The linkurl:Lasker Foundation;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53585/ announced today that Maria Freire will replace president Neen Hunt on March 1 of next year. Freire was most recently CEO of the non-profit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, and previously directed the Office of Technology Transfer at the NIH. Hunt, 65, has been president since 1995. She said she will work to support medical research philanthropy, according to the foundation's spokesperson, Kendall Christianse

MIT will grant tenure to just one woman this year, a professor in economics, compared to 24 men, reports the __Boston Globe__ today (Dec 6). Last year, five women were granted tenure compared with 19 men. The school's president, Susan Hockfield, said MIT is committed to increasing the rate of women in tenure positions. "We want to be able to show that progress every single year," she told the linkurl:__Globe,__;http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/12/06/tenure_at_mit_sti

Iowa State University has denied tenure to Guillermo Gonzalez, an astronomer who has publicly supported intelligent design. One of his colleagues told the Des Moines Register that he thought the decision was based partly on Gonzalez's statements on the subject. When the school announced the decision last spring, officials said it was based on his publication record. But the linkurl:__Des Moines Register__;http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071201/NEWS02/712010318/100

From a few human cases on the east coast in 2001, the West Nile virus rapidly spread west in 2002, the year represented in this map. Credit: Redrawn from CDC Map" />From a few human cases on the east coast in 2001, the West Nile virus rapidly spread west in 2002, the year represented in this map. Credit: Redrawn from CDC Map Eight years ago, a mysterious virus hit New York City. It caused encephalitis in eight patients at Flushing Hospital in Queens, who all lived within a two-mile ra

var FO = { movie:"http://images.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53924/53924.swf", width:"520", height:"410", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Passive immunization and West Nile Virus By Edyta Zielinska In 1999, officials reported the first cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) in North America in eight New York City patients. Baxter Healthcare scientist Thomas Kreil realized that sera from infected patients might prote

Do you use LinkedIn? What about Friendster? If the answer is "no" to both of these questions, or "what is LinkedIn?", you're probably in the minority. According to a survey by linkurl:BioInformatics,;http://www.gene2drug.com/reports/Default.asp?action=details&report_id=184 a marketing research company, 77 percent of life scientists reported using social media -- tools like blogs, podcasts, online communities, Wikis, and networking sites -- to get tips and protocols and to share information. Bi

New York Medical College in Valhalla announced yesterday that it will no longer use live dogs in physiology classrooms. According to linkurl:The Chronicle of Higher Education,;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3495/new-york-medical-college-will-halt-use-of-dogs-in-labs the school has come under fire from community groups and politicians for being the last medical college in the state to use live animals for teaching purposes. Only 11 medical schools around the country still use animals for cla

For those of you who have dreamed of doing science in Europe but don't know how to find the jobs, MIT is hosting a linkurl:European Career Fair;https://www.euro-career.com/ from February 2nd to the 4th, to introduce job-hunting researchers to European employers from academia and industry. The fair is free to candidates and open to the public. No registration is required, but posting a resume online gives employers a chance to find promising candidates ahead of time. Sven Loebrich, the co-cha

The NSF is looking to save researchers time and effort by creating one standard progress report form for all granting agencies. Currently each agency has its own interim report form. While agencies like the EPA or the NIH use different language to ask about scientific progress, they generally collect very similar information. The government estimates the new form will take scientists anywhere from 5 to 16 hours to complete, depending on the research project. One rationale for using a single onl

The British government has added new requirements for visa applicants, which some say will restrict the flow of talented researchers into the country. All visa applicants from outside of European Economic Area and Switzerland who want to study toward a masters or PhD in fields like biology, botany and veterinary sciences, to name a few, will have to obtain an additional certification called the linkurl:Academic Technology Approval Scheme;http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xc

Best Places to Work in Academia, 2007 Image Courtesy of Andre Az For the first time since 2004, peer relations were ranked more important than tenure. Find out what your peers are saying about this year's best places.By Edyta Zielinska Related Articles 1 This year, for the first time since the survey's inception in 1993, Belgium was ranked the best country in which to do research. The country rebounded following a downward trend (from fourt

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