The Second Twenty-Five Years - The Canadian Society of Plant

Transcription

The Second
Twenty-Five Years
A History of
The Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists
La Société Canadienne de Physiologie Végétale
Constance Nozzolillo
THE SECOND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
A History of
Department of Biology, retired
University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
CSPP-SCPV Ottawa Ontario June 2008
PREFACE
This history was written for the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Society
of Plant Physiologists/La Societié Canadienne de Physiologie Végétale at the request of PastPresident Norman Huner. I agreed on the condition that others such as previous Executive
Committee members would cooperate in such an endeavour. During the following months, I
contacted many of them by e-mail asking for their input and received a variety of replies which
I carefully filed away. Then suddenly 2007 was nearly over! It was time to scan the archives and
review the events of the past 25 years. In a letter to co-author Paul Gorham dated June 1, 1983,
referring to their recently completed history of the first 25 years of the CSPP-SCPV, Tony Bidwell
wrote “I’m sure the next edition will be vastly better.” The present volume is the next edition! Tony
Bidwell is still around to compare it to the first one but, alas, Paul Gorham is not.
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Treasurer Harold Weger who
devoted untold hours to exacting editing of the text. The contributions and comments of the many
members to whom various draft versions were sent are much appreciated. However, any errors
of fact or omission are entirely the responsibility of the author. Many thanks are due to pastTreasurer/past President Carol Peterson and Treasurer Harold Weger for their input to Chapters
2, 3, and 4 and to Ray Cummins for the enormous effort he put into Society affairs during his
tenure as Secretary. His files comprise a major portion of the 1990’s Archives collection and
provided a wealth of detailed information. And the fact that there is an Archives collection at all
is due to the efforts of the late Don Mortimer. All photos, except those taken in 2006 and 2007,
are from my own collection.
It is my pleasure and honour to dedicate this second edition of the History of the CSPPSCPV to the memory of Paul Gorham (see tribute in the Society Bulletin of May 2007) one of the
founding members and its first president.
Constance (Connie) Nozzolillo,
CSPP-SCPV Archivist
Ottawa June 2008.
II
CONTENTS*
page
1- How things have changed, or not!........................................................................... 1
2- Why is the Society now twinned?.............................................................................. 4
3- Old and new awards for old and young members..................................................... 6
4- Changing umbrella organizations............................................................................ 24
5- Publications of the Society....................................................................................... 26
6- Who we were and are- the Society Archives.............................................................. 31
7- Miscellany and final statement................................................................................. 36
Table 1
Table 2 Table 3 Table 4
Table 5
Table 6
Table 7
Table 8
Table 9
Table 10
Table 11
Table 12
Table 13
Table 14
Recipients of the Society Gold Medal.........................................................6
Titles or subjects of the Society Gold Medal talks........................................7
Recipients of the C. Donald Nelson Young Scientist Award...........................8
Recipients of the David J. Gifford Tree Physiology Award..............................10
Recipients of the Gleb Krotkov Service Award.............................................11
Recipients of the President’s Award at the annual meetings..........................13
Recipients of the E.R. Waygood and Western Director’s Award................................. 14
Recipients of the Eastern Director’s Award..................................................15
Board of trustees of the Oaks Doctoral Scholarship Fund.............................16
Dates and sites of the CSPP-SCPV annual national meetings 1983-2007......27
Dates and sites of the Western regional meetings 1983-2007........................ 28
Dates and sites of the Eastern regional meetings 1983-2007.......................29
Executive Committee members 1983-2008................................................34
Chairs of committees 1983-2008..............................................................35
*Figures grouped on pages 17 to 22
Appendix: Report to the executive of the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists, dated May 1986.
III
Chapter 1
HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED, OR NOT!
The major trends of CSPP-SCPV development are outlined in the history of the first
twenty-five years written by Paul Gorham and Tony Bidwell (The First Twenty-Five Years available
on the Society website www.cspp-scpv.ca) and still remain in effect. They are:
1. Careful choice of meeting place continues to include sites across Canada.
2. Time of the annual meeting remains in June, unless change is required by joint meetings
with other societies. In recent years, sites selected for large joint meetings such as those with the
American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) are less likely to be a university campus because few
of such institutions can handle the numbers of registrants.
3. Symposia continue to be major components of the meetings with support now enhanced by
commercial sources (e.g. equipment suppliers, publishers).
4. Joint meetings with the ASPP (now ASPB) continue to be held, usually every four years, as do
joint meetings with other Canadian plant biology societies, currently as part of Plant Canada,
approximately every two years.
5. Regional meetings also continue, yearly for the Eastern Region and every other year for the
Western Region.
6. The Society Medal, often referred to as the Gold Medal, which was established in 1970, and
the CD Nelson award, established in 1977, continue to be presented to deserving candidates
nominated by the membership.
7. Publication of a newsletter at least two times per year continues.
8. Over the years, the problem of encouraging as many plant physiologists as possible to join
the Society has been a concern of the Executive Committee. In the past, total membership has
gone as low as 181 but in the past few years has held steady at 350 to 425 members.
Many changes have also been introduced over the years:
1. The CSPP now consists of two entities. CSPP-SCPV is a charitable organization and CSPPSCPV Inc, a non-profit incorporation. (see Chapter 2).
2. Several other awards have been added (Chapter 3). The Tree Physiology Award was first made
in 1987 and the Gleb Krotkov Award for service to the Society was also introduced in 1987.
Awards for student presentations were begun in 1986. Student Travel Awards (later renamed
the George Duff Student Travel Awards, and most recently, the George Duff Student Travel
Bursaries) were initiated in 1992. The Ann Oaks Doctoral Scholarship, funded by the estate
of the late Gold Medal recipient Ann Oaks, with additional funding as charitable donations
from Society membership, will be awarded for the first time this year (2008) to a post-graduate
student of plant physiology. Finally, the Ragai Ibrahim award for best paper published by a
student was first awarded in 2007.
3. The association begun with the Biological Council of Canada (BCC) in 1966 to enhance
the efforts of the Society to affect science policy of the government was replaced in 1990
by association with the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences (CFBS). After the Society
withdrew from the CFBS in 1997, it became a founding member of an association of plantrelated societies called Plant Canada (The Federation of Canadian Plant Science Societies). The
first Plant Canada conference was held in 2003 as a joint meeting of the CSPP-SCPV and the
Canadian Botanical Association -L’Association Botanique du Canada (CBA-ABC) in Antigonish,
NS at St. Francis Xavier University. The next Plant Canada meeting was held in Edmonton in 2005
at the University of Alberta with participation of six member societies: CSPP-SCPV, CBA-ABC,
Canadian Society of Agronomy, Canadian Society for Horticultural Science, Expert Committee
on Weeds (now the Canadian Weed Science Society), and the Canadian Phytopathological
Society (see Chapter 4 for further details).
4. The former Newsletter is now called the Bulletin and, except for a few paper copies printed
for those members lacking an internet connection, is an electronic publication on the Society
website (see Chapter 5).
5. The makeup of the Executive Committee continues to evolve in response to changing
circumstances, the first major change being the introduction in 1993 of a two-year term for the
President (see Chapter 6).
6. The Society has an improved logo following upon President Peter Joliffe’s observation in 1990
that the quality of the logo on the Society letterhead (the logo is the symbol on the Society Gold
Medal) was poor mainly because the original plates had been lost. The Executive Committee
approved his decision to have a new version of the logo created and a year later in 1991 it was
ready for imprinting on Society letterhead.
7. The Society award certificates were also improved as a result of President Joliffe’s and Secretary
Bernie Grodzinski’s initiatives to include a bilingual text (see Chapter 3).
Chapter 2
WHY IS THE SOCIETY NOW TWINNED?
Worries about the liability of the Executive Committee for possible accidents that
might befall attendees at Society meetings were first expressed by the then treasurer, André
D’Aoust, in 1987. The first attempt to solve the problem was to look into obtaining liability
insurance. However, this approach was abandoned by 1990 after Secretary Lorna Woodrow
made some initial enquiries as to the cost of premiums (found to be ~$450 yearly) in favour
of establishing the Society as a charitable organization. After some research and discussion
with the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Carol Peterson, the 1989 treasurer,
found that that was indeed the status of the Society, the Society having been officially declared
a charitable organization on May 1, 1978 by the Department of National Revenue. At that
time, membership dues were regarded as a charitable donation. However, as Treasurer André
D’Aoust learned from correspondence with Revenue Canada, the granting of membership fees
as income tax deductible charitable donations could not continue if such fees included payment
of membership in an umbrella organization such as the BCC or the CFBS, neither of which held
charitable status. Thus the EC decided to tackle the difficult question of incorporation and Carol
dutifully and laboriously assembled the necessary information. Subsequent steps depended on
the able assistance of various legal firms, first a firm in Edmonton where Treasurer Anne Johnson
-Flanagan lived, and involved changes to the Constitution of the Society.
The first application for incorporation as a non-charitable arm of the Society was turned down
for reasons that were unclear to everyone, including the lawyers, but a subsequent attempt was
successful. By December 1992, incorporation was apparently complete and the first meeting
of the Directors of CSPP-SCPV Inc was held. An annual fee of $30 was paid to the Ministry
of Corporate Affairs and continues to be paid to Corporations Canada for registration of the
corporation. By December 1993, both arms of the Society were firmly established as CSPP-SCPV
Inc and CSPP-SCPV but administration of Society business appeared quite complicated with
requirements such as the need to maintain two membership lists, prepare two budgets, and to
provide separate receipts for the dues paid for membership in CSPP-SCPV and dues paid to the
CFBS, which by that time had replaced the BCC as an umbrella organization. Thus membership
dues substantially increased because of the high cost of association with the CFBS. And with
membership dues being paid to the corporation rather than the charity, they were no longer tax
deductible. In addition, the status of the charitable arm seemed imperilled as not enough was
being spent on charity and office expenses were too high.
The first official meeting as a dual-entity Society was held in 1993 in Minneapolis jointly
with the American Society of Plant Physiologists (ASPP), a site which required the formulation of
new By-Laws to satisfy the public servants in regard to meetings “outside of Canada”. When the
Society ceased to be involved in lobbying (see Chapter 4), the role of CSPP-SCPV Inc was greatly
reduced . As a result, membership fees were once again used only for the charitable activities
of the CSPP-SCPV and were substantially lower. Thus by 2003, Treasurer Harold Weger issued
membership receipts which could be claimed as a charitable donation. Despite its reduced
role, the Executive Committee decided to maintain CSPP-SCPV Inc for the time being for two
reasons:
1) the Society might be involved in lobbying activities in the future and
2) the cost of maintaining it is very low, especially in view of the substantial work and expense
in creating it.
