Executive Director column.

It is with pleasure to share with you the positive direction that the Academy is headed. First, it is imperative that we recognize Dr. Juan Silva for taking the challenge to lead the Academy and for making last year's meeting a true success in terms of funding, student participation, and the number of abstracts and presenters. We also want to thank the Mississippi State University for their contributions as well as hosting our program on their campus. We are truly indebted to their immeasurable support. We anticipate that this year's meeting will follow in the success of the previous meeting. Dr. Cameron is drumming up support for this year's meeting from his colleagues at Jackson State University in addition to beating on the doors of outside industry. Now, it is up to us to send in our contributions in terms of abstracts to support the academy. This February, we will hold the meeting for the first time in Olive Branch, MS at the Whispering Woods Conference Center. It is a beautiful location, and the conference center looks as if it was designed especially for our academy needs. The information for reservations and abstracts can be found on pages 195 and 196 of this issue.

Dr. Baker has been affiliated with the University of Mississippi Medical Center as a professor in the Department of Pharmacology since 1993. He has trained Ph.D students and has hosted several post doctoral fellows through out this tenure. He was a recipient of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences-Outstanding Contributions to Science-award (2005). Dr. Baker has received funding from granting agencies such as NIH, NIAAA, and various foundations over the years. Dr. Baker is well recognized in his field and has been invited to lecture at 27 national and international symposiums and institutions on topics ranging from Alcohol and Immunology to lipid metabolism. Let us all offer our support to Dr. Baker and help make the MAS 2009 meeting a success. We also are happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Ann Marie Kinnell to the MAS Board of Directors.

I now challenge you, my friends and colleagues, to put forth the efforts to become involved and help the leadership to advance our MAS. Our goal as educators and scientists should be to provide a conduit for the dissemination of ideas and a forum for their presentation and discussions. Each of us has a lot to offer, and it should be our duty and responsibility as well as an honor to serve as an active member in the Academy. Our membership continues to grow, but the rate is not fast enough. We all need to be aware of young talent in our state and encourage them to participate. I leave you with a quote from--Albert Gyorgyi--Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

by Dr. Ham Benghuzzi

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