July, 2015
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Society of Biological Psychiatry
 
"Scientists collaborating to eliminate the suffering of mental illness."
In This Issue
SOBP Vision Statement
Message from the Editor
2016 Awards
Membership Committee Update
2015 Top Poster Award
2015 Travel Award
New Members
Other Meetings of Interest
Get Involved
Add SOBP to your Contacts
SOBP Contact Information
SOBP Vision Statement

The vision of the Society of Biological Psychiatry is to integrate, advance, and promulgate science relevant to psychiatric disorders, in order to reduce or prevent the suffering of people with these conditions.  

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May 11-14, 2016

 

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Message from the Editor

Strakowski picture with monitor


Hello everyone,

 

I am thrilled to report another fantastic annual meeting. Our northern neighbor's reputation for polite and friendly hospitality was certainly met as Toronto provided simply a lovely setting for an invigorating scientific session. More than 1400 people attended the conference, including 70 travel awardees through our growing list of programs committed to the next generation of scientists. We enjoyed a thought provoking, exceptionally high level of plenary presentations that set the table for us to return to our respective institutions, challenged to continue to advance our science. The 60 symposia were well attended and rated highly, and the 900 posters in the evening sessions were packed and invigorating. I was personally very impressed with the level of scientific quality of our meeting; it seems to improve every year. Let's thank Amit Elkin, this year's program director, and Ned Kalin, our outgoing president, for the excellent planning and work they led with our program committee. Ned even pitched in at the last minute to fill a plenary session when a speaker could not make the meeting, and, of course, he did a superlative job.

 

As a society, at our business meeting we learned that through the excellent leadership of our council and staff, we are financially strong and poised to continue to develop and expand programs, with a particular eye toward mentoring. Our journal Biological Psychiatry continues to climb in impact, now with an Impact Factor >10; kudos to John Krystal (editor) and his staff and editorial board! We are also very excited to launch our new journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging (Cam Carter, editor) to expand our ability to publish neuroimaging and cognitive papers, areas critical to improving our understanding of how brain function impacts behavior in health and disease. Our Council also asked Mary Phillips to lead an effort to increase our diversity by identifying ways to increase our female membership, and female leadership roles, in the society. We additionally remain strongly committed through our educational programming to add youth to the meeting. Clearly this is an exciting time for our society; I hope any of you reading this who are not members will consider joining - there is no better deal in professional societies.

 

We are now turning our focus to our meeting in Atlanta May 12-14, 2016. Michael Ostacher (this year's Program Director) and I are working with our program committee to once again host a thought-provoking, exiting conference. We are planning to change things up a little, with shorter symposia that allow panel discussion and more audience participation; we are certainly interested in feedback and suggestions of speakers in the areas of innovation, paradigm shifts and improving replication. I hope you are already marking your calendars to attend and I will see you in Atlanta.

 

Best Wishes,

Steve Strakowski, MD

SOBP President

Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, UC Health

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychology and BME, University of Cincinnati

 

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed in these editorials are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its officers, or members. 
2016 Annual Meeting Awards
The awards for the 2016 annual meeting will open around August 1, 2015.  Please visit www.sobp.org on or around August 1st for a list of all awards, including Travel Awards, along with criteria and submission guidelines.  The deadline for the awards will be October 2nd so mark your calendar now and start planning to submit your application/nomination before the deadline.  
Membership Committee Update

On behalf of the membership committee, I would like to welcome the 211 new members that have joined SOBP since the start of 2014. This brings the total membership in SOBP to 1379 members as of March, meaning that we increased our membership by 18% in just over one year! We in the membership committee believe this bodes quite well for the future of our society.

 

Here, I thought that I would provide some information about these 211 new members. Of these new members, 66 are MDs, 87 are PhDs, 41 are MD/PhDs, 6 have a MA/MS, and 11 have a BA/BS. Of course, many of the members that are currently at the masters or bachelors level are currently in the process of getting more advanced degrees, and it's wonderful that these people have decided to join our society at this early stage in their careers.  

 

Since my own research focuses on sex differences in psychiatric disorders, I hope that you will humor me as I address the sex/gender breakdown of our society as a whole and of our newest members. Despite gains over the last several years, women still make up only 28% of our membership. In particular, we don't seem to be attracting large numbers of female physicians to the Society, and this trend has persisted in this year's new membership class. In addition, the SOBP has continued to lag in our efforts to attract non-physician members, suggesting that we have not done everything we could to show PhD neuroscientists the value of membership. The membership committee would welcome any suggestions for improving our performance in this regard. 

 

Lastly, I would like to encourage those of you who have yet to officially join SOBP to become members. We promise that the application process is quite painless! Also, I would like to thank our current members for continuing to be active supporters of our society.

 

Marianne Seney, PhD
Membership Committee Chair

2015 Top Poster Award
We would like to congratulate the 2015 Top Poster Award recipients.  Of the 800+ posters presented, 45 were nominated for this award.  Of the 45, each of the following recipients were selected by the Top Poster Award Committee.  Each recipient receives an engraved plaque and a $250 award. Congratulations.

