SAVE THE DATE!!!
ASM 2015 IN JACKSONVILLE

Please join us 12-16 June 2015, in Jacksonville, Florida, for the 95th annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists. The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. Come learn about the latest advances in studies of mammals and interact with researchers and educators specializing in the biology of these fascinating animals. Stay and explore Jacksonville and The Sunshine State

A block of rooms is reserved at the Hyatt for $129 per night. Conference information will be available soon at the conference website. You can follow the link from the Meetings tab on the ASM webpage ( http://www.mammalsociety.org).

The scientific program will include contributed oral and poster presentations as well as symposia, plenary speakers, and workshops. A full social agenda is planned that includes multiple mixers, an awards ceremony, a picnic, our annual Run-for-Research, and post-conference fieldtrips. Details for these events will be made available on the conference website.

For information about the 2015 meeting, contact the chair of the Program Committee, Cody Thompson, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (734-615-2810 or cwthomp@umich.edu) or Tony Ballard, K-State Conference Services, Kansas State University (785-532-2402 or tballard@k-state.edu).

NOMINATIONS FOR THE HARTLEY H. T. JACKSON AWARD

The Hartley H. T. Jackson Award honors individuals with a long and outstanding record of service to mammalogy and the American Society of Mammalogists. Nominees should have extensive service in areas such as governance of the society, special projects of the society, editing of Journal of Mammalogy or Mammalian Species (Editors, Associate Editors, or others), and/or serving on multiple committees of the society.

Candidates may be nominated by any member who is familiar with the candidate's service to the society and mammalogy in general. A letter of nomination (2 pages maximum) should describe the candidate's extensive service and should elaborate the reasons why this person should be considered for the award. The single letter of nomination and a curriculum vita for the nominee should be sent to Barbara Blake (e-mail: bhblake@uncg.edu) by 10 February 2015. If the nominated candidate is judged competitive by the Jackson Committee, the nominator will be asked to send a complete nomination packet (nominating letter, curriculum vita, and up to 4 additional letters of support, all incorporated into a single PDF). The nominator should send the PDF to Barbara Blake by 22 March 2015. The committee then will review completed nomination packets of all candidates. The recipient will be announced at the banquet of the annual meeting of the society. Nominations are not retained from previous years.

MARSUPIAL COLLECTION REOPENS

The Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History announces the completion of a comprehensive infrastructure upgrade to its marsupial collection. With the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, obsolete 19th-century cabinetry was demolished and new custom-built cabinetry was purchased and installed. The entire dry marsupial collection (17,000 skins and skulls) has been moved into the new cabinetry and installed on new archival-quality specimen trays and drawer liners. In the course of this project, electronic database output was compared, specimen-by-specimen with drawer contents and relevant entries (taxonomic identifications, locality data, etc.) were corrected, although this process remains incomplete for some groups currently undergoing taxonomic revision (e.g., Didelphidae). A brief history of the AMNH marsupial collection and a description of this project with before-and-after photographs are available on the Department of Mammalogy website under “Curation News” ( http://www.amnh.org/our-research/vertebrate-zoology/mammalogy/collection-information/curation-news).

ONLINE ACCESS FOR JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY AND MAMMALIAN SPECIES

Journal of Mammalogy and Mammalian Species are available online to all ASM members with back issues available via JSTOR. Members will also receive print copies of the Journal for an annual membership fee of $75 for regular members ($55 for students), or they may elect to receive online only versions of both publications for an annual fee of $55 ($20 for members in developing countries). Institutions may subscribe at a rate of $270 for print and online access to the Journal, $95 for online-only access to Mammalian Species, or $325 for both publications.

PDF files for the first 823 Mammalian Species accounts (1969 to 2008) are also available online via the URL below:  http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/default.html.

MAMMALIAN SPECIES ACCOUNTS

Mammalian Species accounts are produced by assignment only. Upon written request to the Editor for Mammalian Species, exclusive privileges to produce an account will be granted for 2 years; a 1-year extension may be requested if a manuscript is near completion at the end of the initial assignment. At the Editor's discretion, assignments not submitted at the end of this period may be cancelled. A maximum of 5 species may be reserved at one time. No free copies are given to authors; page charges may be paid on a voluntary basis.

