Executive Officer's Column

In our last journal I mentioned that the Mississippi Academy of Sciences has had only four Executive Officers in its history. Dudley Peeler was the third in that short line and served the Academy for ten years as Executive Officer. He has continued to serve the MAS in other important roles including President. Dudley has also been our representative to the National Association of Academies of Sciences (NAAS) for many years and has served as President of that organization. Alas, all good service must come to an end. Dudley will be retiring from his position at the University of Mississippi Medical Center this summer, and he and wife Liz will be moving to North Carolina. While we are certain that he will still think about us, it might be a trifle far to ask him to continue to come to our Board meetings. He will leave a gigantic void: his service to the Academy was beyond the sum of his various positions. Dudley has provided corporate memory of over twenty years of activities and efforts. He has been a reliable source of constitutional and procedural information for the Board and for his successor as Executive Officer (whose memory can sometimes be measured in minutes). He has really personified the MAS. The Board has recently acted to institute an award honoring Dudley's service to the Academy. In past years we have offered an award that has been less than specific; it has gone to individuals for either service to science in general or for service to the Academy. Henceforth, we will be proud to present the Dudley F. Peeler Outstanding Contributions to the Mississippi Academy of Sciences Award.

In our continuing efforts to make taking your money easier, this year we will accept preregistration payment for the Annual Meeting at the same time you submit payment for abstracts. If you recall, last year we began requiring that membership payment also accompany the abstract submission. In this way all payments for activities revolving around the Meeting can be made at one time. This should help with providing necessary receipts for any reimbursements. We still encourage submission of the actual abstract through our WEB site.

Planning for the 1999 Meeting is still underway. A decision on the site will be forthcoming. It will definitely be somewhere in North Mississippi for the first time in many years. Jackson has simply provided us with too many difficulties for a good Meeting. Biloxi has been a wonderful site, but it has been decided that we need some variation. We hope that members and potential members in the northern part of the state will take advantage of this northern excusion.--John Boyle