The Society is indebted to the various members of the Executive Committee, mainly successive
Presidents and Treasurers, who devoted untold unpaid hours to successfully dealing with the
many complications of establishing the two arms, a debt that greatly exceeds the monetary sums
paid out in legal fees!
Chapter 3
OLD AND NEW AWARDS FOR OLD
AND YOUNG MEMBERS
The Society currently has four awards for fully fledged researchers and several awards
for students as detailed below. In 1991 the framed certificate that accompanies the awards was
redisigned by President Peter Joliffe to include reproductions of both sides of the images of the
Society Gold Medal as well as, for the first time, text in both French and English.
Table 1 Recipients of the Society Gold Medal
Year
Name
Institute
1970
Arthur C. Neish
1971
Michael Shaw
1972
*1972
NRCC Halifax Nova Scotia
University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon
*2002
David Siminovitch
Agriculture Canada Ottawa Ontario
1973
G.H. Neil Towers
1976
Oluf L.Gamborg*2007
NRCC Saskatoon Saskatchewan
1979
R.G.S. (Tony) Bidwell
Queen’s University Kingston Ontario
1981
David T. Canvin
1983
Jack Dainty
University of Toronto Toronto Ontario
1985
Gordon MacLachlan
McGill University Montreal Quebec
1987
Paul R. Gorham*2006
University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta
*2005
University of British Columbia Vancouver
1988
Ann Oaks
1989
Richard P. Pharis
University of Calgary Calgary Alberta
1990
Mary S. Spencer
1992
J. Derek Bewley
University of Guelph Guelph Ontario
1995
John E. Thompson
University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario
1996
Robert Hill
University of Manitoba Winnipeg Manitoba
1998
Edwin A. Cossins
2001
John King
University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon
2004
Ragai Ibrahim
Concordia University Montreal Quebec
2007
Anthony D M (Tony) Glass
University of British Columbia Vancouver BC
*2006
McMaster University Hamilton Ontario
*Deceased
Society Gold Medal
The Society Gold Medal established in 1967 “for outstanding public contributions or for
distinguished service to plant physiology in Canada” (By-Law 11) continues to be awarded at
irregular intervals, the latest one in 2007 (Table 1). The accompanying certificate has a gold
frame and black mat with a gold embossed seal of the Society.
One of the conditions of the award is that the recipient address the Society at the next
annual meeting (Table 2). In earlier years the talk was simply scheduled in the program with no
title given. Usually the newsletter would later report on the subject matter but it was not until
1988 that a title might be included in the program and in 1989 title plus abstract.
Table 2 Title/subject of talks by recipients of the Society Gold Medal
Year
Name
Title or (subject of talk)
1971
Arthur Neish
(cell walls and algal culture)
1972
Michael Shaw
(rust fungus-host relations)
1973
David Siminovitch
(frost hardiness and foams)
1975
Neil Towers
(searching for medicinal plants)
1977
Oluf Gamborg
(tissue culture)
1980
Tony Bidwell
(photorespiration)
1982
David T. Canvin
Plastids, dwarfs, and photorespiration
1984
Jack Dainty
(biophysics and water uptake)
1986
Gordon MacLachlan
(cell wall synthesis)
1988
Paul Gorham
Don’t drink the water, don’t take the pills
1989
Ann Oaks
Regulation and nitrogen metabolism during early seedling growth
1990
Richard Pharis
(gibberellic acid)
1991
Mary Spencer
Ethylene, nature’s secret agent
1993
Derek Bewley
The drying game
1996
John Thompson
Senescence, a dichotomy of options
1997
Robert Hill
What are hemoglobins doing in plants?
1999
Edwin Cossins
Nutrition, health and one-carbon metabolism: the fascinating world of folate
2002
John King
Metabolism by mutation
2005
Ragai Ibrahim
A forty-year journey in plant research: original contributions to flavonoid biochemistry
CD Nelson award
The CD Nelson award was established in 1977 to recognize young plant physiologists whose
outstanding research contributions showed originality and independence of thought (By-Law 12,
Table 3). The accompanying certificate has a silver frame and black mat with a red embossed
seal of the Society.
Don Nelson (1927-1968) received his BA, MA and PhD at Queen’s University under
Gleb Krotkov. He was one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and was
only 41 when he died of leukemia in 1968. He was the first Dean of Science at Simon Fraser
University, the third position in his tragically shortened but highly productive, career, a post taken
up after being a staff member at NRC and a professor at Queen’s University.
Table 3 Recipients of the CD Nelson award
Year
Name
Institute
1978
J. Derek Bewley
University of Calgary Alberta
1979
Melvin T. Tyree
University of Toronto Ontario
1982
John D. Mahon
NRC-Plant Biotech Institute Saskatoon
1984
Desh Pal Verma
McGill University Montreal Quebec
1987
Norman P. Huner
University of Western Ontario London
1988
Bryan D. McKersie
University of Guelph Ontario
1989
David H. Turpin
1990
David B. Layzell
1991
Vincenzo De Luca
Université de Montréal Québec
1992
Stewart B. Rood
University of Lethbridge Alberta
1993
William C. Plaxton
1995
Gregory J. Taylor
University of Alberta Edmonton
1996
Bruce M. Greenberg
University of Waterloo Ontario
1998
J. Kevin Vessey
University of Manitoba Winnipeg
2000
Luc Varin
Concordia University Montreal Quebec
2001
Daphne R. Goring
2003
Peter J. Facchini
2004
Daniel P. Matton
Université de Montréal Québec
2006
Gregory B.G. Moorhead
2007
Robert T. Mullen
University of Guelph Ontario
Award in Tree Physiology
At the joint CSPP/CBA meeting in 1988, an award in tree physiology was made for the
first time to Dick Pharis. This award had its genesis in the face of the paucity of research into the
physiology of forest trees and of woody species in general. A survey of the membership indicated a
high level of interest in such research by university biology departments but not by forestry schools.
In light of an extensive report on the status of forestry research in Canada submitted by Dick Pharis
in 1986, Treasurer André D’Aoust proposed at the June, 1987, Executive Committee meeting that
a new award specifically to honour tree physiology research should be sponsored. He noted that a)
forestry was historically and financially an important Canadian industry, b) the number of Canadians
working in this area was lower than it should be and c) it was difficult to work and publish on these
taxing perennials let alone be funded for long term studies. His motion, seconded by David Canvin,
was carried by a show of hands and the steps necessary to present the proposal at the next annual
meeting was begun (By-Law 13).
President Martin Canny suggested that the award should be named after an eminent tree
physiologist such as M. Zimmerman but this step was temporarily put into abeyance Following the
untimely death of David Gifford (1944-2003), the decision to name the award for him was made
by the Executive Committee. David was born in Liverpool, England, and moved to Canada in 1967.
He first obtained a BSc and then, with Ed Cossins, a PhD at the University of Alberta. Supported by
an NSERC fellowship, he studied mobilization of seed reserves with Derek Bewley at the University of
Calgary. In 1986 he returned to the University of Alberta as assistant professor in the Department of
Botany, becoming a full Professor in 1997. His research there focussed on mobilization of reserves
in seeds of gymnosperms and led to his being the fourth recipient of the Tree Physiology award. Over
the years, he had served the CSPP-SCPV as Western Director, Senior Director, Communications
Director, and finally President-elect and would have been the President in 2005.
Presentation of the accompanying certificate is the same as that of the CD Nelson award. To
date six awards have been made (Table 4)
Table 4 Recipients of the Tree Physiology Award
Year
Name
Institute
1988
Richard P. Pharis
1991
Erwin B. Dumbroff
1992
C. H. Anthony Little
Canadian Forest Service Fredericton NB
1999
David J. Gifford*2003
2004
Stewart Rood
University of Lethbridge Alberta
2007
Melvin T. Tyree
*Deceased
Award for Service to the Society
An award for service to the Society was also proposed and accepted in 1988 (By-Law
14). It was later decided to name it for Dr. Gleb Krotkov (1901-1968), CSPP president 19601961, born in Moscow, Russia, son of a university professor. He obtained his first degree in
agricultural engineering in 1925 in Czechoslovakia but only after many adventures due to the
Russian revolution, and emigrated to Canada that same year. He had the good fortune to meet
Professor GH Duff while working as a labourer at the Vineland Experiment Station and soon was
enrolled as a graduate student in plant physiology at the University of Toronto, obtaining an MA
in 1931 and a PhD in 1934. He began his 37-year career at Queen’s University in Kingston,
Ontario as a lecturer in biology in 1931 and became head of the department in 1958. During
WWII he translated Russian reports on work done on the Russian dandelion as a possible source
of natural rubber for the Canadian and US governments. In 1946 he spent a sabbatical year in
DM Hoagland’s laboratory in California where he learned the techniques of using radioactive
tracers in biological research, thereafter establishing the first such laboratory in Canada. In this
laboratory, he and talented graduate students and post-doctorate fellows produced a steady
flow of papers that won Queen’s an international recognition in photosynthesis research (see
Photosynthesis Research 88: 83-100, 2006). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in
1950 which awarded him the Flavelle Medal in 1964. In 1962 he was appointed a Member
of the NRCC and for the next six years devoted a great deal of energy to national scientific
matters. At the time of his sudden death, he was deeply involved in research on photorespiration.
Members of the CSPP-SCPV who were his students remember him for his cheerful “How things
are?” greeting, a reflection of his keen interest in their welfare.
