In December 2020, CSSP had the honor of hearing from an incredible group of students from Oviedo High School in Seminole County, FL. They shared the scientific research that they were submitting, and had earned awards from scientific competitions, at the local, regional, state and national levels. As we listened to this group, who we engaged as the Next generation of leaders in science we were awed by what they were accomplishing through their research. With the guidance of their teacher, Mr. William Furiosi who developed and has grown the Experimental Science, program at the high school, we were able to confirm that these students definitely had (and many still have) the drive and skills to be the next generation of leaders in science.

Mr. Furiosi shared the most current Experimental Science Yearbook (PDF), which includes details about both current and past students and the ongoing science focus and growth they are achieving. We are proud to share that yearbook with you. How fantastic would it be to have programs like this in high schools around the country? Thank you, Mr. Furiosi, and congratulations to those students who spoke to CSSP members. Here are their names and their grades at the time.  

• Kalash Patel, Junior, Oviedo High School
• Laboni Santra, Senior, Oviedo High School
• Brian Scalf, Freshman, Oviedo High School
• Grace Thompson, Sophomore, University of South Florida

During the August CSSP Office Hours we are honored to have Dr. Darrell Fisher, Past-President of the Health Physics Society and former member of the CSSP Board, where he served as both a member-at-large and as Secretary. Dr. Fisher, a Nuclear-Medicine Physicist works with Versant Physics. He will be available and ready to share his extensive knowledge and experience with attendees on Wednesday, August 10th between 2 - 3 pm Eastern. Office Hours are open to members of CSSP member societies.

Register here.

Lisa Schulte-Moore, Iowa State University, presented with CSSP’s 2022 Citation for Leadership and Achievement for improving natural resource management and engaging the public to better value the science that benefits our environment.

The CSSP Citation for Leadership & Achievement honors those who merit special recognition for outstanding leadership and achievements in the last year in support of scientific research

As a collaborator with the International Science Reserve (ISR), the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) is extending the call to wildfire researchers to join this expanding science community.  Established in 2022 with the support of IBM, Google, and UL, the International Science Reserve (ISR) is a network of open scientific communities, bringing together specialized resources from across the globe to prepare for and help respond to complex and urgent global crises. Wildfires have been chosen as the ISR's pilot crisis. 

What is the ISR  

As was learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, science in a time of crisis is not "science as usual."  During a crisis, scientists need unfettered and rapid access to resources and collaborators. Preparing before a crisis incident occurs is critical to shortening response times, improving coordination, and reducing the impact of the crisis. The ISR works in collaboration and partnership with the existing crisis response ecosystem, augmenting and accelerating efforts by governments and global organizations through all three stages of a crisis – preparation, response, and recovery. The goal of the ISR is to be ready with tested and proven procedures, and the means to match human and material resources to research needs, when a real disaster strikes.  

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) is pleased to announce the results of its election of new Board members which was held during the Winter CSSP Leadership Workshop, December 4-6, 2021.

Donna J. Nelson, Ph.D., a pro­fessor of organic chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, will fill the position of 2022 Chair-Elect. G. Warfield “Skip” Hobbs, the managing partner of Ammonite Resources, has been elected as a Member at Large.

Dr. Nelson has held several leadership positions in academia (such as Faculty Fellow in the OU Pro­vost’s Office) and in professional societies (such as 2016 Ameri­can Chemical Society President, focusing on and guided by communities in chemistry). Nelson served as science advisor to the AMC television show Breaking Bad.

Pfizer’s Novel COVID-19 Oral Antiviral Treatment Candidate Reduced Risk of Hospitalization or Death by 89% in Interim Analysis of Phase 2/3 EPIC-HR Study

• PAXLOVID™ (PF-07321332; ritonavir) was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% compared to placebo in non-hospitalized high-risk adults with COVID-19
• In the overall study population through Day 28, no deaths were reported in patients who received PAXLOVID™ as compared to 10 deaths in patients who received placebo
• Pfizer plans to submit the data as part of its ongoing rolling submission to the U.S. FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as soon as possible

