IBE

A letter from IBE
We are pleased to announce a special opportunity to help build the community of biologists and engineers that iGEM represents. The Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) is a young, dynamic professional organization that has embraced the emerging field of synthetic biology. We are a young organization in two ways: IBE is just 12 years old, and 2/3 of our members are students. This year, IBE is reaching out to all of iGEM to help invite you to continue the camaraderie and professional development that was so evident at the Jamboree. Please take advantage of the following special offers, all of which are described in detail at www.ibe.org.

Free introductory membership for students. We know money is always tight for students, and with the global recession this is a particularly bad year. We also know students are concerned about jobs, and IBE wants to help connect companies with the extraordinarily talented students that iGEM attracts. So, for 2009, any student who uploads their resume onto the IBE job board will get free membership for the year. A special session for iGEM presentations at the IBE annual meeting,which this year will be held March 19-22 in Santa Clara, California (across the street from Yahoo headquarters, at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay). Randy Rettberg initiated this session several years ago, and it has been very well received. Drew Endy and Tom Richard are co-chairing that session this year, and there will be many other synthetic biology presentations throughout the conference. Abstracts are due January 15. Publication opportunities in the Journal of Biological Engineering. IBE sponsors JBE, a great new scientific journal that provides free open access to the best literature in the field. Last year’s most widely read article in JBE (with over 8000 downloads) was written by the iGEM team from Davidson - Missouri Western.

The IBE leadership is very excited about providing these professional development opportunities for the growing synthetic biology community. In addition to those of us listed below, current and past members of the IBE Council that have also served as iGEM faculty advisors include Jenna Rickus (Purdue ), Jay Keasling (UC Berkeley), Chris Voigt (UCSF), Pat Cirino (Penn State), and Tim Gardner (Boston U, now with Amyris Biotechnologies).

Welcome to IBE, a professional organization for you!

Tom Richard, Past-President of IBE, Penn State iGEM faculty advisor Christina Smolke, President of IBE, Caltech iGEM faculty advisor Mark Riley, President-Elect of IBE, Founding Editor, JBE, U of Arizona iGEM faculty advisor Drew Endy, IBE Councilor 2009-2010, Stanford iGEM team faculty advisor Randy Rettberg, IBE Councilor 2007-2008, Director of iGEM, MIT