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Fall 2020

ASP Newsletter: Fall 2020, Volume 56, Issue 3

Fall 2020

Discovering Nature’s Molecular Potential

Opinion: Current Federal Policies Are Injurious to US Science and Natural Products Research

By William Gerwick, PhD
The value of international engagement in US science is enormous, and recent proposed changes in immigration law for foreign students is having a devastatingly negative impact. It has been expressed that the biggest impact of the current administration is to have “sown the seeds of fear” in our foreign student population. This essay explores some of the highly positive aspects of foreign students being trained in the US and gives my perspective on some things that should be done to reverse the negative trend of the current administration.

ASP President Oberlies Addresses Members

By Nicholas H. Oberlies, PhD
The first ASP meeting I attended was in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1984. If you can find pictures from that meeting’s final banquet (and I fear that Barry O’Keefe already has), you might see an eager graduate student with a long, dark ponytail, possibly wearing a lobster bib. I sported that ponytail with a great deal of pride for over 4 years, and then one day, I cut it off, essentially shaving my head. Later that day, there was a parade of sorts coming by the labs at Purdue, all to see ”the new Nick,” so to speak. My boss, Dr. Jerry McLaughlin, a former associate editor of the Journal of Natural Products and president of the ASP in 1982-1983 (aka the six of clubs in the ASP deck of cards), came by and said: “You know, Nick, there is only one constant in life, and that’s change.”

Exploring Berry Patches at the Top of the World

Core berry team on the tundra with the fruits of our labor. Pictured left to right: Drs. Courtney Flint, Josh Kellogg, Mary Ann Lila, and Gary Ferguson. Photo credit: Joshua J. Kellogg.

By Joshua J. Kellogg, PhD

As natural product researchers, field work is always one of the great benefits of our research that we look forward to and treasure. Accounts of famous botanists and explorers fuel our imagination and perhaps even prompt us to consider natural products as a career. Who hasn’t wanted to drag a GC into the middle of the Amazon, à la Sean Connery? I was similarly excited to embark on journeys to distant places; when I joined my graduate lab, my advisor Dr. Mary Ann Lila explained that the project I had originally sought to join, an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) project in Central Asia, was rapidly wrapping up with little chance of refunding. Her next project was in Alaska, had just been funded, and would entail at least one or two trips into the field.

  • Newsletter
    • 2020
      • Fall 2020
      • Opinion: Current Federal Policies Are Injurious to US Science and Natural Products Research
      • ASP President Oberlies Addresses Members
      • Exploring Berry Patches at the Top of the World
      • Full Newsletter
    • Newsletter Archives

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Edward J. Kennelly, PhD

Editor In Chief

Patricia Carver, MA

Copyediting & Proofreading

Nancy Novick

Design & Production

Gordon Cragg, PhD

Mario Figueroa, PhD

Joshua Kellogg, PhD

Michael Mullowney, PhD

Guido Pauli, PhD

Patricia Van Skaik, MA, MLS

Jaclyn Winter, PhD

ASP Newsletter Committee

Contribution deadlines

Spring: Feb. 15; Summer: May 15 Fall: Aug. 15; Winter:Nov. 15

Please send information to

Edward J. Kennelly, PhD Editor In Chief,
ASP Newsletter
Department of Biological Sciences
Lehman College, CUNY
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West Bronx, NY 10468

718-960-1105

asp.newsletter@
lehman.cuny.edu

ISSN 2377-8520 (print) ISSN 2377-8547 (online)

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