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced its investigational novel COVID-19 oral antiviral candidate,PAXLOVID™, significantly reduced hospitalization and death, based on an interim analysis of the Phase 2/3 EPIC-HR (Evaluation of Protease Inhibition for COVID-19 in High-Risk Patients) randomized, double-blind study of non-hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19, who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness. The scheduled interim analysis showed an 89% reduction in risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization or death from any cause compared to placebo in patients treated within three days of symptom onset (primary endpoint); 0.8% of patients who received PAXLOVID™ were hospitalized through Day 28 following randomization (3/389 hospitalized with no deaths), compared to 7.0% of patients who received placebo and were hospitalized or died (27/385 hospitalized with 7 subsequent deaths). The statistical significance of these results was high (p<0.0001). Similar reductions in COVID-19-related hospitalization or death were observed in patients treated within five days of symptom onset; 1.0% of patients who received PAXLOVID™ were hospitalized through Day 28 following randomization (6/607 hospitalized, with no deaths), compared to 6.7% of patients who received a placebo (41/612 hospitalized with 10 subsequent deaths), with high statistical significance (p<0.0001). In the overall study population through Day 28, no deaths were reported in patients who received PAXLOVID™ as compared to 10 (1.6%) deaths in patients who received placebo.

At the recommendation of an independent Data Monitoring Committee and in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer will cease further enrollment into the study due to the overwhelming efficacy demonstrated in these results and plans to submit the data as part of its ongoing rolling submission to the U.S. FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as soon as possible.

“Today’s news is a real game-changer in the global efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic. These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or authorized by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. “Given the continued global impact of COVID-19, we have remained laser-focused on the science and fulfilling our responsibility to help healthcare systems and institutions around the world while ensuring equitable and broad access to people everywhere.”

Paul Anastas, a Yale professor and pioneer in developing non-hazardous chemicals, wins the 2021 Volvo Environment Prize, one of the world's most respected scientific environmental awards. The research of Paul Anastas "is revolutionizing the chemical industry, a key contribution to meeting the sustainability challenge," says the Prize Jury.

Everything we touch, see and feel is chemical, whether it's furniture, clothes we wear, medicines we take, or electronics that we use. For the past two centuries, chemistry has been creating technological miracles, increasing the human quality of life. But its performance has also led to unintended consequences of pollution, waste, and toxicity.

Malcolm Butler will join UNC Charlotte’s Cato College of Education as dean in January 2022. He will arrive from the University of Central Florida where he is professor and director of the School of Teacher Education and coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Science Education in the College of Community Innovation and Education. He holds a secondary appointment with the Learning Sciences Faculty Cluster.  

Currently, Butler leads an academic unit of more than 50 full-time faculty members and more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students within the Hispanic-serving metropolitan doctoral research university. He has secured more than $7 million in funding to support his research and scholarly initiatives and has co-authored and co-edited three books and numerous book chapters and journal articles. Butler is one of the authors of the K-5 science curriculum, National Geographic Science.

NASA is best known for exploring other worlds, whether that’s sending astronauts to the Moon or flying helicopters on Mars. But under US President Joe Biden, the space agency intends to boost its reputation as a major player in studying Earth — especially with an eye towards fighting climate change.

Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and the agency’s new climate adviser, as well as the Keynote speaker at CSSP's recent Spring Leadership Workshop says, “If you’re going to make policy related to scientific questions, you need to have science at the table."

Read more at Nature.

The Support of Science Award honors an individual who merits recognition for outstanding and dedicated support of U.S. science, free scientific communication, and support of basic research.

The 2021 support of science award is presented to Craig N. Mclean, Acting Chief Scientist, Assistant Administrator, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

A constant and strong advocate for oceanic and atmospheric science and research, Mr. McLean’s leadership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ensured that science is accurately and honestly presented. Responsible for overseeing, directing, and implementing NOAA’s research enterprise, his assurance that the integrity of scientific research has been and will be upheld is core to his actions and words.

 “What they don’t entirely capture is what I experienced, the magic of being part of CSSP.  The science advocacy and meeting with decision makers in science were essential, especially for someone leading a scientific society.  But CSSP opened up so many vistas for me.  You commented on some not seeing the need for networking outside of your own discipline.  My role in NYSERNet brought with it the opportunity to interact significantly with people in many disciplines, and at the CSSP meetings I enjoyed three or four days of jaw dropping science.  CSSP kept the sense of wonder active and alive.  I’m reminded often of the closing stanza of John Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

James Carroll, CEO of THOR Photomedicine, a speaker at the 2019 CSSP Spring Leadership Workshop, received the T.H. Maimen Award for outstanding research during the Academy for Laser Dentistry’s (ALD) award ceremony at their annual conference (April 8-10), during which Red Light Therapy’s role in revolutionizing medical care was showcased.  Kathleen Maimen, widow of Laser inventor Theodore Maimen, presented the award.