Mammalian Species is available online only to all ASM members, as of 2006; print copies will no longer be published. Orders for yearly sets of accounts within the past 5 years should be sent to Rachel Schwien, ASM Association Manager, 810 East 10th Street, P.O. Box 1897, Lawrence, KS 66044; 785-843-1235; FAX -1274; asm@allenpress.com. Individual accounts are no longer available for purchase. Requests for assignment of species and other editorial queries should be addressed to Meredith Hamilton, Editor of Mammalian Species, Department of Zoology, 501 Life Sciences West, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, 405-744-9685; FAX -7824; meredith.hamilton@okstate.edu.

MAMMAL IMAGES LIBRARY

The Mammal Images Library is a non-profit educational service of the American Society of Mammalogists. The goal of the library is providing images of mammals for educational purposes worldwide. The present collection consists of 1,900+ images depicting 28 orders, 129 families, 583 genera, and 1,084 species. More than 110,000 images are now in use at more than 3,000 institutions in about 50 countries. Images suitable for optical projection for nonprofit, educational purposes may be viewed and obtained on the Society's website at  http://www.mammalogy.org/imagelibrary/index. Please remember to credit the photographer and the library if images are used for optical projection.

In addition to optical projection for nonprofit instruction, many of the images can be employed (with permission) for other purposes, including commercial uses. For permission to use images for purposes other than nonprofit optical projection, contact the committee chair: David Huckaby, California State University, Long Beach, Department of Biological Sciences, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, California 90840-9502; david.huckaby@csulb.edu; 562-985-4869; FAX 562-985-8878.

The Library continually seeks new images for the collection and urges anyone having images to contribute them. For information about contributing images, contact the committee chair. The committee thanks the hundreds of people who have contributed images thus far.

SPONSOR FUND

The International Relations Committee has devised a method of providing membership in ASM to mammalogists from outside the United States and Canada who wish to become members, but simply cannot afford to. Some members already sponsor ASM membership for foreign mammalogists on a continual basis. However, others who are unable to provide a full membership on a continual basis, may wish to contribute a partial membership or a full membership during some years. Such is now possible through contributions to the Sponsor Fund. The Fund will be handled as follows:

Members should submit names and mailing and e-mail addresses of foreign mammalogists in need of sponsorship to the chair of the International Relations Committee: Duane Schlitter; happygd@suddenlink.net.

BUDDY SYSTEM FOR AUTHORS

ASM has a “buddy system” to assist authors who are not native English speakers. “Buddies” are mammalogists who have offered to preview manuscripts that need editorial revision for English. Authors interested in having a manuscript previewed should contact the Journal Editor or an Associate Editor for Journal of Mammalogy. Individuals interested in having their names added to the list of “buddies” should contact Alicia Linzey (avlinzey@frontier.com).

CALL FOR PROPOSALS - SABBATICAL SCHOLARS, WORKING GROUPS, AND CATALYSIS MEETINGS

Proposals for Sabbaticals, Working Groups, and Catalysis Meetings are now being accepted at The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). We are looking to support innovative approaches to outstanding problems in evolutionary biology. In particular, proposals that have a clear interdisciplinary focus, or involve evolutionary concepts in non-traditional disciplines, are strongly encouraged, as are proposals that demonstrate international participation and a mix of senior and emerging researchers, including graduate students. Proposals are accepted twice a year, with deadlines on July 10 and December 1. Proposals for Sabbaticals may be for up to a full year. We also accept proposals for short-term visits (2 weeks to 3 months; deadlines on January 1, April 1, July 1, and September 1). For more information, please see our website at  https://www.nescent.org/science/proposals.php

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND RELATED FIELDS

NESCent is now including graduate training in its portfolio, by offering one-semester fellowships for graduate students to pursue research with a NESCent sabbatical scholar, a NESCent postdoctoral scholar, or a NESCent Working Group. Deadlines are January 1 (for a fall semester fellowship) and July 1 (for a spring semester fellowship). For more information, please see our website at  https://www.nescent.org/science/proposals.php.