10
Gleb had been proposed as a candidate for the first Society Gold Medal but the
decision not to make the award posthumously ruled him out. The first recipient of the Gleb
Krotkov award was Dorothy Forward who was presented with a framed certificate to that effect
at the 1990 annual meeting. Presentation of the accompanying certificate is the same as that of
the CD Nelson award. To date six awards have been made (Table 5)
Table 5 Recipients of the Gleb Krotkov Award
Year
Name
Institute
1990
Dorothy Forward*1993
1992
Donald C. Mortimer
National Research Council Ottawa Ontario
1994
David S. Fensom*1998
Mount Allison University Sackville NS
1997
W. Raymond Cummins
University of Toronto Mississauga Ontario
1999
Iain A.P. Taylor
University of British Columbia Vancouver
2001
Carol Peterson
*2000
* Deceased
Student travel bursaries (George H. Duff Student Travel Bursary)
A fund for providing travel assistance to students wishing to attend the annual meeting
and to present their research results was initially proposed in 1984. Travel awards were
established in 1992, at least that is the first year in which they were advertised in the Bulletin. In
December 2000 a motion by Gregory Taylor to name them the George H. Duff Student Travel
Awards, seconded by Elizabeth Weretilnyk, was carried unanimously. The following citation
accompanied the motion:
“The Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists/La Societé Canadienne de Physiologie Végétale
originated from a series of meetings of plant physiologists and biochemists that were held during
the period following World War Il. The first of these meetings was the Colloquium on Problems
of Plant Metabolism convened by Dr. George H. Duff, Professor of Plant Physiology, Department
of Botany, University of Toronto. Dr. Duff invested enormous energy over the next eight years in
his efforts to establish the CSPP-SCPV. In addition to promoting a series of nine meetings that
provided the impetus for our Society, Dr. Duff played a role in drafting a Constitution and ByLaws that were to be presented at the Fall 1958 meeting in Saskatoon. Regrettably, Dr. Duff died
after a short illness on September 28, 1958. The Society was officially founded one month later
on October 27, 1958, by a unanimous vote.”
11
The George H. Duff Student Travel Awards recognize Dr. Duff’s outstanding contributions
to our Society. The awards are funded from a combination of donations from members and
Society general revenues. At the AGM in 2005, a motion was passed to change the name of
the award to “bursary” since the basis for awarding it is not primarily academic merit but rather
financial need. Students apply for the bursary using the official form provided by the Society.
The bursary program is run by the two regional directors. The only requirements for receiving
the bursary are that the students must be members of the Society and must make oral or poster
presentations of their research results at the annual meeting.
Awards for student presentations
President’s award
At the annual general meeting (AGM) in 1985, a motion to establish a prize of $100
for the best oral presentation at the annual meeting by a student member of the Society,
proposed by Derek Bewley and seconded by Doug Ormrod, was carried. A By-law to detail the
conditions of the award was also accepted at the meeting. A trust fund of $1500 was set aside
for investment by the Executive Committee to finance the award, a fund to which members were
also invited to donate. The award was given the name “President’s Award” at the AGM of 1986.
The accompanying certificate presently has a dark grey frame with no mat and a red embossed
seal of the Society and is presented by the earliest-serving past-president of the Society attending
the meeting. At the AGM of 1987, the number of awards was increased to three and included
poster as well as oral presentations. In that same year and the following two, an award was also
presented by the Society to the best National Science Fair project relating to plant physiology.
However, this award was not continued after that time. The names of those who have received
President’s award are listed in Table 6.
E.R.Waygood Award (Western Director’s Award) presented
at Western Regional Meetings
A new student prize named for E.R.Waygood and presented by him at the Western
Regional Meeting was awarded to Elaine Wright, University of British Columbia, for best oral
presentation in 1987. Dr. Michael Shaw introduced the award with a tribute to Professor
Waygood, an excerpt of which follows:
12
Table 6 Recipients of the President’s Award at the annual meetings
Year
Best Oral
Institute
Best Poster
Institute
1986
Paul Morris
Queen’s U
1987
Allison Kermode
Steven McCutcheon
Lorna Woodrow
U Guelph
Brock U
U Guelph
1988
David Kelly
Queen’s U
1989
Sheila Macfie
U Alberta
1990
Emilio de Carolis
U Montreal
Maurice Oishi
Tracey Reynolds
U Guelph
U Guelph
1991
Zoran Ristic
Gregory Varney
U Alberta
Carleton U
Francois Ouellet
UQAM
1992
1993
Kathi Hudak
U Waterloo
Gordon Gray
UWO
Micheline Watt
Maria Theodorou
Carleton U
Queen’s U
David Gauthire
UBC
1994
Jihad Attieh
Michelle Watt
U Montreal
Carleton U
Sirinart Ananvoranich
Kathleen Ismond
Concordia U
Carleton U
1995
Gordon Gray
UWO
Istvan Rajcan
U Guelph
1996
Jules Ade
Laval
1997
Rachael Morgan
UWO
Alison Johnson
Janice King
U Calgary
U Alberta
1998
Jacqueline Bede
Chantal Nunes
U Toronto
McGill U
Brenda Chow
U Alberta
1999
Sandra Stone
Alexandra Reid
U Alberta
U Alberta
Sonya Kujat
U Alberta
2000
Michelle Quick
UWO
Thomas Burian
Mcmaster U
Matthew Bryman
Nancy Silva
U Alberta
U Toronto
2001
2002
James Blonde
Queen’s U
Tanya Hooker
UBC
2003
Pauline Quesnelle
Trent U
Yeen Ting Hwang
U Guelph
2004
Andrius Baleris
UWO
Priya Dhanoa
U Guelph
2005
Jessica Brown
U Alberta
Beth Szyszka
UWO
Donna Yee
Chantal Beauchemin
U Toronto
Inst. Frappier
Gholamreza Babajani
SFU
2006
2007
Nicole Dafoe
U Victoria
“It is an honour and privilege for me to pay tribute to Roy Waygood, Emeritus Professor of the
University of Manitoba where he was Head of the Department of Botany from 1954 to 1979.
Ernest Roy Waygood was born in Bramhall, England. He obtained his B. Sc. from the Ontario
13
Agricultural College in 1941 and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in 1947 and 1949 at the University of
Toronto, where he studied under Professor George Duff. Professor Waygood, who had carried
out important work on the mechanism of action of ascorbic acid oxidase in the wheat leaf for his
Ph. D., initiated an active program of research at McGill. Moving to the University of Manitoba
in 1954, Professor Waygood quickly established the Department of Botany as a centre of
excellence for plant physiology, his own interests being the mechanisms of action of respiratory
and photosynthetic enzymes and the physiology of rust-infected wheat.” Dr. Waygood was the
first Vice-President of the CSPP and its second President in 1959. Subsequently, the award was
renamed The Western Director’s Award and has been made at every Western Regional Meeting
since 1998 (Table 7)
Table 7 Waygood Prize 1987 and Director’s Awards presented
at Western Regional Meetings
Year
Best Oral
Institute
Best Poster
Institute
1987
Elaine Wright
UBC
1998
Benjamin Forward
U Vic
Anna May Schmidt
U Vic
2000
2004
Christopher Todd
U of A
Christie Hamilton
U of A
Jaqueline Hulm
SFU
Weiping Liu
U Sask
2007
Mathias Schuetz
U Sask
Raju Soolanayakanahally
UBC
Awards presented at Eastern Regional Meetings
Awards for student presentations have been made at the Eastern Regional Meetings
since 1997 (Table 8) and have been called the (Eastern) Director’s Awards since 2002.
Ann Oaks Doctoral Scholarship.
The Ann Oaks Doctoral Scholarship is one of the Society’s newest awards, and provides
for NSERC-level funding for a student undertaking doctoral research in plant biology at a
Canadian university. Ann Oaks (1930-2006) received a BA (Honours Biology) from the University
of Toronto in 1951, and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Saskatchewan in 1954
and 1959 respectively. She was a faculty member in the Department of Biology at McMaster
University from 1965 to 1989, and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Botany
at the University of Guelph from 1989 to 1999. She was Professor Emeritus at McMaster
14
Table 8 Director’s Awards presented at Eastern Regional Meetings
Year
Best Oral
Institute
1997
Christopher Smith
Queen’s U
1998
Best Poster
Institute
Gale Bozzo
Deborah Lorenzin
York U
McMaster U
1999
Darrell Deseveaux
U de M
Linda Nowak
U Waterloo
2000
Michael McConnell
Brock U
Richard Bourgault
U of G
2001
Andrew McCartney
U of G
Tessa Pocock
UWO
2002
Gregory Perry
U Waterloo
Andrew McCartney
U of G
2004
Dominic Rosso
UWO
Jeffrey Waller
Queen’s U
2005
Jeffrey Waller
Queen’s U
Allison McDonald
U of T
2006
Amanda Rochon
Brock U
Dylan Levac
Brock U
2007
Linda Tyng-Shyan Huang
UWO
Bogumil Karas
UWO
University, and in 2004 was awarded a DSc from McMaster. For most of her career, Dr. Oaks’
research focussed on plant nitrogen metabolism, especially in maize seedlings. She was made
a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1986, and received the Gold Medal from the CSPP–
SCPV in 1988. Her prominence and leadership in plant physiology were recognized through an
invitation to describe her career in a prefatory chapter for the Annual Review of Plant Physiology
and Plant Molecular Biology (Oaks, A. 2000. Fifty years of plant science: was there really no
place for a woman? ARPPPMB 51:1-16).
The genesis of the award was in June of 1991 when Ann first proposed to the Executive
Committee (EC) that she establish a life insurance policy naming the Society as beneficiary for
the purpose of establishing a scholarship for PhD students. After thorough investigation by both
parties of the legal and charitable status ramifications of such a plan, the EC accepted the
proposal at their December 1991 meeting. The Society agreed to pay legal fees associated with
setting up the award and to issue Ann a yearly charitable donation receipt for her payment of
the insurance premiums. Ann’s stated reason for establishing the fund was her concern over the
falling numbers of student members. In 1995, a standing committee for the Scholarship Trust
was formed with Ann as a member. This entailed writing a new By-Law. In December 1999, a
motion to establish a three member Board of Trustees committee was passed with, at Ann’s
request, Frédérique Guinel, Ray Cummins and Harold Weger as members.
15
Table 9 Board of Trustees of the Oaks Scholarship Fund
Ray Cummins
1997-2002
Frédérique Guinel
1997-2004
Frédérique Guinel
2004-2008
Harold Weger
1997-2002
Harold Weger
2002-20081
Connie Nozzolillo
2002-2005
Elizabeth Weretilnyk
2002-2006
2006-2010
Doug Campbell
2003-2007
Doug Campbell
2007-2011
Sheila Macfie
2005-2009
George Espie
2002-20082
1 Ex officio as Treasurer
2 Advisor as Past-Treasurer
The initial funds for the award came from two gifts of stock from Ann to the Society. At
that point, the main function of the Board committee was to oversee the fund management and
to solicit further donations to the fund. In addition to growth of the fund due to investments,
Society members donated about $1250 each year to the award fund. Such accumulation had
to, and did, receive special permission from Revenue Canada in order that CSPP-SCPV could
retain its charitable status.
