The ASN Newsletter is published twice a year by the American Society for Neurochemistry

ASN Officers
ASN Council
ASN Committees

Keep your directory information current. click here>>>>

The address of the business office is
9037 Ron Den Lane
Windermere, FL 34786
Phone/Fax 407-876-0750
Email: amazing@iag.net
For inforamtion on ASN matters contact Sheilah Jewart the ASN Business Manager.

For information regarding this newsletter contact
David Shine at hshine@bcm.tmc.edu

Contributors:
Oscar Bizzozero
George DeVries
Lynn Hudson
Sheilah Jewart
Kunihiko Suzuki
Dave Shine

Call for Proposals:
The Second ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference

The ISN invites submission of proposals for the organization of the Second ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference to be held in 2006. For this purpose the ISN will provide $150,000 to the organizers. Deadline is May 1, 2004! more>>>

New Newsletter Format

Starting with the December 2003 issue the ASN Newsletter will be published in two forms. A short paper version will be included in the "Neurochemistry News" published by the ISN. A more complete version will be published online. This will reduce publication costs and allow us to keep the newsletter updated.

Online Access to
J Neurochem for $15

Blackwell Publishing is offering online access to J. Neurochemistry for $15/yr to ASN members in good standing. To subcribe, members need only to fill out an online subcription form.

ASN/ISN
Hospitality Suite
a Sucess

The ASN and ISN jointly held a hospitality suite at the last annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. Many prospective members cam by to eat, drink and learn about the benefits of belonging to the two societies. Look for another next year in San Diego.

Future Meeting Dates
2004 - August 14-18, New York City, NY
2005 - June 24-29, Madison, WI
2006 - March 11-16, Portland, OR
2007 - August 19-25, Joint meeting with ISN, Cancun, Mexico

Make your plans to attend the 35th annual meeting.The meeting will begin on Saturday, August 14, 2004 with a welcome reception in the famous Starlight Room and end with a closing banquet at Tavern on the Green on Wednesday, August 18, 2004. There will be a pre-meeting workshop titled "RNA Interference: Application to Neural Systems" on Saturday, August 14, 2004. Bruce McEwen, Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Susumu Tonegawa, Martin Schwab will give plenary lectures. The meeting will be held at the Waldorf Astoria Hilton Hotel. Located in the heart of mid-town Manhattan, the Waldorf Astoria is a world-renowned legend that has set the standard for hospitality excellence since 1893.

Important Meeting Dates:
January 2, 2004 - All forms available on website
January 15 - April 1, 2004 - Online abstract submission will be open.
January 2 - June 11, 2004 - Advanced meeting registration
April 15, 2004 - Deadline for submitting application for awards
July 23, 2004 -Deadline for group hotel rates.

| Meeting Web Site | | General Information | Scientific Program |
| Program Committee | Local Host Committee |

Aventis Pharmaceuticals Supports ASN Programs

The Marian Kies fund recently received a substantial donation of $3,467 from Aventis reports Lynn Hudson, ASN Treasurer. This fund recognizes and promotes promising young neuroscientists who have recently completed their graduate studies. Our thanks to Jean Merrill and Karen Chandross for their efforts in obtaining funding and advancing the careers of our Marian Kies awardees.

Dr. Merrill also arranged for Aventis Pharmaceuticals to donate $15,000 to support the ASN-Young Latin American Scholars program. These scholarships help the scientific development of outstanding, young Latin American neuroscientists by allowing them to attend the ASN annual meetings along with the visit to an established neuroscience laboratory in North America reports Oscar Bizzozero, Chair of the Young Latin American Scholars Committee.

Our thanks to Aventis for its support.

Letter from the President

Your ASN Officers and ASN Council have been busy since the Newport Beach, California meeting. New initiatives are underway in a number of areas. For the first time, an ASN Council meeting was held in conjunction with the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans. At that meeting, a number of significant items were passed by council, including: Establishment of the time and venue for the next three ASN meetings, calling for a bylaw amendment that establishes the offices of Secretary Elect and Treasurer Elect, expansion of the responsibilities of the Public Policy and Education Committee to include Publicity,
Monica Carson has been named Chair of this committee and is pursuing new avenues to aggressively advertise our future meetings, sponsoring a very successful hospitality suite at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, appointing new members, ASN committees with established terms, and creating a new committee called "Committee to Strengthen the ASN," chaired by Pam Knapp. more>>>>

In Memoriam
Pierre Morell, Ph.D.
Pierre Morell, a friend of everybody in the international neurochemical community for many years, died a tragically early death on July, 15, 2003, after an illness that lasted only for 6 months. Pierre actively participated in and contributed to the activities of the ISN and ASN for over thirty years in many capacities, such as a Council member, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurochemistry, and the chair of the program committee for the ISN meeting in Algarve, Portugal, in 1989. His critical and witty mind, always evident in many ISN and ASN meetings he regularly attended, was familiar to all of us. His name is inextricably associated with the biochemistry and biology of myelin. The two editions of the monograph, Myelin, he edited first in 1977 and then in 1984, have been read by experts and beginners alike as the standard reference source. more>>