Carroll, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, is considered the world’s leading proponent of using Red Light Therapy, also known as Photobiomodulation (PBM).  He has written or co-authored twenty-four academic papers and co-authored four books on the subject. 

Carroll is working with 36 medical institutions, including Harvard Medical School, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Veterans’ Hospitals, and the UK National Health Service (NHS), on using PBM for treating a range of conditions such as traumatic brain injury, the side effects of cancer treatments, managing acute and chronic pain, and reducing opioid use.

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) is part of a collaborative effort to present a seminar series on Data Sharing. Led by AGU, this series has been created with a goal of developing a better understanding of the evolving data (and software) sharing research culture. By connecting societies with invited speakers who are actively engaged with journals, funders, institutions, repositories, and other research communities on the practices available and challenges yet to be addressed, this series will emphasize the unique role societies have in bringing awareness of developing practices and supporting the necessary discussions within disciplines to bring their voice to the larger community.  

Scheduled for the first Friday or each month, from 10:00 - 11:00 am Eastern, the inaugural seminar on Data Sharing and Citation: How Societies can Make a Difference, will be presented on Friday, February 5th and will feature the following speakers:

• Shelley Stall, American Geophysical Union (bio)
• Juliane Baron, Federation of Associations Behavioral and Brain Sciences (bio)
• Helena Cousijn, DataCite (bio)

Additional information, and a link for registration can be found here. We look forward to your participation in this inaugural session, as well as future sessions. 

Jennifer L. Tank, the Ludmilla F., Stephen J. and Robert T. Galla Professor of Biological Sciences and director of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, is being honored for her distinguished contributions to aquatic biogeochemistry in particular reference to nutrient and carbon transformations and transport in flowing waters impacted by agriculture. Tank’s research has increased understanding of the role streams play in nutrient removal and retention, with a goal of improving water quality locally and in downstream ecosystems. 

The election of AAAS fellows is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers.

More information on the 2020 AAAS Fellows

Dr. Deborah Bronk, President of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and former CSSP Chair, has been named as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.

She was recognized for substantial research advances on the marine nitrogen cycle and for leadership in the ocean science research community.

More information on the 2020 AAAS Fellows

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents is excited to share that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna, CSSP 2016 Kavli Lecturer, along with Emmanuellle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing."

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.

Researchers need to modify genes in cells if they are to find out about life’s inner workings. This used to be time-consuming, difficult and sometimes impossible work. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors, it is now possible to change the code of life over the course of a few weeks. “There is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionised basic science, but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to ground-breaking new medical treatments,” says Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Our August CSSP Chat on Ensuring Diversity and Equity in STEM, led by Dr. Beronda Montogmery, brought to light many valuable ideas and thought processes around these issues. Introducing the idea gatekeeping or groundskeeping prompted lively discussion on ways to expand diversity through the cultivation and enactment of leadership philosophies and progressive vision rather than just looking at "skills and tactics." More information about this philosophy can be found in Dr. Montgomery's paper on "Academic Leadership: Gatekeeping or Groundskeeping?" published in the Journal of Values Based Leadership.

This timely conversation also included thoughts for ways in which to communicate how each society presents their culture to both current and future members. Included in those thoughts were:

• Evaluating your society on its three “R’s” – Representation, Reputation, Resources
• Easy to embrace definitions - Diversity: being invited to the party. Inclusion: being asked to dance.
• When considering diversity within your society, it's important to look beyond just the "numbers" and look to the practices and experiences that are lived and espoused as well.
• Consideration for the language used when talking about these issues can also have a strong impact. An article on rethinking underrepresented language helps to see the influence that the language we use has on the way we see and are seen.
• How and what to include in surveys to aid in garnering greater and more honest participation from members.

The CSSP Chats create an opportunity to talk with other leaders of science societies about the challenges and goals being faced by all, and to hear and share experiences for how they have been and are being addressed - including successes and failures. Our next Chat will be on the topic of Managing Personal Transitions: Leadership Skills and your next job and will be presented on Thursday, September 17th at 12:30 pm ET.