In 2001, CSPP by-law 16 was amended, and the Board of Trustees was expanded. The
Board was to include four full members of the Society, the Society Treasurer as ex officio member,
and the immediate Past-Treasurer as an advisor to the Board. As well, term length was defined
as four years. Ann Oaks died at age 76 on January 13, 2006, having been in failing health
for some years. With her passing, a sum in the order of $310,000 was added to the fund from
Ann’s life insurance policy and also other gifts from Ann’s estate.
Thus it was time to begin considering the mechanism of awarding a scholarship for
approval by the membership. At the end of the fiscal year 2007, about $430,000 was in the
fund, most of it under the management of the investment firm BMO Nesbitt Burns. The fund is
managed in a conservative manner with a rate of return of just under 5%. Such an interest rate
16
Dorothy Forward and Gold Medal awardee Jack Dainty,
Waterloo, June 1983
Robert Hill, Dutch Dumbroff, John Thompson, Dave Canvin,
and Dave Turpin, Waterloo, June 1983
(Right to Left)
Ragai Ibrahim, Desh Pal and Mrs. Verma, Gordon
Maclachlan and unidentified couple, Montreal, January 1984
Don Mortimer at his poster Providence RI, June 1985
Queen’s students sport the traditional kerchief, Ottawa,
December 1985
André Laroche and his poster, Providence RI, June 1985
17
Judith Frégeau and Sylvie Séguin, Providence RI, June 1985
David Gifford at his poster, Providence RI, June 1985
Eduardo Blumvald and Ragai Ibrahim, Montreal, June 1990
Christiane Charest and Mark Hodges and their poster,
Ottawa, December 1991
François Cormier and Marianna Krol, Ottawa, December 1991
President Peter Joliffe presents the Gold Medal to Mary
Spencer, Edmonton, June 1991
18
Secretary Dave Layzell takes notes at the AGM as CJB editor
Iain Taylor gives his report, Edmonton, June 1991
Bob Thompson and Mike Dixon, Ottawa, December 1991
Ayra Bal and Norm Huner, Montreal, December 1992
Trevor Thorpe, André and Madame Fortin, Montreal, December
1992
Deep Saini, David Dennis, David Turpin, Kingston, December
1993
Martin Canny and Michelle Watt, Kingston, December 1993
19
Ann Oaks, Bernie Grodzinski, Doug Ormrod, Kingston,
December 1993
John Coleman and Alan Bown, Kingston, December 1993
Ann Oaks and David Fensom, Burlington, December 1994
Trevor Thorpe and Jas Singh, Burlington, December 1994
John Williams and Raj Dhindsa, Montreal, June 1994
Richard Coté, Mike Dixon and John Hoddinott, Guelph, June
1995
20
President Carol Peterson chairs the EC meeting, Montreal,
June 1998
Carol Peterson presents the Nelson Award to Kevin Vessey,
Montreal, June 1998
Carol Peterson presents the Gold Medal certificate to Ed
Cossins, Montreal, June 1998
Marilyn Griffiths and student, Montreal Botanic Garden, June
1998
Claude Willemot, Elizabeth Weretilnyk and Barbara Moffatt,
Montreal Botanic Gardin, June 1998
Harold Weger, George Espie and Dan Lefebvre at The Balzac
rodeo, June 2002
21
Vince De Luca, Frédérique Guinel, Mark Held and Ewa
Cholewa Guelph, June 2004
Anja Geitmann, Brian Ellis and Mark Bernards, Hernder
Estate Wines, June 2004
Ann Oaks and Stewart Rood, Guelph, June 2004
Sharon Regan andn Jonathon Plett, Guelph, June 2004
© Nicole Burkhart
Rob Guy presents the Nelson Award to Greg Moorhead,
Boston, June 2006
22
Taken from the CSPP Bulletin
Commitee
Ragai Ibrahim presents his award to Amanda Rochon,
Saskatoon, June 2007
does not allow for the $23,000 award first envisaged without depleting the capital fund. After
much discussion among members of the Oaks Board, the CSPP-SCPV Executive Committee
and with the membership at the annual meeting in June 2007, the value of the scholarship
was set at $21,000, which is equivalent to NSERC’s PGS-D award. Furthermore, similar to the
PGS-D award, the scholarship is potentially renewable for two additional years. Full details of
the scholarship are found in By-Law 16 of the Society constitution. Preliminary adjudication for
the award was done by NSERC in conjunction with their own doctoral scholarship competition.
All plant biology PhD students who applied for an NSERC PGS-D award were automatically
considered for the Oaks Doctoral Scholarship as well. The Board of Trustees of the fund is
looking forward to awarding the scholarship for the first time in 2008, the 50th anniversary year
of the Society, and also acknowledges the substantial logistical aid provided by NSERC.
Ragai Ibrahim Award for best published paper by a student (By-Law 19)
Another new award of the Society is the Ibrahim Award for best paper published by a
student member of the CSPP-SCPV and announced at the 2005 annual meeting in Edmonton.
The first award was presented at the 2007 Plant Canada meeting in Saskatoon to Amanda
Rochon, Brock University, for her paper in Plant Cell 12, 3670-3685, 2006 and included
a framed certificate and a cheque for $350. The award also calls for selecting a paper for
honourable mention, but because of the high quality of the 10 nominations received, the
committee, chaired by Robert Hill, decided to select two: Yo Miyashita (University of Alberta) and
Ian Major (Victoria University).
This annual award was established by a gift from Ragai Ibrahim. Ragai was born in
1929 in Heliopolis, Egypt. He obtained his BSc at the University of Cairo in 1949 in Honours
Botany and Chemistry, then worked in industry for 5-6 years. In 1958, he earned an MSc in Plant
Physiology at the University of Alexandria, and then moved to Canada. In 1961 he obtained
a PhD in Plant Biochemistry at McGill University with Neil Towers. During his long career as a
professor at Sir George Williams College (which later became part of Concordia University)
he trained many students, published many papers and earned recognition for his outstanding
contributions to the biochemistry of flavonoids. Honours bestowed on him include: Alexander
von Humboldt Scholar, 1975, Groupe Polyphenols Medal 1992, past President and Honorary
Life Member, Phytochemical Society of North America, CSPP-SCPV Society Gold Medal, 2004,
and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Concordia University.
A peer-reviewed paper is nominated by the student’s supervisor and is evaluated for
its (potential) impact on plant science. The first author of the paper must be the nominated
student and the paper must be a report of work performed by that student. The award is based
on the calendar year (January 1-December 31) and is open to students currently registered in
a program or who have completed their graduate/undergraduate programs no more than 12
months prior to the date of publication of the paper.
23
Chapter 4
CHANGING UMBRELLA ORGANIZATIONS
The CSPP-SCPV was a part of the International Association of Plant Physiologists (IAPP)
when the annual meeting was held in Calgary in 1973. However, at the annual business meeting
of 1984 the motion to withdraw from the IAPP because the dues paid to it were excessive in view
of the limited benefits accrued was carried and so the association was ended.
Initially, the CSPP-SCPV was associated with the Biological Council of Canada (BCC)
from the time of its founding in 1966, and membership dues included the fees of such association.
Representatives of the Society were appointed to attend BCC meetings and to report back to the
Society. However, by the late 1980’s financial problems arose and the BCC ceased to exist at
the end of 1989.
Association with the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences (CFBS), which had
also been a member of the BCC, was begun with similar representation by the Society but with
significantly higher membership dues. However, many Society members felt that plant biology in
general was not well-represented by the CFBS, which included a number of medically-oriented
societies. Many members thus felt that the large increase in Society membership dues was
not a justifiable expense, and membership levels declined precipitously. Association with the
CFBS remained a contentious issue for some time. A motion to withdraw from the association
was passed at the AGM of June 1994 but in June 1995, a motion to rescind the decision to
withdraw was passed and the CSPP paid past due fees of $1605 to the CFBS. At the same
meeting, a motion to explore increased collaboration with other Canadian plant societies,
especially the Canadian Botanical Association - Association Botanique du Canada (CBA-ABC)
and the Canadian Society of Plant Molecular Biology (CSMPB) which was in financial difficulties
due to low membership, was made. Finally at the joint meeting with the ASPP in Vancouver in
1997, the decision was made to withdraw the Society from association with the CFBS. As a
result of leaving the CFBS, the Society was no longer involved in lobbying activities and thus
the role of CSPP-SCPV Inc was greatly reduced. A further result was that membership dues were
considerably lower and paid only to the charitable arm, thus supposedly making them again
eligible as a charitable donation for tax purposes. However, Treasurer André D’Aoust discovered
that Revenue Canada regulations indicated that memberships in charitable organizations are
tax-deductible only if there is no demonstrable benefit to membership. Reduced registration
24
fees for members at the Society meetings are such a benefit. Therefore membership fees could
be claimed only as dues paid to a professional society. With the affirmation by the Executive
Committee in 2004 that conference registration fees for Society members should be lower than
for non-members, this meant that dues would not be tax-deductible. It goes without saying that
the Society treasurers have been kept busy by these changing rules. As Treasurer Harold Weger
puts it: “Nothing is ever simple!”.
One of the primary reasons for membership in such umbrella organizations was/is
to maximize efforts to inform various government bodies of the importance of research in
biological fields such as plant physiology to the economy of the country and the pressing need
for increased funding of such research. Lobbying included one-on-one meetings with members
of parliament as well as letter writing, exercises more effective when strong arguments were
presented. An example of the kind of argument made is a report written at the request of
the Executive Committee in 1986 by a three member team composed of Derek Bewley, John
Thompson and David Dennis (Appendix). The contents of this report remain valid today.
Whether to merge with other plant societies such as the CBA-ABC or to join the newly
formed federation given the name of Plant Canada was decided in favour of the latter at the
annual meeting in 1999. The CSPP-SCPV played an important role in setting up Plant Canada.
Events were set in motion in 1997 by a letter from Carol Peterson (then president of the CSPPSCPV) to C.C. Chinnappa (then president of the CBA-ABC) suggesting that a merger between
the two societies be considered. The idea was met favorably by both societies and a committee,
headed by Iain Taylor, was struck to consider the concept. The decision of the committee was
not to merge the societies but rather to set up a federation of like-minded Canadian societies.
