News

Nominations are now open for the 2017 Norman R Farnsworth ASP Research Achievement Award. This award is given annually by the American Society of Pharmacognosy, and consists of an honorarium of $5,000 and travel expenses to present the award lecture at the annual meeting of the Society in Portland, OR, July 29 – August 2, 2017. This is the premier award of the Society, and candidates must be members of the Society who have made outstanding contributions to research on natural products.

Nominations are due to Dr. David Kingston (dkingston@vt.edu) by February 15, 2016. Nominations must consist of a single pdf document comprising a nominating letter, a curriculum vitae of the candidate, and supporting letters from two or three individuals who are familiar with the candidate’s scientific accomplishments. Self-nominations are not accepted.

Nominations are invited for this award. Unsuccessful nominations remain active for two additional years, but can be updated with new information, if appropriate.

AAAS, publishers of Science magazine, continues its special series on traditional medicine in its November 13, 2015, issue. The supplement can be read at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6262/871.3  (doi: 10.1126/science.350.6262.871-c).

The ASP Executive Committee mourns the very great loss on Monday, November 16 of a major figure in the Society and an Honorary Member, Dr. David J. Slatkin, who had been bravely fighting Parkinson’s disease for several years. David became Treasurer of ASP in 1981, and served superbly in this capacity for over 30 years. He had an incredible knowledge of the how the Society operated, and was irrepressible in his enthusiasm for natural products. In 2004, he was the main organizer of the International Congress of Natural Products Research, Phoenix, AZ. In addition to serving the ASP with such dedication and distinction, David was also a talented senior administrator for several Colleges of Pharmacy. His most recent appointment was as Founding Dean of the Chicago State University College of Pharmacy, and he served also as Founding Dean of both the Chicago College of Pharmacy, Midwestern University and of the Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Glendale, Arizona. Earlier he was faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, where he became Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. His initial appointment as a faculty member was at Northwest Louisiana University, Monroe, LA. A native of Brooklyn, NY, David held Bachelor’s degrees from Wayne State University (Chemistry; 1966) and Mercer University Southern School of Pharmacy (Pharmacy; 1968), as well as M.S. (1971) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.  David co-authored about 80 research articles, and was a frequent referee for the Journal of Natural Products. He was the recipient of the Merck Award while at Mercer University and an American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education – Edwin Leigh Newcomb Memorial Fellow at the University of Mississippi. In 1999, Dr. Slatkin was selected by American Pharmacist magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential Pharmacists in the United States.

The ASP will join the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA), the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE), Società Italiana di Fitochimica (SIF), Association Francophone pour l’Enseignement et la Recherche en Pharmacognosie (AFERP), and the Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy (JSP) in Copenhagen, Denmark, 24-27 July 2016 for the 9th Joint Natural Products Conference 2016. ASP joins with international societies for the annual meeting each five years. The deadline for abstract submission is 1 March 2016. Other details of the meeting can be seen at http://www.jnpc2016.dk. For travel grant details, visit the ASP web site at http:www.wp.pharmacognosy.us/grants-and-awards/.

Those who are unable to attend the meeting in Copenhagen are invited to attend the 5th ASP Interim Meeting, in conjunction with the 16th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals, 11-14 April 2016, in Oxford, Mississippi. Abstract deadline for the 5th Interim Meeting is 1 December 2015. More details on the Interim Meeting are available at http://oxfordicsb.org/. Travel grant and visa letter deadline for the interim meeting is 15 November 2015.

The annual meeting of ASP will be a joint meeting with the European societies in Copenhagen, Denmark. To accommodate those who are unable to attend the Denmark meeting, an interim meeting will be held at the University of Mississippi, April 11-14, 2016. The details of this meeting, in conjunction with the 16th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals, can be found at http://oxfordicsb.org/. The deadline for receipt of abstracts for the interim meeting is December 1, 2015.