For basic research:
Patrick Roseboom
University of Wisconsin
"Overexpression of Corticotropin-releasing Hormone (CRH) in the Dorsal Amygdala Alters Anxious Temperament and Brain Metabolic Activity"

For translational research:
Mina Nashed
McMaster University
"A Novel Pre-clinical Model of Cancer-Induced Depression"

For clinical research (tie):
Lisa McTeague
Medical University of South Carolina
"Identification of Common and Unique Neural Circuit Disruptions in Executive and Emotional Functioning Across Psychiatric Disorders"

Jessica Bullins
University of North Carolina
"Neonatal Cortical Thickness and Surface Area Predict Cognitive Outcomes at 2 years of Age"
Thoughts from a 2015 Travel Award Recipient

I would like to first express my gratitude for the Domestic Travel Fellowship Award I have received from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP). Without SOBP's committed support, I would not have been able to participate in this year's spectacular meeting in Toronto. 

 

I want to highlight the unique experiences the travel award brought to me. The SOBP organizes Career Development Roundtables specifically for the awardees. The roundtables examine topics everyone can relate to, including starting a career in biological psychiatry, strategizing grant applications, and balancing work with family life.  During this breakfast-and-chat period, not only did I have in-depth discussions in small groups of colleagues, but the seasoned moderators also shared their invaluable insight and expertise with me. Another great benefit is that, based on areas of common interest, I was matched with an established scholar as my meeting mentor. My mentor offered me insightful advice and guidance on how to overcome career challenges and make the best use of resources available to young researchers. I particularly appreciate SOBP's great attention to the geographic proximity in mentor-mentee matching, which makes it convenient to maintain contact beyond the meeting period. To me, the travel award is more than a financial aid package; it gives me a sense of belonging, thanks to SOBP's dedication to promote and foster young minds. It provides me with more opportunities to learn, network, and collaborate than I ever expected. I highly recommend anyone interested to apply in the coming year.

 

Jie Liu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University

New Members
Please welcome our new members:

FirstLastMember TypeInstitutionSponsor
GesineAldersStudentMcMaster UniversityLuciano Minuzzi
Francesco SaverioBersaniStudentSapienza University of RomeOwen Wolkowitz 
SophieGeorgeMemberUniversity of MichiganIsrael Liberzon. 
ClaireGillanStudentNew York UniversityAnnette Bruhl
KristiGriffithsMemberUniversity of SydneyMayuresh Korgaonkar
GretchenHaasMemberUPMC/VAJ. John Mann
DerrekHibarMemberUniversity of Southern CaliforniaCarrie Bearden
MiHilleforsMemberNIMH/NIHCarlos Zarate
MauricioInfanteMemberMayo ClinicRobert Smith . 
LisanneJenkinsStudentUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoScott Langenecker
GlennKonopaskeMemberMcLean HospitalJoseph Coyle
RobertMcCullumsmithMemberUniversity of CincinnatiSteve Strakowski
LaurenOsborneMemberJohns Hopkins University School of MedicineJennifer Payne
MarciaRamakerStudentUniversity of ChicagoStephanie Dulawa
EstherSabbanMemberNew York Medical CollegeJ. John Mann
PatriciaShaneMemberTouro UniversityAssefaw T. Ghebrekidan
ViditaVaidyaMemberTata Institute of Fundamental ResearchEric Nestler
DaphneVoineskosStudentCAMHZ. Jeff Daskalakis

Other Meetings of Interest

 

23rd World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics October 16-20, 2015
 
Toronto, Ontario Canada

ACNP 54th Annual Meeting December 6-10, 2015
 
Hollywood, Florida

Get Involved - Join a Committee
Did you know that over 20% of our members are actively engaged on Society committees?  Want to be engaged and involved with one of our committees? Looking for a leadership opportunity?  Then signup to join one of the Society's many award committees or a task force.  Click here to tell us which groups you would be interested in joining.
SOBP Career Center
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SOBP's Career Center connects our members with employment opportunities and employers with the best professionals within our membership. Employment opportunities range from post-doc positions, faculty positions, neuroscience jobs in industry and alternative careers.
 
Visit SOBP's Career Center  today to explore employment opportunities.  Post an anonymous resume for employers or recruiters to view.
 
Links to other resources are available for your convenience.
Add SOBP to your Contacts
Be sure to add the following email address to your address book.  To communicate quickly and efficiently with our members, all correspondence (membership renewals, newsletter, meeting announcements, etc) from the Society is sent via email.  Depending upon the type of correspondence, you may receive emails from the following addresses:

Contact Us
Society of Biological Psychiatry Business Office
4500 San Pablo Rd - Birdsall 310
Jacksonville, FL 32224
904-953-2842 Office
904-953-7117 Fax
Biological Psychiatry Editorial Office
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
6363 Forest Park Rd., Suite 651 
Dallas, TX 75235-5435 
214-648-0880 Office 
214-648-0881 Fax
 
Society of Biological Psychiatry Newsletter Editorial Staff 

Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, Editor

Editorial Board
Helen Mayberg, MD
William B. Lawson, MD, PhD, DLFAPA 
Alan H. Young, MD, PhD 
Caleb M. Adler, MD

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