The reasons for favoring a federation were threefold:
1. To facilitate communication among plant biologists from all areas of research,
2. To join with other plant biologists so as to provide a greater impact than would the relatively
small numbers of members in the individual societies.
3. To increase the visibility of plant biology and attract more plant biologists to annual
meetings.
The committee drew up a constitution and by-laws which were ratified by both the
CSPP-SCPV and the CBA-ABC at their 2000 annual general meetings; thus, these two societies
became the founding members of the new federation. It was decided to meet for the first time
as a federation at the annual meeting in Antigonish and every two years thereafter. Over the
next short while, several other Canadian plant biology societies joined Plant Canada. As already
mentioned in Chapter 1, a second very successful meeting was held in Edmonton, Alberta, in
2005 with six plant societies. A third joint meeting was held in Saskatoon in 2007.
25
Chapter 5
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY
In 1991, Secretary Ray Cummins wrote a detailed proposed publication policy for the
Society. The following is excerpted from that proposal:
“Programs and abstracts of Society meetings have been intermittently published since its
formation. These programs were known as the Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Plant
Physiologists/Délibérations de la Société Canadienne de Physiologie Végétale. Sometime after
1986 these proceedings were assigned an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN 08420602). According to international protocol the ISSN number should appear on the top right
hand corner of the front cover, or the back cover or title page as alternative locations.” However,
this number rarely appears!
Proceedings
Ray proposed that the system should be put into effect and that the time of the annual
meeting be the end of the publishing year with the programs for the three annual meetingsEastern Regional, Western Regional and National as a single volume with three issues, or only
two issues in years when there was no Western Regional meeting. In the past it had often been
the custom to publish the regional abstracts (again) with the national program, but this was
difficult to do when joint meetings with other societies were held. He settled the problem of
Volume number by assuming #1 appeared in 1958 when the Society was formed, with one
volume every year thereafter and proposed that the program of the Eastern Regional Meeting
of December 1991 be Volume 35, Issue 1, the program of the Western Regional Meeting be
Volume 35 Issue 2, and the program of the National Meeting be Volume 35 Issue 3. Such a
system would make it easier for libraries to whom the programs are sent to make them available
to their readers but it has not been consistently followed since then. Programs of the annual and
regional meetings with abstracts of talks and posters are distributed at the meetings. Copies
of most of these programs are available in the Archives and were usually distributed to several
libraries
26
Table10 Dates and sites of the CSPP-SCPV annual national meetings
1983-2007
Year
Date
Proceedings
Joint
Place
1983
Jun 19-22
Vol 26 No 3
no
U of Waterloo Waterloo Ont
1984
Jul 29-Au 1
Vol 27 No 2
no
Simon Fraser U Whistler Mountain BC
1985
Jun 26-28
Pl Phys 77S
ASPP
Brown University Providence RI
1986
Jun 16-18
Vol 29 No 2
no
U of Sask (NRC) Saskatoon Sask
1987
Jun 9-12
Vol 30 No 3
CSPMB
Queen’s U Kingston Ont
1988
Jun 5-9
Vol 31 No 2
CBA
U of Victoria Victoria BC
1989
Jul 30-Au 3
Pl Phys 81S
ASPP
Royal York Hotel Toronto Ont
1990
Jun 17-20
Vol 33 No 3
no
U du Québec a Montréal (UQAM) Qué
1991
Jun 23-27
Vol 34 No 2
CBA
U of Alberta Edmonton Alta
1992
Jul 11-16
Vol 35 No 3
no
Memorial U St John’s Newfoundland
1993
Jul 31-Au 4
Pl Phys 105S
ASPP
Hyatt Regency Hotel Minneapolis MN
1994
Jun 16-18
CFBS 142
CFBS
Palais des Congrès Montréal Qué
1995
Jun 24-27
Vol 38 No 2
CBA
U of Guelph Guelph Ont
1996
Jun 9-12
Vol 39 No 3
CSPMB
U Laval Québec Qué
1997
Aug 2-6
Pl Phys 109S
ASPP
UBC Vancouver British Columbia
1998
Jul 11-14
Vol 41 No 3
no
U de Montréal Jardin Botanique Qué
1999
Jun19-23
Vol 42 No 2
no
Bessborough Hotel Saskatoon Sask
2000
Jun 24-28
Vol 43 No 3
CBA
U of Western Ontario London Ont
2001
Jul 21-25
Pl Phys 113S
ASPP
R I Convention Centre Providence RI
2002
Jun 8-12
Vol 45 No 2
no
U of Calgary Calgary Alta
2003
Jun 25-28
Vol 46 No 2
PC
St Francis Xavier U Antigonish NS
2004
Jun 19-22
Vol 47 No 3
no
2005
Jun 15-19
Vol 48 No 2
PC
2006
Aug 5-9
Pl Phys 118S
ASPB
Hynes Convention Center Boston MA
2007
Jun 10-14
Vol 50 No 3
PC
U of Saskatchewan Saskatoon Sask
ASPP, ASPB- American Society of Plant Physiologists/Biologists
CBA- Canadian Botanical Association
CFBS- Canadian Federation of Biological Science
CSPMB- Canadian Society of Plant Molecular Biologists
PC -Plant Canada
27
Table 11 Dates and sites of the Western regional meetings 1983-2007
Year
Date
Proceedings
Place
1983
Feb 24
Vol 26 No 2
1985
Feb 17-18
Vol 28 No 2
1987
Feb 18-20
Vol 30 No 2
UBC Vancouver BC
1990
Feb 22-23
Vol 33 No 2
1992
Mar 15-17
1
Vol 35 No 2
U Alberta Banff Springs Hotel
1994
2
Vol 37 No 2
UBC Vancouver BC
3
Vol 39 No 2
Malaspina College Nanaimo BC
1996
Feb 17-18
Apr 15-16
1998
April 7-8
Vol 41 No 2
UVic Victoria BC
2000
May 6
Vol 43 No 2
U Alberta Edmonton
2004
Dec 9-10
Vol 48 No 2
U Saskatchewan Saskatoon
2007
Feb 22-24
Vol 50 No 2
UBC Kelowna Manteo Resort Okanagan BC
4
1. Jointly with Alberta Crop Molecular Biology Workshop
2. Jointly with 14th U of Victoria Forest and Tree Research Colloquium
Newsletter/Bulletin
The Society Secretary has published a newsletter since the earliest days with a new issue
two or three times per year. Copies of most of them are stored in the Society Archives. The issue
for October 1989 carried a bilingual title, Newsletter and Bulletin de Novelles ( corrected to
Nouvelles in the April 1990 issue) introduced by Secretary David Layzell. In October 1990, the
title became simply Bulletin which it has remained to the present. In August 1991, Secretary
Ray Cummins applied for and received an ISSN number (ISSN 1183-9597) for the Bulletin of
the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists/Bulletin de la Société Canadienne de Physiologie
Végétale. Of course, the copies were printed and mailed by post until the more widespread
advent of electronic means of communication. The final exclusively “hard copy” Bulletin is
dated October 1993.
Electronic communication began from the University of Guelph Environmental Biology
and Horticulture computers with Richard Côté as internet coordinator. Secretary Deep Saini
sent out Bulletins by e-mail with annual summary printouts through to December 1996. Lorna
Woodrow took over as editor of the Bulletin in January 1997 and resumed the publication of
printed issues mailed to the members through to October 1999 as well as continuing e-mailed
Bulletins.
28
Table 12 Dates and sites of the Eastern regional meetings 1983-2007
Year
Date
Proceedings
Place
1984
Jan 4-5
Vol 27 No 1
Concordia U Montreal Que
1984
Dec 16-18
Vol 28 No 1
1985
Dec 9-10
Vol 29 No 1
U of O Ottawa Ont
1986
Dec 15-16
Vol 30 No 1
U of T Toronto Ont
1987
Dec 17-19
Vol 31 No 1
U of G Guelph Ont
1988
Dec 15-17
Vol 32 No 1
McGill U Montreal Que
1989
Dec 14-16
Vol 33 No 1
UWO London Ont
1990
Dec 13-15
Vol 34 No I
U of W Waterloo Ont
1991
Dec 15-17
Vol 35 No 1
Carleton U Agr Can Ottawa
1992
Dec 13-15
Vol 36 No 1
U de M Montreal Que
1993
Dec 11-13
Vol 37 No 1
1994
Dec 11-13
Vol 38 No 1
McMaster U Hamilton at Royal Botan Gdns Burlington Ont
1995
Dec 9
Vol 39 No 1
York U Downsview Ont
1996
Nov 30
Vol 40 No 1
Wilfred Laurier U Waterloo Ont
1997
Dec 5-6
Vol 41 No 1
U of O at Lord Elgin Hotel Ottawa Ont
1998
Dec 12-13
Vol 42 No 1
U of T at Marriott Hotel Toronto Ont
1999
Dec 11-13
Vol 43 No 1
2000
Dec 10
Vol 44 No 1
U of Waterloo Waterloo Ont
2001
Dec 15
Vol 45 No 1
2002
Dec 7
Vol 46 No 1
Brock U St. Catharines Ont
2003
Dec 12-13
Vol 47 No 1
Concordia U Montreal Que
2004
Dec 10-11
Vol 48 No 1
2005
Dec 16-17
Vol 49 No 1
Wilfred Laurier U Waterloo Ont
2006
Dec 2*
Vol 50 No 1
McMaster U Hamilton Ont
2007
Dec 1
Vol 51 No 1
UWO London Ont
*jointly with 40th Plant Development workshop
CSPP-SCPV website
In 1999, Richard Côté stepped down as internet coordinator, the electronic address was
moved to the University of Guelph mainframe and the first steps in setting up a Society website
were made with Michael Stasiak (University of Guelph) as web master. President Gregory Taylor
undertook the uploading of the first 25 years history to the site but its main purpose was as a
29
place to advertise job openings and upcoming meetings. In 2000, Lorna Woodrow proposed
that the site be moved to a commercial one in order not to give the impression that the CSPP was
part of the university. The move was made to www.cspp-scpv.ca with Michael Stasiak continuing
as webmaster. Currently the Bulletin is published on the website together with the minutes of the
annual general meeting and the Society Charter and Constitution. A few printed copies of the
Bulletin are still sent to members without e-mail access.
Directory of Members
Another regular publication of the Society is its membership list which usually also includes
the current constitution. Membership lists at first were added to the Newsletter, but as the Society
grew a separate publication became necessary. Initially, a joint listing of CSPP and CBA members
was produced with those with dual membership indicated. More recently publication of the ever
changing membership list has been exclusively restricted to those of the CSPP-SCPV and is made
approximately every two years.
