By some fluke I was elected president of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) for 2011. My tenure begins tomorrow.
Given this position, I want to make clear that, as always, my posts on this site reflect my own personal opinion, and are not to be taken as official positions of the SSE or of any other organization. I will not speak for the SSE on this website—I do that only in official communications from the Society—nor will I mention the Society except, perhaps, to call attention to the annual meeting or to highlight a particularly noteworthy paper in our most excellent journal, Evolution.
Condolences!
Congratulations!
Congratulations, Jerry! And Happy New Year (which it is, just, where I am)!
You mention this as if it’s a bad thing.
Cheer up and have a cigar!
Congratulations!
Congratulations and condolences!
I think it would be entirely appropriate for you to point us to noteworthy news from the Society, and I look forward to seeing said pointers.
And, in that light, please permit me to link to the Society home page so the next poor schmuck who comes along doesn’t have to Google it.
Hey — that name at the top. I recognize it!
Cheers,
b&
Thx for the link, feeling lazy today.
Congratulations! Does this warrant celebratory new boots?
Congratulations, Jerry, but do you have to start with a lie.
It was not some fluke, but a well deserved appointment.
Hmm, so the tricky bit of this is that you’re stuck in an official capacity where you have to play nice with accommodationists. Good luck!
Um, why?
Coyne has taken the position that science organizations should be neutral towards all religion. That is consistent with SSE activities, and should lead to some interesting conflicts with accommodationists and such science organizations that takes the opposite position.
Not that I would expect SSE to put the science house in order, but at least to stand out as a shining light against accommodationist un-Enlightenment tapestry.
OTOH I browsed the SSE constitution, and it seems already neutral (and not overly concerned with superstition).
Good work!
Somehow, I just don’t see the good doctor being interested in heading any other kind of organization.
Their constitution isn’t a good place to look for that sort of thing; it’s just Robert’s Rules-type stuff.
Rather, you want to have a look at the resources page, which includes these two exemplary statements:
I truly can’t imagine better statements on both subjects, especially given the current climate. Both statementsmake all the points that need to be made and — perhaps more importantly — don’t make points that shouldn’t be made in this context.
Cheers,
b&
I should add: contrast the SSE site with the NCSE site and the dichotomy couldn’t be more apparent.
The SSE is all about evolution education. The NCSE is all about Creationism and “The Controversy” and other such nonsense.
The SSE is, even at first glance, devoted to advancing the fundamental knowledge of the science of biology. The NCSE is mostly concerned about the interaction between religion and Evolution.
The NCSE site has an entire section devoted to religion including — I kid you not — a Bible study guide. The SSE, best I can tell, has no mention whatsoever of any form of religion.
Cheers,
b&
These statements are reassuring, for sure. However, the free pdf textbook Science, Evolution, and Creationism that’s quite clearly displayed on the bottom left of the homepage of the SSE is more disconcerting (http://www.evolutionsociety.org/). I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but note that the chair of the committee for the most recent edition of this work was Francisco Ayala. Note also the last paragraph of the Preface: “As Science, Evolution, and Creationism makes clear, the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. Science and religion are different ways of understanding the world. Needlessly placing them in opposition reduces the potential of each to contribute to a better future.” This isn’t a publication of the SSE. I’m sure that this is displayed on their website isn’t Professor Coyne’s fault. Nonetheless, this was something I saw that worried me.
One of my favourite quotes.
That strikes me as an odd mechanism to point out.
More likely it was selection – survival of the slowest to duck.
[Seriously though (well), wouldn’t fitness among scientists be defined as “differential reproducibility”?]
By some fluke
Hmm, for some reason, in my mind I was picturing a sort of horizontal information transfer via parasite.
A fluke? No way! I suspect that intelligent design was responsible…:)
Congrats & Happy New Year!
I keep picturing Jerry with some barbed flukes on his arms like some modern superhero – Parasite Pal or maybe Lamprey Lad. For the life of me I can’t figure out how this would help his academic career, nor whether this would be intelligent design or some evolutionary quirk.
I do hope your magazine editors will avoid the temptation to trot out these credentials on your witty book reviews or editorials like they do with some other people (who then have to adopt a coquettish blush and cry “oh wow, how could you ever think that I was speaking for organization X?”. Hmm, I wonder how that confusion arose?)
Congrats to Jerry and his new-found fluke-based super powers.
Oops, wasn’t meant to be a reply, sorry for the confusion Juha.
With great power comes great responsibility. — Uncle Ben Parker
Congrats, Jerry!
Congratulations Jerry and have a great New Year!
Cheers,
Stu
Now you can really kick some creationist ass! Congratulations!
I eagerly await your first presidential directive!
That’s odd – I didn’t know that flukes had voting rights on the boards of scientific societies. But congratulations anyway!
Congratulations, Jerry!
@Ebonmuse, I assumed that the dolphins had rigged the elections again as they often do. But in any event, of course trematodes have voting rights. I was a grad student when I was in SSE and WE had voting rights. So if there are grad students then they can’t leave out flukes in good standing.
All hail! We are not worthy!
You’re going to have to get some boots made with the SSE presidential seal tooled in.
(or is it a walrus?}
Congratulation Jerry, I know that you will help the science in developing countries.
Congrats! Guess that means I’ll see you again at the Evolution conference this summer 🙂
Congratulations!
Yay! Congratulationissimi!
So…does that mean you’re an antidecongratulationisimist?
Cheers,
b&
Aw well done C:
Congratulations for being elected! May your tenure education the masses 🙂
Congrads!
A cynic might think you lost a bet 🙂
Congratulations
Congratulations, and I, for one welcome our new evolutionary education master. I hope that you don’t become Dark Jerry with the savage abuse of power. Or if you do, can we watch? 🙂