[asa] ASA/CSCA Annual Meeting Report #4

From: Jack Haas <haas.john@comcast.net>
Date: Mon Aug 04 2008 - 06:13:30 EDT

Sunday at the ASA meeting in Oregon was filled to the brim with an outstanding set of talks. The day began with a magnificent presentation by council member Jennifer Wiseman from the Goddard Space Center/NASA. As an astronomer she gave us a view of the starry skies from several different perspectives—its magnitude, its beauty, its activity, etc. The grandeur of the heavens put us in a proper mood for the worship service which followed.

 
For our worship service, a local church came and joined us. Their Pastor John Mahaffy, brother of ASA member Jim Mahaffy, led the service and spoke on our meeting theme verse, Micah 6:8. The lofty ceiling of the auditorium could scarcely contain the passionate and energetic voices of scientists singing familiar hymns at full volume.

 
Poster sessions provided an excellent means of communicating directly with authors on topics ranging from alternate fuels for cars, to science as a godly vocation, to a medical science, faith, and ethics, practicum, and of course to creation and evolution.

 
The afternoon sessions featured 22 talks in parallel sessions with very difficult choices of which ones to attend. I look forward to hearing the audio of those I missed. They’ll be posted very soon at http://www.asa3.org/ASA/meetings/georgefox2008/GeorgeFox_paperlinks.html where you can already download the yesterday’s talks.  Among those I did hear were John Bloom’s talk on “should ID be taught in public schools,” Anne Carpenter on her team’s software package to extract image data on antibiotic selection, Carl Resler on designing an apparatus for ocean upwelling to bring nutrients to the surface, and Kirk Bertsche on a survey of radiocarbon dating techniques. I would especially note the excellent talk by Jim Smith on opportunities for ASA members to participate in short and medium-term mission trips to help with science education in schools in developing countries. Watch for his audio when it’s posted and we’ll get a website up to provide more details.

 
The evening plenary talk was given by Dean Freudenberger http://www.kcrsdp.org/bio_pages/freudenberger.html. His outstanding career has focused on sustainable agriculture. He challenged ASA to focus on relevant research and initiatives to solve this global unprecedented task.

 
Throughout the day, the opportunity for fellowship was of considerable importance. Many first-time attendees were delighted to find colleagues with similar interests and faith.

 Randy Isaac

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