Of the original 86 founding members, six still remain as paid-up members in the latest
edition of the directory. They are Tony Bidwell, Jan Bonga, Jim Craigie, Connie Nozzolillo, Michael
Shaw, and Mary Spencer. Several others are still living but are no longer members. Included in this
list are Stew Brown, Vern Burrows, Morris Kates, Nestor Rosa, George Setterfield and Saul Zalik.
Journal
The Society has no journal of its own but members have always been encouraged to
submit papers to the Canadian Journal of Botany (CJB) which recently became Botany, An
International Journal for Plant Biology. The editor of the CJB usually reports on the journal to
the CSPP-SCPV membership at the annual meeting. Society members continue to have a major
presence at the journal and have typically been conscripted as editors, associate editors and
members of the editorial board. The change of name of the journal has also been discussed at
many CSPP-SCPV meetings over the years.
30
Chapter 6
WHO WE WERE AND ARE- THE SOCIETY ARCHIVES
The CSPP-SCPV archives owe their existence to the late Don Mortimer. In the preface
to their history of the first 25 years, Gorham and Bidwell express their gratitude to “the Society
archives and records” that the Executive Committee made available to them. However, at that
time, the “archives” existed only as a collection of papers stored in filing boxes and transferred
from one EC to its succeeding one and eventually to Don Mortimer’s office at NRCC in Ottawa.
At the 1983 AGM, Secretary Roger Horton emphasized the importance of maintaining Society
records in his report. Bidwell suggested placing some records in the National Archives and that
Don Mortimer could be asked to look into this possibility. Dick Pharis suggested that microficheing
was also a possibility. By the following year, the EC had asked Mortimer to chair a committee
to look into the National Archives as a possible repository for Society records and at the AGM,
President King reported that Mortimer had signed a contract with the National Archives and
was asking for contributions of appropriate material for storage there. The archives are not
mentioned again until the AGM of 1991 where it was noted that the duties of the archivist are
not clear and that steps should be taken to find a replacement archivist for the aging Mortimer.
By December 1992, President Canny reported to the EC that he had asked Connie Nozzolillo,
recently retired from the University of Ottawa, to assume the duties of archivist. However, as
Mortimer was not yet ready to withdraw from the post, Connie agreed to act as assistant archivist
for the time being. The archives at that time were stored alongside the NRCC archives which
Mortimer had established in the Sussex Street building in Ottawa and for which a professional
archivist had been hired on a part time basis by the NRCC.
In the end, the CSPP-SCPV archives were never deposited with the National Archives despite
the contract that Mortimer had signed. When Connie enquired as to the possibility of moving
the CSPP archives to the National Archives, she was informed that they were already storing the
CBA-ABC archives and had no room for those of other botanical societies. In December 1995,
President Ron Poole wrote a letter to Dr. Carty, head of the NRCC at the time, for permission to
keep the archives with those of the NRCC, arguing that the NRCC had been very involved in the
founding of the society and that Dr. Mortimer, who had started the archives of both the NRCC
and the CSPP, was a retired employee of the NRCC Thus the archives remain at the Sussex St.
NRCC building and presently occupy about 22 archival boxes in Room 1308a under the charge
of Archivist Steve Leclair, from whom permission to access them must be obtained. Dr. Mortimer
retained his interest in the archives until his death at age 76 in the millenium year.
31
Changes in makeup of the EC and committees over the years.
Initially, the EC consisted of only five persons: president, vice-president, secretarytreasurer, and eastern and western directors. By 1972, the duties of secretary and treasurer
were separated and of course, the past-president position became available after the first year
(Table 13). Committees were appointed as necessary, especially those devoted to determining
the winners of the Society awards. Thus the 1983 line-up included two award committees
composed of three members each and a nominations committee (Table 14). Two years later, the
vice- president’s job also included that of running the newly established student cash award for
best oral paper at the annual meeting and two CSPP representatives to the BCC (Robert Hill and
Connie Nozzolillo) were appointed, to be replaced in the following year by Judith Frégeau and
Frank Wightman. Two years later, Frank Wightman was replaced by John Arnason. In 1987 a
second vice-president, who became vice-president the following year and hence is not included
in Table 13, was named. This policy was followed in succeeding years until 1993 when the
term of President was extended to two years. In 1988 an Atlantic Region Special Representative
(Roger Lee) was named to encourage interest in the society in that region and to investigate the
possibility of holding an annual meeting there. In 1989 a Society Archivist was named (Don
Mortimer) and two new award committees appointed, one for the Tree Physiology Award, the
other for the Gleb Krotkov Award (Table 14). The 1990 EC included a new addition: Science
Policy/CFBS representative (David Canvin). As well as the CSPP President and Secretary, who
were automatically members of the CFBS Board, the 1991 list of CSPP representatives included
Dick Pharis replacing David Canvin on the Committee for Science Policy and two new ones:
Ragai Ibrahim on the Programme Committee and Lorna Woodrow on the Equal Opportunity
Committee. The 1993 report lists two Senior Directors (Brian Colman and Peter Joliffe) but
only one Vice-President and a new Publications Committee chaired by Deep Saini. Dick Pharis
remained CFBS Science Policy Advisor, Lorna Woodrow was still on the Equal Opportunity
Committee but Ron Poole was now on the Programme Committee to be replaced in 1994 by
Ray Cummins. Also in 1994, Derek Bewley replaced Peter Joliffe, and in turn was replaced in
1995 by John King, as Senior Director. In 1995 an Education Committee was added (Table 13).
In 1996, John Thompson was elected Science Policy Officer. In 1997, Science Directors were
Ed Cossins and Ray Cummins who was also Science Policy Officer. Subsequent to breaking its
association with CFBS, Science Policy Officers continued to be elected: Alan Good in 1998,
Marc Fortin 1999 to 2002, Peter Constabel 2002 to 2003 and Barbara Moffatt 2004 to the
present. In 1999, David Gifford and Brian Colman were Senior Directors and a Bulletin Editor,
Lorna Woodrow, was named. Senior Directors in 2000 were David Gifford and Alan Bown and
in 2001, Alan Bown and Derek Bewley. In 2002, only one Senior Director (Fathey Sarhan) was
appointed for two years, and the Bulletin Editor (David Gifford) became the Communications
32
Director. In 2004, Marilyn Griffith became Senior Director and Gordon Gray Communications
Director. An Education Director, Anja Geitmann, and a Student Representative, a post later
filled by Andrew McCartney and in 2006 by Alexandra Reid, had been added. Upon Marilyn’s
untimely death, Derek Bewley stepped in until Priti Krishna was appointed in 2005. Greg
Moorhead became Education Director that same year. Description of the duties of each of the
executive positions was updated in 1987, and again in 1994. The list of duties includes those
of the Society auditors, two of whom are appointed each year, if possible from members who
live not far from the current Treasurer. They examine all the books and accounts and assets of
the Society and certify that the accounts are in order in a report to the annual general meeting.
This is a valuable service to the Society for which the only reward is the satisfaction of a job well
done.
Corporate memberships:
Over the years, commercial associations had resulted in the appearance from time
to time of paid advertisements in the Bulletin and the sale of membership lists. However, the
charitable status of the Society put severe restrictions on such sources of income. At the 2004
AGM, President Deep Saini presented a motion, seconded by Sheila MacFie, that the Society
create a new ‘corporate member’ category. The argument in support of the motion was as
follows: “Over the last 25 years, an ever-increasing amount of research in experimental plant
biology has been done within private enterprises, and research within university and government
laboratories has become intertwined with that in the private sector. Many university/government
researchers collaborate with industrial researchers and many have launched successful spinoff companies. To highlight this new reality and to facilitate closer formal interaction between
corporations and traditional members of the CSPP, it would be useful to create a new ‘corporate
member’ category for the CSPP”. After some discussion, the motion was carried with 18 for,
6 against, and 7 abstentions . By-Law 2 now includes a second category of membership. The
initial target was to enroll about 10 Canadian companies active in plant biology research. At
the 2005 AGM, President Saini reported that recruitment to the new category was now ready
to begin and by the 2006 AGM, the first corporate member, LiCor, had been signed up. In
return for the corporate membership fee the company receives Society membership for two of
its employees and the right to advertise at Society meetings. A second corporation, AgriSera,
joined shortly after and at the 2007 AGM President Rob Guy announced that a third, Conviron,
had joined as a result of solicitation at the meeting in Boston. He declared himself ready to
approach new candidates at the Saskatoon meeting, letter of invitation in hand, but preferred
to be very selective in the selection of candidates. The October 2007 Bulletin reports that two
additional corporations had signed up: PP Systems and Qubit Systems, bringing the total to five.
33
Table 13 Executive Committee members 1983-2008*
Year
President
Vice-Pres.
