| IMCA Insights September 2009 Just prior to our Annual Elections we'd like to present you with some news, and we would like to remind you that we are still looking for candidates. 2009 Election of Three New Directors - Volunteers Wanted! Thanks to all of you who already volunteered. Now we have 5 Candidates for the 3 open slots, but - in accordance with our ByLaws we will need at least 6 Candidates (two for each vacant Board position). You still have time until September 9, 2009, but we must have your email announcing your candidacy no later than September 9, 2009, midnight (Eastern Time). Contact the Nominations and Elections Committee at election@imca.cc to let us know that you want to be a Candidate for the Board of Directors. If you want to nominate someone else, that's also fine with us just make sure that the Nominee is aware of that nomination, and that he's actually willing to accept it. In any case, we will have to receive a formal notice by the Nominee, stating that he accepts his nomination no later than September 9, 2009, midnight (Eastern Time). The Encyclopedia of Meteorites We would also like to officially announce that the IMCA Encyclopedia of Meteorites is now fully functional and up and running - please have a look: It has a lot of great new features, is easy to use, and it's obviously accepted by the broad public as can be seen from the increasing number of hits, and all the new pictures that are uploaded by the EoM members on a daily basis. Together with the Meteoritical Bulletin Database which is maintained by Jeff Grossmann and the Meteoritical Society it is sure the most powerful tool, and the most valuable resource we have in our field of interest. We have to thank Pierre-Marie Pel้ for creating the original EoM, and Sergey Vasiliev who is responsible for the setup and design of the new IMCA Encyclopedia of Meteorites. Thanks for all your work, the countless hours you invested in this project, and the various additions and new features! A special thanks is also due to EoM Committee member Bob Falls and IMCA Board Member Jeff Kuyken who also helped with the setup, and with the improvement of the new EoM. Very special thanks is also due to Jeff Grossmann who helped a lot with updating and improving the links between the EoM and the MetSoc Database. Both websites and resources gained greatly from all the interlinks, and from the sharing of pictures and data. It is great to see that our joint efforts were able to to improve both websites, and the IMCA is looking forward to the cooperation with the Meteoritical Society, and all other meteorite afficinados, dealers and collectors in the future. Please use the new EoM to your heart's content - we hope you enjoy it! Meteoritical Society Awards Speaking of our cooperation with the Meteoritical Society - we have a few more news items in this regard: First, IMCA Member Joel Schiff was just selected for the 2010 Service Award of the Meteoritical Society on the Annual MetSoc Meeting in Nancy, France. The Service Award is for advancing the Meteoritical Society's goals to promote research and education in meteoritics and planetary science. Joel Schiff is recognized for founding the quarterly publication, METEORITE, in 1995. The renowned magazine serves as a forum for communication between amateurs, collectors, dealers, educators and researchers interested in meteorites. If there's somebody who really deserves this reward it certainly is Joel, and the IMCA Board of Directors wants to congratulate him for that, and thank him for all he did for making the meteorite community a better place. Second, this years Brian Mason Award went to Maitrayee Bose, a student at Washington University. The Brian Mason Award is for best abstract submitted by a student to the Meteoritical Society's Annual Meeting. The award is sponsored by the IMCA and Meteorite magazine. Maitrayee Bose's abstract is titled, "Iron-enriched stardust grains in the meteorites Acfer 094, QUE 99177, and MET 00426." Look for it in the August 2009 issue of Meteorite magazine! Third, the Program Committee for the Meteoritical Society Meeting in Nancy has selected Gregory Brennecka for next years Brian Mason award which will again be sponsored by the IMCA and Meteorite Magazine. Gregory Brennecka's abstract is titled "238U/235U variations in meteoritic materials: evidence for Curium-247 in the early solar system and implications for Pb-Pb dating". We'd like to
congratulate this years winner, Maitrayee Bose, and next years winner,
Gregory Brennecka, and we are happy that we could help with providing
the funds for the Brian Mason Award, and support young scientists in
their efforts to deepen our knowledge about meteorites, and the early
solar system. We are also proud to announce that we now have more than 300 IMCA members from 35 countries, and we have more and more people interested in our Association. For comparison, the Meteoritical Society counted about 750 members in early 2009 from more than 30 countries. Given the fact that our Association is still young we all can be very proud of our success, and we are looking forward to new membership applications. Best Regards to all of you
in the name of the IMCA Board of Directors,
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