[Neuropostdocs] new development

[Gene Robinson]

I am pleased to tell you that Dr. Sam Beshers has accepted our offer to 
become Program Coordinator for NSP.  This is a newly created position that 
coincides with Joan Cornell being reassigned to other duties by the School 
of Molecular and Cellular Biology office.  Sam will assume the duties that 
Joan performed and also provide additional programmatic support, including 
helping with the development of training grant proposals and exploring 
other avenues of student support, and providing some oversight on 
course-related activities for students.  The Executive Committee discussed 
the issue and decided that we wish to experiment with this new approach and 
fill our support position with someone with a scientific background 
relevant to our goals.

Prior to accepting this position, Sam has worked at UIUC as a researcher 
and as a Visiting Lecturer teaching various courses including Introductory 
Biology, Animal Behavior and Entomology.  Sam's research interests are in 
the area of neurobiology and behavior, in particular the modeling of 
systems of ant division of labor from a complex systems perspective.

Joan was assigned to NSP half-time, and Sam will also work for NSP on a 
half-time basis.  The Neuroscience Program will continue to be under 
general administrative oversight from the School of Molecular and Cellular 
Biology office with the same flow of paperwork, appointments, and budgetary 
procedures.  The office, however, will move to 318B Morrill Hall, Sam's 
current office, just a few doors down from 393.  Signs will soon be 
installed to make it easy to locate this room.  Office hours for NSP will 
be 1-5 PM Monday-Friday.

Joan has served our program with enthusiasm and interest for 3 years and we 
thank her for all that she has done.  She and Chris Smith have graciously 
agreed to spend time with Sam to make the transition as smoothly as possible.

We welcome Sam to NSP and look forward to his contributions!

Sam can be reached at: beshers@life.uiuc.edu and 333-4971.

Gene






Gene E. Robinson
Professor, Department of Entomology
Director, Neuroscience Program
University of Illinois
505 S. Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL  61801
Tel. 217-265-0309
Fax 217-244-3499
Website: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/robinson/