Secretary
Treasurer
E. Director
W. Director
1983
John King
Robert Hill
Derek Bewley
Brian Colman
Judith Fregeau
William Vidaver
1984
Robert Hill
Erwin Dumbroff
Derek Bewley
Nestor Rosa
Judith Fregeau
John Mahon
1985
Erwin Dumbroff
Doug Ormrod
Bernard Grodzinski
Nestor Rosa
Alan Bown
John Mahon
1986
Doug Ormrod
Brian Colman
Bernard Grodzinski
Andre D’Aoust
Alan Bown
Trevor Thorpe
1987
Brian Colman
Derek Bewley
John Hoddinott
Andre D’Aoust
Dan Brown
Trevor Thorpe
1988
Derek Bewley
John Thompson
John Hoddinott
Carol Peterson
Dan Brown
Stewart Rood
1989
John Thompson
Peter Jolliffe
David Layzell
Carol Peterson
Norman Huner
Stewart Rood
1990
Peter Jolliffe
Alan Bown
David Layzell
Anne JohnsonFlanagan
Norman Huner
David Gifford
1991
Alan Bown
Martin Canny
Raymond Cummins
Anne JohnsonFlanagan
Fathey Sarhan
David Gifford
1992
Martin Canny
Trevor Thorpe
Raymond Cummins
Nestor Rosa
Fathey Sarhan
Edith Camm
1993
Trevor Thorpe
Ronald Poole
Raymond Cummins
Nestor Rosa
Jasbir Singh
Edith Camm
Robert Guy
1994
Trevor Thorpe
Ronald Poole
Raymond Cummins
Mike Dixon
Jasbir Singh
Robert Guy
1995
Ronald Poole
Carol Peterson
David Gifford
Mike Dixon
Marilyn Griffith
Robert Guy
1996
Ronald Poole
Carol Peterson
David Gifford
John Greenwood
Marilyn Griffith
Santosh Misra
1997
Carol Peterson
David Dennis
Gregory Taylor
David Gifford
John Greenwood
George Espie
Santosh Misra
1998
Carol Peterson
Gregory Taylor
David Gifford
Raymond Cummins
George Espie
Jocelyn Ozga
1999
Gregory Taylor
Norman Huner
Deep Saini
Raymond Cummins
George Espie
Jocelyn Ozga
2000
Gregory Taylor
Norman Huner
Deep Saini
George Espie
Carl Douglas
2001
Norman Huner
Brian Ellis
Deep Saini
George Espie
Carl Douglas
2002
Norman Huner
Deep Saini
Pierre Bilodeau
Harold Weger
Priti Krishna
Carl Douglas
2003
Deep Saini
David Gifford
Robert Guy
Pierre Bilodeau
Harold Weger
Priti Krishna
Douglas Muench
2004
Deep Saini
Robert Guy
Pierre Bilodeau
Harold Weger
Gregory Vanlerberghe
Douglas Muench
2005
Robert Guy
Peter Pauls
Pierre Bilodeau
Line Lapointe
Harold Weger
Gregory Vanlerberghe
E. Schultz
2006
Robert Guy
Peter Pauls
Line Lapointe
Harold Weger
Malcolm Campbell
E. Schultz
2007
Peter Pauls
Carl Douglas
Line Lapointe
Harold Weger
Malcolm Campbell
Soheil Mahmoud
*Positions added since 1990: Senior, Science Policy, Communications and Education Directors and Student Representative are named on
pages 32-33.
34
35
J King
E Cossins
1996
1997
P Krishna
P Krishna
P Krishna
2005
2006
2007
M Griffith
J King
1995
2004
P Joliffe
1994
M Griffith
M Canny
1993
D Bewley
A Bown
1992
2003
P Joliffe
1991
2002
J Thompson
1990
D Bewley
D Bewley
1989
D Gifford
B Colman
1988
2000
D Ormrod
1987
2001
E Dumbroff
1986
E Cossins
R Hill
1985
D Gifford
J King
1984
1999
J Craigie
1983
1998
Nom
Year
C Douglas
P Pauls
P Pauls
R Guy
F Sarhan
F Sarhan
A Bown
A Bown
B Colman
B Colman
R Cummins
C Peterson
C Peterson
M Canny
M Canny
A Bown
P Joliffe
J Thompson
D Bewley
Meeting
Bulletin
D Gifford
G Gray
G Gray
G Gray
G Gray
D Gifford
D Gifford
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
G Gray
G Gray
P Bilodeau
P Bilodeau
D Saini
D Saini
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
L Woodrow
Commun
D Gifford
D Saini
D Saini
D Saini
D Saini
D Layzell
D Layzell
B Colman
B Colman
Publication
R Ireland
E Yeung
J Coleman
P Joliffe
S Rood
E Cossins
B Grodzinski
B Ellis
M Spencer
R Hill
D Bewley
A Bown
A Bown
M Spencer
M Spencer
R Pharis
E Dumbroff
A Oaks
P Gorham
R Hill
G Maclachlan
J Dainty
R Bidwell
D Canvin
D Canvin
Medal
Table 14 Chairs of committees 1983-2008
P Facchini
D Goring
V Sawhney
D Kristie
R Mullen
W Plaxton
K Vessey
G. Taylor
R Van Huystee
V de Luca
E Yeung
J Nowak
R Dhindsa
V DeLuca
V DeLuca
D Turpin
R Dhindsa
D Gifford
N Huner
F Wightman
A D’Aoust
D Reid
W Kimmins
B Ellis
J Mahon
Nelson
D Layzell
L Fowke
N Brisson
R Horton
B Colman
G Taylor
R Hill
C Nozzolillo
B Ellis
B Ellis
A Laroche
R Hill
R Hill
D Ormrod
D Ormrod
J Hellebust
R Ibrahim
M Spencer
D Fensom
Krotkov
R Mullen
J Ozga
M Dixon
A Kermode
P Von Aderkas
P Constabel
B Ellis
D. Ormrod
A Eastham
J Bonga
G Mohammed
S Rood
D Gifford
A Little
A Little
J Williams
R Pharis
A D’Aoust
D Ormrod
Tree
G Moorhead
G Moorhead
G Moorhead
A Geitmann
A Geitmann
J Hoddinott
J Hoddinott
D Bruce
D Bruce
R Thompson
J Hoddinott
R Ireland
R Ireland
Education
Chapter 7
MISCELLANY AND FINAL STATEMENT
CSPP involvement in restoration of Stephens Hales burial site
In 1983, Dr. Eric Pengelly, UC Riverside, became concerned about the sad state of the
grave site of the English scientist of the 17th century, Stephen Hales, often lauded as “the father
of plant physiology” and, assisted by Dr. Robert Chasson and Dr. Alan Sykes, began to collect
funds to restore it. Derek Bewley visited the site that same year and found it indeed to be in a
considerable state of decay. Hales is buried in a vault under the entrance to the Parish Church
of St. Mary and St. Alban in Teddington, a suburb of London, England. The inscription of the
stone above his grave had been worn down by the passage of the congregation into and out
of the church. Part of it had been transcribed onto a small wooden plaque on the wall of the
entrance area. The aim was to restore the worn stone, put in a new floor and a more resilient
memorial plaque, at what would probably be a cost of several thousand pounds sterling. The
CSPP-SCPV agreed to donate $500 to the project and forwarded that sum to Dr. Pengelley. At
the AGM in July 1984, Iain Taylor reported that all the monies required for restoration work had
been raised. The work was finished by 1986.
From the Oct 86 newsletter: “Stephen Hales DD, FRS, 1677-1761: The following short
tribute is from Reverend Raymond Carter, Vicar of St. Mary’s with St. Alban’s Teddington “the
greatest benefactor of the Church was undoubtedly Stephen Hales who is now commemorated
in this booklet, the Wall Scroll and the new memorial floor of slate in the West Porch. Dr. Hales
was renowned as both pastor and scientist and it is very fitting that the memorial floor should
be such a worthy and imaginative tribute to his life-long endeavours. Skilled in pastoral care
and personal relationships, and always pursuing most rigorously his scientific enquiries, he
is regarded with great esteem and affection throughout the world. May his exemplary life be
reflected in ours!” These words are part of the introduction to a small booklet published by the
Church which commemorates the restoration of a plaque to Stephen Hales:
The Rev’d Stephen Hales DD FRS
1677-1761
Exemplary Priest
Eminent Scientist
Minister of this Parish for 51 years
This memorial floor was given by his admirers in 1986”
36
The list of 25 principal subscribers that follows includes both the CBA and the CSPP
International special symposia
Members of CSPP-SCPV have contributed to special international symposia on inorganic
carbon acquisition by aquatic photosynthetic organisms. The first, sponsored by the National
Science Foundation was held in 1984 at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA and the proceedings
were published by the ASPP (Lucas, W J and Berry, J A, Editors 1985). The second, sponsored
by NSERC, was held at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1990 and the proceedings,
edited by Society Past-President Brian Colman, were published in CJB Vol. 69 (5), 1991 as a
complete issue. This issue of CJB was one of the most highly cited issues of the Journal up to
that time. The third, sponsored by CSPP-SCPV, was held on the campus of UBC in Vancouver
in 1997 and the proceedings , also edited by Brian Colman, were published in CJB, Vol. 76
(6) 1998. A fourth meeting was held in 2001 at a resort in Cairns, Queensland, Australia and
the proceedings published as a special issue in Functional Plant Biology Vol. 29 (2/3) 2002. A
fifth, again sponsored by CSPP-SCPV, was held at a resort in St. Saveur, Quebec in 2004 and
the proceedings, co-edited by Brian Colman and former Society Treasurer George Espie, were
published in CJB Vol. 83 (7)2005. The sixth meeting of this group was held at the University
of Malaga, Spain in July 2007 and the papers presented are to be published in Physiologia
Plantarum Vol. 133, 2008.
The history of photosynthetic research in Canada
Govindjee, a renowned photosynthetic researcher retired from the University of Illinois,
Urbana, IL, in 2004 asked Paul Gorham to write the history of photosynthetic research in
Canada during the three decades following World War II for inclusion in the series on the history
of photosynthesis he was in the process of writing for the journal Photosynthesis Research. Paul
enlisted the aid of the CSPP-SCPV archivist, and together the two worked on the manuscript for
the better part of the year 2005, communicating mainly by e-mail but managing to sit together
to discuss the partially completed manuscript in Paul’s home in Edmonton during the 2005
CSPP-SCPV meeting in that city. The completed manuscript was submitted to the journal in late
2005. Paul received the pre-print pdf of the paper (Photosynthesis Research Volume 88 pages
83-100, 2006) but unfortunately did not live to receive the 50 free reprints which have been
distributed to the numerous persons who had provided information for the paper. Govindjee and
the CSPP archivist together with Paul’s daughter Harriet wrote an obituary notice for publication
in that same journal (Photosynthesis Research Volume 92 pages 3-5, 2007)
37
Memories
As described in the first volume of the Society history, the annual meetings are not
only devoted to the serious matters of plant physiology research and Society business but also
include time for relaxation and social intercourse. Succeeding meeting organizers do their best
to make their contribution to this aspect the most memorable ever. My own personal memories
from meetings attended include the pub “crawl” and the colourful after-dinner folk-dancing
troupe in Waterloo in 1983, the Society visit to the Devonian Gardens, a barbecue dampened
by rainfall, and enthusiastic dancing by a Ukrainian folk dance group in Edmonton in 1991;
another rained-on dinner/barbecue and rodeo and post-meeting tour of dinosaur country at
the Calgary meeting in 2002; a dinner cruise and dance on the St. Lawrence River at Quebec
City in 1996; the beautiful meeting site at the Montreal Botanic Gardens and again a dinner
cruise and dance on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal in 1998, and the visit to wine country at
the 2005 Guelph meeting. Brian Colman also has fond memories of another cruise on the St.
Lawrence River, this time among the Thousand Islands, on a beautiful June evening in 1987.
