards. We are still looking into whether we can raise the level of the travel awards for this meeting to help students offset the higher than normal costs without incurring tax burdens.

So, we ask that you please consider a tax-deductible contribution to the ASP Foundation. Gifts can be made through the ASP website, or the old fashioned way, by mailing a check to the ASP Foundation treasurer, Robert Krueger. All contributions, large to small, are welcome and will be greatly appreciated. We have an impressive list on reliable contributors to the Foundation, but it is small, compared to the overall membership. The ASPF Board would like to have as many members as possible take ‘ownership’ of the foundation and the ASP’s awards and grants effort.

A full list of our awards/grants and their descriptions is available on the ASP website, and a summary list accompanies this letter to aid you in directing contributions. If your employer matches such donations, please let us and them know!

Thank you for your support of the ASP, its Foundation and its activities.

Sincerely,
John H Cardellina II Robert Krueger
Chair, ASP Foundation Treasurer, ASP Foundation

ASP Ambassadors Program

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Opportunity to be a part of the Inaugural ASP Ambassadors Program The American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) is seeking interested individuals to become a part of our inaugural team of ASP ambassadors. The ASP ambassadors are dynamic leaders who work with their peers to promote networking and collaboration, make connections between ASP and local universities, address the needs of young scientists by utilizing ASP resources, and instill a passion for natural products in the next generation. Details about the program and a link to the simple web-based application form are included below. Applications are due May 15th. Individuals selected for this program will be invited to attend a luncheon at the American Society of Pharmacognosy meeting in Madison, Wisconsin where we will officially launch the program (http://aspmeetings.pharmacognosy.us/).

Ambassadors selected for this program will receive free registration for the ASP meeting. Questions? Please reach out to Laura Sanchez (sanchelm@uic.edu), Brian Murphy (btmurphy@uic.edu) or Nadja Cech (nadja_cech@uncg.edu). We are a trio of members from the ASP Diversity Committee who are committed to success of this new initiative.

Responsibilities of Ambassadors:

▪ Targeted recruiting of the ASP to undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students that hail from underrepresented backgrounds

▪ Develop and maintain relationships with local institutions and organizations that serve URM (under-represented minority) populations (examples include PUIs, HBU, institutions with official minority serving institutions designations, etc)

▪ Identify and assist ASP Committee for Diversity and Inclusion in responding to the needs of the local scientific community to continue to develop and refine initiatives that enhance the diversity within the ASP.

▪ Strengthen ASP’s network of young members

Ambassadors are appointed to an initial 3-year term.

Benefits of being an Ambassador:

▪ Opportunity to serve as a leader in ASP’s mission to advance all areas of pharmacognosy research worldwide

▪ Opportunity to build networks with communities of scientists not traditionally incorporated in ASP events and activities

▪ Hands on training at the annual meeting to hone scientific communication skills

▪ Free registration at annual ASP meetings and reimbursement of travel expenses to attend conferences as ambassador.

Eligibility Requirements for Ambassadors (Full Members):

▪ Have current ASP membership

▪ Completed a PhD, or equivalent terminal degree in a pharmacognosy-related field OR a graduate degree and multiple years of post-academic experience

▪ Track record of publication in pharmacognosy

▪ English (advanced) proficiency

▪ Able to promote the ASP at one local and one national events per year (expenses paid by the ASP)

Eligibility Requirements for Young Ambassadors (Associate Members):

▪ Have current ASP membership

▪ English (intermediate – advanced) proficiency

▪ Able to promote the ASP at one local and one national event per year (expenses paid by the ASP)

Application Process for Ambassadors:

▪ Applications should be submitted to ASP Diversity and Inclusion Committee via this form: https://goo.gl/forms/98P2q4DSnoP9vK3X2

Applications must include:

▪ Curriculum Vitae (PDF, 10 MB max)

▪ Years of ASP membership

▪ Area of interest within pharmacognosy

▪ List all non-ASP meetings regularly attended (Full members only)

▪ List of agencies/ministries, organizations, universities, etc., where applicant has strong contacts (Full members only)

▪ Explain interest in position, relevant skills and experience (600 characters including spaces)

▪ Description of previous ASP activities related to student recruitment or retention (600 characters including spaces)

▪ Description of leadership roles in local scientific community (600 characters including spaces)

▪ Action plan with their proposed activities for recruitment, retention, and scientific communication activities in their Ambassador role (1200 characters including spaces)