By Dr. Charles Faulkner
The Southeastern Society of Parasitologists held its annual meeting virtually using the Symposium by ForagerOne platform on April 7-9, 2021. The meeting was planned and executed by John Stokes, President elect who served as program officer and co-chair of the Local Arrangements Committee with Dr. Reg Blaylock (Gulf Coast Research Laboratory). Dr. Gabriel Langford, President, presided over the Executive Committee and Business meetings. Dr. Elizabeth Gleim, Vice President and Chair of Student Awards Committee organized judges and oversaw the assessments that resulted in awards for best Graduate Student Presentation (Byrd-Dunn), best Undergraduate Student Presentation (Ciordia-Stewart-Porter), and best Poster. Approximately 69 people registered for the meeting that included 35 presentations or posters, of which 69% were presented by students. The Byrd-Dunn Award named in honor of founding members of the Society, Elon E. Byrd (Univ of GA) and Mary C. Dunn (Middle TN State Univ) was presented to Tyler Achatz, Univ North Dakota, Grand Forks ND for his presentation entitled “Walking with dinosaurs: Phylogeny and systematics of proterodiplostmid digeneans parasitic in crocodilians”. Marisa Fonseca, Florida Southern College, Lakeland Fl received the Enrique “Rick” Ciordia-Bonner Stewart-Dale Porter Award honoring their lifetime contributions in parasitology and support of the Southern Conference on Animal Parasites and Animal Disease Research Workers of the Southern States for her presentation entitled “Invasive parasites: A survey of endoparasites from Salvator merinae populations in Florida”. The annual Poster Award was presented to Sara Linehan, Univ Central Florida, Orlando FL for her poster entitled “Natural history and ecological underpinnings of zombie ant graveyards in Central Florida”.
The President’s Historical Lecture was conceived and organized by President-elect John Stokes and featured the presentation by Dr. David Peterson, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, Univ of Georgia, Athens GA “Malaria: From: Marsh Miasma to Elimination “. At the business meeting, 36 individuals were approved for full or student membership. The passing of 3 members, Dr. Gerald “Jerry” Esch, Wake Forest Univ, Dr. John Richard “Dick” Seed, Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Dr. Leon Duobinis-Gray, Murray State Univ, was recognized with a moment of silence and brief vignettes memorializing their service to the Society and parasitology. Support for the annual meeting was provided by the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi. Officers of the society for 2021-23 are: President – John Stokes, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State Univ; President-elect and Program Officer - Dr. Elisabeth “Liz” Gleim, Hollins Univ; Vice President and Student Awards – Dr. Christopher Cleveland, Univ of GA; and Secretary-Treasurer – Dr. Charles Faulkner, College of Veterinary Medicine, Lincoln Memorial Univ
The annual meeting for 2022 will be held April 7-9 and hosted by Berry College, Mt Berry GA. Persons interested in submitting abstracts or obtaining other information about the meeting should contact Charles Faulkner, charles.faulkner@lmunet.edu.
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