Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology. (Divisional Reports).

The Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology Division (CMDB) held its annual meeting from 13-14 February, 2003, during the MAS Sixty-Seventh Annual Meeting in Hattiesburg. There were a total of 25 oral presentations spread out over the two days, grouped into five separate sessions ("Investigating Molecular Functions and Effects," "Molecular Aspects of Toxicology," "Searching For Genes and Proteins," "Ribozymes," and "Developing Molecular Tools.") We heard from three faculty members, eleven graduate students, ten undergraduate students, and one exceptional high school student. Audience members were enthralled and clamoured for more, but alas all good things come to an end and we must wait until next year to hear more gripping tales of research, discovery, tears, frustration, and triumph.

Thursday afternoon, a poster session unveiled an additional eleven arresting visual accounts of scientific progress. Due to the communal nature of this year's poster sessions, the CMDB Division did not get the opportunity to continue its ongoing research into the effect of awarding of random door prizes on poster session attendance. Hopefully, the experiment can be resumed next year. Nevertheless, poster presenters ably acquitted themselves in presenting and explaining their work.

Friday morning's slot was given over to a joint session with the Mississippi Functional Genomics Network (MFGN), ably chaired by George Santangelo of the University of Southern Mississippi. In this session, representatives of the MFGN described the infrastructure and opportunities available for state-wide collaborative research into post-genomic biomedically-related problems. This was probably the best-attended of the meeting's sessions and it generated a lot of interest and enthusiasm in the MFGN programs, facilities, and funding opportunities.

On Friday afternoon, the regular CMDB program resumed, and concluded with the division's annual business meeting and award ceremony. As has been the case in years past, the judges had a difficult time narrowing the field to a single graduate student winner and a single undergraduate winner. Presentations were again uniformly excellent, especially so from the undergraduate presenters who, though inexperienced, nonetheless held their audience as expertly as the seasoned pros. After much gnashing of teeth and rending of hair, the judges did announce a single winner in each category. The Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation award was won by Ms Julie Vining Smith (University of Southern Mississippi; mentor Dr. Yuan Luo); this award was accompanied by a $50 prize graciously provided by Fisher Scientific (courtesy of Ms Susie Emfinger.) The Outstanding Undergraduate Student Presentation award was won by Mr. David Norris (Millsaps College; mentor Dr. Sarah McGuire); this award was accompanied by a $50 prize grac iously provided by Scimetrics, Inc. (courtesy of Mr. Jeffrey Case.)

Dr. Yuan Luo (University of Southern Mississippi) was elected CMDB Division chair for the forthcoming year. Dr. Mary Haasch (University of Mississippi) was elected CMDB Division vice-chair for the forthcoming year.