George S. Abawi, professor of plant pathology and international agriculture & rural development at Cornell University took over as the director of the APS Office of International Programs (OIP) at the APS Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City. OIP is a global initiative designed to promote greater worldwide interaction among scientists and practitioners of plant pathology.

Abawi is the fourth director, preceeded in order by Rick Bennett, Luis Sequeira, and Charles Delp. "I am truly pleased and honored to be appointed as the new director of OIP. Special thanks are due to our out-going director, Rick Bennett, and to the previous directors and the advisory board members of OIP for their insights and contributions in establishing the scope and the agenda for the office."

Abawi will serve as director through 2004. According to Abawi, "The main focus of OIP is to network interested colleagues in APS and international colleagues to exchange information and contribute to understanding and solving various issues relating to plant pathology and agricultural development. OIP is committed to assist APS in increasing membership awareness of the current major international plant pathology issues, their needs, and the opportunity for mutually beneficial involvements. OIP, the APS Foundation, and others at APS have made several services available to international colleagues and institutions in developing countries, such as the library assistance program (shipping donated journals and books); group membership in APS; contribution and participation in national and regional meetings; research and travel grant awards; and others."

"One of the main challanges for OIP," says Abawi, "is increasing the funds needed to provide the various worthwhile services already established as well as those needed to address new special projects. Thus, we need to consider innovative ways to obtain additional funds to support and expand the office's services and programs. Also, there is a great need to network OIP with other professional societies and organizations involved in international crop protection and agricultural development, especially in developing countries. Another challenge for OIP is to increase the involvement of the young scientists in our society in OIP and its international efforts."

George S. Abawi received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in plant pathology from Cornell. He was a postdoctoral fellow in plant nematology at Cornell from 1970 to 1972, after which he was appointed a faculty member in the Department of Plant Pathology at the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell-Geneva. The major area of his research deals with vegetable pathology, with an emphasis on the biology and integrated management of root diseases caused by pathogenic fungi and plant-parasitic nematodes. Current projects include studying microbial interactions, biological control, identification of resistant germplasm, and the impact of cultural production practices on soilborne pathogens and their root diseases as a component of sustainable management of soil health and productivity.

He was a visiting scientist at the University of California-Davis (1975 to 1976), University of Illinois and North Carolina State University (1978 to 1979), and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia (1985 to 1986). Abawi has always been interested in international agriculture and has developed special interests in tropical diseases and their management. He has been asked to review research programs, serve as a consultant, present invitational lectures, and collaborate on a variety of pest control-related projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. A number of his graduate students have conducted their Ph.D. thesis research in tropical countires.

Abawi has served as associate editor of Phytopathology and Plant Disease. He has chaired several subject matter committees of APS, including the Tropical Plant Pathology, Plant Nematology and Soil Microbiology, and Root Disease committees. He has also served as secretary/treasurer, vice president, and president of the Northeastern Division of APS. He has been a member of the OIP Advisory Board and the departmental liaison to OIP-APS. He was elected a Fellow of APS in 1991.

What now! That may be your initial reaction when you submit your abstract for the 2002 APS Annual Meeting. There are two changes in the cost of a presentation at the annual meeting.

First, the abstract publication fee has increased, and second, there is now a charge to help support the cost of audiovisual equipment (AV) for submitted oral presentations. In regard to the abstract fee, the fee for the upcoming annual meeting will be $45. The abstract fee has been $30 since 1979, but the cost of publishing an abstract is now between $41.20 and 48.08. The publication cost for Phytopathology during the previous fiscal year was $410,754/no. of pages (1,424 pages in 2000) and 6 or 7 abstracts per page. While $45 is a significant jump in the fee for publishing an abstract, it does only cover the cost of publication.

Second, a $25 AV technology fee has been added for submitted oral presentations. This fee does not apply to symposia, etc., for which there are invited speakers. The cost for outfitting each oral presentation room has dramatically increased. We are charged for each microphone, screen, and table in a room, in addition to any projection equipment. For the meeting in New Orleans, for example, the cost to provide the set-up for a poster was $6.90 per poster (set-up labor and rental of poster equipment), and the cost for an oral paper (a single presentation, not a session) was between $125 - 243 per oral paper presentation ($38,700 to rent AV equipment for presentations/180 to 310 oral presentations [depending on whether you want to count all the invited talks in addition to the submitted]). Based on estimated AV rental costs to have LCD projectors in each session for the Milwaukee meeting, and including all the tentative submitted and invited talks, the best guess as to cost is $126 per paper presentation. The $25 AV fee will not cover costs, but hopefully will help the meeting not lose money.

People often ask if we can bring our own AV equipment, but hotel and conference center contracts stipulate that we must use a professional service. You may also ask why the society does not cover these costs. First, it has been the long-standing policy of APS Council that the meeting should be as self-supporting as possible. Second, the society now provides more than $30,000 outside of meeting registration fees to support bringing in speakers for the meeting to assure our invited oral sessions are as timely and informative as possible. While this information does not lessen the expenses for you to give a presentation, I hope it provides insight into the reasons behind the changes.

John Sherwood, APS Treasurer can be contacted at sherwood@uga.edu.