The future
What does the future hold? The fears of the past that membership decline might lead to
the demise of the Society seem to have diminished. Membership has remained at a more or less
steady level for the past decade with a good proportion of students who will presumably become
full members as they graduate and become gainfully employed.
Public interest in plant research is higher than it has ever been due to the concern over
environmental issues such as climate warming and acceptance or not of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) and “organic” vs “conventional” food production. Past-Treasurer André
D’Aoust who is a tree physiologist retired from Natural Resources Canada notes:
“A place of choice should be given to tree physiology particularly because forest
products have been a major resource and will continue to be if we take good care of our forests.
Improvement via biotechnology is open for more research with respect to the genetics of disease
resistance and the ability of seedlings to compete with herbaceous vegetation. The physiology of
seedlings grown in nurseries or greenhouses is of prime importance for their survival and early
growth in the field.”
Whatever the research objective may be, obtaining adequate funding for research
projects will no doubt remain a major problem with writing of endless grant proposals a
continuing time-consuming activity.
38
Appendix
REPORT TO THE EXECUTIVE OF THE CANADIAN
SOCIETY OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGISTS, MAY 1986
Recommendations to the NSERC Life Sciences Advisory Committee in
Consideration of the Future of Plant Physiology in Canada
The goal of plant physiologists is to understand how plants work. Plant physiology
is clearly an experimental science which provides a foundation of knowledge and which is
applicable, in the short and long term, to the public and private domains of agriculture,
horticulture, forestry, the pharmaceutical industries, and to studies of the environment. The
nature of plant physiological research has undergone many transitions, particularly in the postwar era as new instrumentation and technologies have emerged. One of the greatest changes
in the perspective of plant physiological research is currently underway, carried along by the
surge of interest in molecular biology and biotechnology. The powerful tools developed for
these new research areas hold in prospect revolutionary advances in the applied plant sciences.
It is becoming increasingly evident, however, that there are extensive gaps in our understanding
of the physiological and biochemical processes which are an essential prelude to advances in
biotechnology. Future advances demand that the combined energies and expertises of plant
physiologists, biochemists and molecular biologists be directed towards the elucidation of
cogent problems. Many plant physiologists and biochemists are essentially retraining as they
expand their research to include the new molecular approaches, and a new generation of plant
physiologists is arising with molecular and biotechnological expertise.
For Canada to take advantage of the new technologies, and to make significant
advances therein, there must be a strong commitment to foster the advance of the experimental
plant sciences. In particular, this must be effected on two fronts: the development of suitably
trained manpower, and the provision of appropriate funding to take advantage of the new
technologies.
Manpower Training Programmes
Recent figures published by NSERC predict an alarming shortfall of trained research
personnel in many disciplines within the next decade. This will be exacerbated within the
39
experimental plant sciences as competition for trained graduates and postgraduates will
continue between existing and developing biotechnology-related industries, government
laboratories and universities. Within Canada there are lamentably few laboratories capable
of training the required young researchers, and this number shows little sign of increasing.
It is not surprising that our postgraduates are drawn to institutions in the USA and the EEC
countries for postdoctoral training in the new disciplines. With the strong market for trainees
in biotechnology in the USA in particular, and the ability of industry and universities there to
provide the appropriate research facilities and incentives, we are in jeopardy of losing our best
young researchers to positions south of the border. The level of research funding that is offered
to new appointees by universities in Canada and by NSERC is, bluntly, pathetic in relation to
real need. Thus there is an urgent need for more substantial manpower training programmes
in this country, for monies to be available to facilitate more plant physiological researchers
to move towards biotechnology, and for financial incentives to attract our new generation of
research trainees to stay, or to return. Support for the postgraduate training programme needs
to be elevated several fold, as does that for the postdoctoral programme. It is ironical that the
average research dollars for operating grants awarded by the NSERC Plant Biology Committee
is equivalent to the salary of one postdoctoral fellow in a government laboratory.
An excellent laboratory learning environment is one in which there are several graduate
students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians, working on inter-related research projects;
but such research teams cannot be supported by operating or, where applicable, strategic
grants alone. The University Research Fellowship Programme is a welcome addition to the
manpower scene, although it abrogates the real responsibility of provincial governments to
provide universities with the next generation of educators and researchers. Greater emphasis
than present should be placed on joint NSERC-Industry and NSERC-Government Agency (e.g.
Agriculture Canada) funded studentships and postdoctoral fellowships, with the research being
based in universities and studying problems (basic and applied) of short- and long- to very longterm potential relevance to the user section.
Funding for Plant Research
A strong case for the support of plant physiological and biochemical research can
be made, because knowledge derived from such research is the foundation for the emerging
biotechnologies. In addition, it must be recognized that increased or supplemental support must
be provided to laboratories moving towards or engaged in the new technologies. Molecular
biology is an especially expensive area of research from the standpoint of equipment and
40
supplies. The new generation of independent researchers receives inadequate and unrealistic
research funding to contribute effectively at the new frontiers. Already-funded researchers
receive insufficient financial increases to allow them to modify their research programmes and
to incorporate the new molecular technologies.
The inadequate funding provided to researchers by the government through NSERC
is aggravated by the inappropriate distribution of research monies through other agencies.
Financing of biotechnological research is clearly misdirected through PILP, DSS and DRIE.
Moreover, the purpose and quality of Agriculture Canada contracts and NRC contracts needs
to be more clearly defined. The essence of a good research grants programme is one which is
both competitive and utilizes peer review. Millions of dollars are currently distributed to research
outside of the competitive grants format which is so successfully operated by NSERC. New small
industrial “biotech” research centres and even large research institutes are arising with substantial
funding, without contacts with established university researchers and without appropriate scrutiny
of the research credentials of their perpetrators. The potential for waste of precious research
dollars is great. Centres for plant biotechnological and molecular biological research need to
be developed within, or in close association with universities. Monies should be used to develop
centres of excellence regardless of geographical distribution. With the current dearth of trained
researchers it is most inappropriate to develop a network of unsatisfactory, underfinanced
and misdirected regional facilities. Better use should be made of existing research talent and
expertise. More focus needs to be applied to the problems and potentials of biotechnology and
there should be a greater recognition of the potentials of plant biotechnology.
Present Committee Structure
In relation to the importance of plant physiological and related research disciplines, it
is felt by plant physiologists that they are underrepresented on a number of NSERC grantgiving committees. On the Plant Biology Committee there is an inadequate number of plant
physiologists in relation to the number of applicants in this area. Other disciplines, e.g. food
science and soil science, are over-represented. Moreover, it may be questioned whether these
areas are appropriate to the Plant Biology Committee. The question also arises as to whether
granting for plant biotechnology should fall within the domain of the Cell Biology Committee.
Some plant researchers who use biotechnological approaches to their research are funded by
Plant Biology, and others by Cell Biology. It is particularly distressing that the latter committee
contains no plant biologist. Within the committees of the Strategic Grants Programme the interests
of plant physiologists are not consistently represented nor, on a wider basis, is there appropriate
41
representation of life scientists on committees such as that responsible for the distribution of
postdoctoral fellowships.
Future Strategies
In the light of the above, it is evident that for development of world class research in
plant biotechnology and its supporting areas of plant physiology and biochemistry, the number
of scientists with appropriate expertise must be increased, as must be the funding available
to them. Relative to the costs of training post-graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
alone, the value of NSERC grants is woefully inadequate. At least a doubling of the average
grant is in order, with an even greater emphasis on excellence. If NSERC is unable to obtain
the required increase in base funding, then a redistribution of its research monies has to be
considered. A greater proportion of funding should be directed to those researchers who are
clearly successful, superior, and have an acknowledged training programme of high quality.
The success rate for applicants should be lowered from the present 70%, but not below 60%
unless there is an increase in funding from alternative sources. A reduction below this level
would seriously undermine the morale of researchers within universities, and could devastate
research potential in less “popular” areas. Team grants should be encouraged within the normal
distribution procedures for Operating grants, where ideas and resources can be pooled for more
effective and efficient research. Cooperative team research involving a number of scientists could
help reduce the number of individual research grants awarded, and yet maintain the interest
and activity of a high number of researchers. Plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular
biology are particularly efficacious areas for research cooperation, and a new generation of
excellent research teams could arise from the present individual-oriented programmes.
It has been recognized within NSERC that research into the physical sciences cannot
progress without a major expenditure on equipment. However, it has not been recognized that
life-science research is people and supplies-oriented. Even a simple operation like growing
plants for research is time- and labour-expensive and costs are no longer borne by most university
departments. An equivalent amount of funding to redress the balance between the two scientific
approaches is needed, and quickly.
It is imperative that the operating grants programme of NSERC continue to receive
highest priority in the allocation of funding. The current four percent reduction in this programme
is deplorable. Other programmes within NSERC should be appraised in order to recoup and
elevate these monies. Infrastructure grants, although valuable, provide monies which should
come from university and, ultimately, provincial sources. The summer student programme
42
supports those uncommitted to research and whose productivity and contribution to research
progress is below that of postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows - our next generation of trained
scientists. The URF programme, which has provided many departments with much needed talent,
relieves provincial governments of the responsibility to maintain the quality of their universities.
The strategic programme, although politically expedient, is questionable in relation to
value-for-money. There is a noticeable absence of any follow up on the usefulness of completed
projects and the extent of success of the applied projects. The ephemeral nature of the grants
makes it an unsuitable forum for the development of long-term projects and manpower training
programmes. Recruitment of personnel into Strategic research projects can commence only after
funding is assured (at very short notice) and lay-off plans must be undertaken many months in
advance of completion of the project. Excellent projects may be terminated for reasons unrelated
to the quality of the research and those involved. A combined Operating and Strategic policy
would seem to be advisable, in a manner similar to that operated by the USDA, and researchers
should be encouraged to apply for different basic, applied, or combined, programme monies
as their research time and energies permit.
As a final comment, while the new NSERC University-Industry programme remains to
be tested, the previous lack of support by industries for plant research militates for a pessimistic
attitude. Whatever the future course of this new programme, it is imperative that all proposals
be subjected to the competitive, peer review system that has brought rigour and success to the
NSERC Operating Grants programme.
Submitted by:
J.Derek Bewley (Chairman)
David T. Dennis
John E. Thompson
43
The Second
Twenty-Five Years
A History of

The Second Twenty-Five Years - The Canadian Society of Plant

Transcription

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