Organismal-level biologists from the more than 70 professional societies involved in the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) have recently come together to set common goals in such areas as policy and education. The process started last November when 57 leaders from the member societies gathered for the inaugural Presidents' Summit, the first event of its kind in AIBS's 53-year history. After an extended weekend of prioritizing and synthesizing ideas, the leaders identified 11 initiatives for consideration. These included expanding the group's collective voice in federal public-policy decisions, launching a public-education program on evolution, and evaluating and proposing models for undergraduate biology curricula.
Overarching groups that represent other areas of science, such as biomedical researchers in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), chemists in the American Chemical Society, or physical scientists in the American Institute of Physics, have been organizing joint projects on behalf of their constituent ...
