President's column.

I will like to thank each and every one of you for your support and dedication and for the tremendous success of our 2007 annual meeting, held at Mississippi State University this past February 23-24, 2007.

Thanks to your effort, we have had the most successful meeting ever in the history of the Academy. We had a total of 430 abstracts presented, with a total of 692 participants. The number of student participants outnumbered the number of professional registered participants by 55.5 to 44.5 %. In terms of abstracts accepted, 53% were oral and 47% posters. This is a great accomplishment for a two day meeting, with great balance and outstanding student participation. I hope to have an article in the near future in your journal, the Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, on the achievements we have made in our short history and the challenges we have to make the Academy the major venue for scientists, researchers, engineers and alike, in Mississippi. I want to thank the Division chairs for their efforts. In addition to our program, we had the Dodgen lecture given by Dr. Ramish Patel, Professor of Radiology and Director of the Diagnostics Imaging Center at UMC, a plenary lecture on Obesity and Health by Dr. Mary Schmidl, former President of the Institute of Food Technologists and renowned in her field. The divisions also had excellent programs and many had student competitions.

However, this would not have been possible without the financial and logistic support of my alma mater. Mississippi State University contributed over $ 20,000 to the meeting, in addition to our loyal suppliers (over $6,000) and others like the Magnolia section of the Institute of Food Technologists. We were able to have a positive balance in terms of meeting costs and expenses. The facilities were outstanding, most of the rooms had the support equipment and assistance needed by the presenters. Mississippi State University also contributed by providing wireless access, parking, shuttle services and many other services.

I want to thank the MSU Vice-President for Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Vance Watson for his financial and moral support, the former and present Vice President for the Office of Research and Economic Development, Drs. Colin Scannes and Kirk Schulz, the former Dean of Engineering, Dr. Kirk Schulz, the interim Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. William Person, and my department head, Dr. Benjy Mikel, for their financial and logistics support. In addition, I want to thank Drs. Charles Lee and Robert Foglesong, past and present Presidents of MSU, for their support and encouragement. There were many people at MSU that were supportive and made the meetings run smoothly and flawlessly. I also want to thank Ms. Armaruth Salazar of the Greater Starkville Partnership Development for hosting a table with information and goodies for the attendants.

I also owe much of the success of this meeting to Dr. John Boyle, Board Director, Abstracts editor, webmaster and supporter of science in our state; Mr. William Holmes, Exhibits Chair, who along with his research group was instrumental in the exhibits logistic, food, and beverages; Dr. Taejo Kim, Poster Chair, the other members of the annual meeting committee, Ms Cynthia Huff and our Program chair, Dr. Anne Marie Kinnell. I also want to thank many other people, including my research group, for their dedication and hard work.

I want to thank especially Dr. Ham Benghuzzi, now our Executive Director, the person responsible for nominating me and for supporting and guiding me through this year. I also want to thank our esteemed Board members and journal editors, Drs. Michelle Tucci and Edwin Swiatlo, our longtime supporters including Dr. Rob Rockhold, and the many others that have contributed to a successful and growing academy.

Finally, thank all of you for your support and cooperation. You and your division chairs and other division volunteers make the meeting and the academy a success story in our state and our nation. It is the dedication of the many volunteers and the support of my institution and other higher education institutions in the state that have made this a successful and most meaningful meeting. There are not many meetings where we can say that the students are the majority participants, where the students are able to present in oral or poster forms their scientific findings, and where the state can come together to showcase science, engineering and technology.

I look forward to your continues participation and support of the academy and to see you next year (February 21st-22nd) at Whispering Woods Conference Center in Olive Branch, MS.

Sincerely,

Juan L. Silva

President, MAS 2006-2007

Professor, Mississippi State University

President 2006-2007

Dr. Juan L. Silva

Office Location: 205 Herzer Building

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Address: Box 9805, Mississippi State, MS 39762

Email: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Homepage: http://www2.msstate.edu/~jls/

Research group page: http://www.msstate.edu/org/silvalab/