Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division Holds Annual Meeting in Houston

The Southwestern and Rocky Mountain (SWARM) Division of AAAS will hold its 2007 Annual Meeting at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, bringing together top scientists, students, teachers, and the public, engaging them in a wide range of symposia and activities addressing regional and global issues.

The meeting, to be held 18-21 April, will feature a presentation by Paul Ching-Wu Chu, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, along with symposia on astrophysics, energy research and development, and infectious diseases; student poster sessions; and field trips to NASA Johnson Space Center and the Armand Bayou Nature Center.

"The SWARM Annual Meeting features top-notch research from regional scientists in an environment that encourages engagement with students and the public," said David Nash, executive director of the SWARM division. "Through our meeting, scientists and the public can learn about emerging regional issues like infectious disease and water quality, along with how local scientists are responding."

In addition, the Annual Meeting will hold a special topic symposium entitled, "Evolution and Science Education: Challenges, Advances, and Solutions," featuring a discussion between scientists and educators on how to promote the teaching of evolution in the classroom and strategies for responding to its challengers.

Registration for the meeting, which is still open and priced to encourage broad participation, also includes entrance to the 13th Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts Annual Meeting, a two-day event featuring original student research and creative arts projects held in conjunction with the SWARM meeting.

At the SWARM meeting, Nash expects a diverse body of registrants, including students and professors from junior and community colleges, senior scientists, graduate students, Latino and Native American attendees, and others sometimes unable to attend larger scientific meetings because of budget and other constraints.

"The regional division meetings allow for outreach and engagement with a variety of people that traditionally do not participate in larger meetings, including those from non-research institutions with little travel funding," said Nash.

The four regional divisions of AAAS—Pacific, Arctic, Caribbean, and SWARM—serve as regional networks for scientists, organizing meetings on regional issues and promoting publications from scientists active within the division.

The Pacific Division's charter dating to 1915; SWARM is the second-oldest division, with its origins dating to 1920, followed by the Arctic division in 1951 and the Caribbean division in 1985.

The SWARM division currently has more than 14,000 members from Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana (east of the Continental Divide), Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming; the Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Sonora states of Mexico; and the Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces in Canada.

All AAAS members in good standing, and who reside within the specified boundaries of a regional division, are automatically considered members of that regional division. AAAS will send staff from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to the Houston meeting this month with special membership offers and to answer questions about membership.

Benjamin Somers

11 April 2007