We are pleased to announce that, in addition to not charging authors for pages or for color figures, and having fast, fair, and friendly manuscript review, Developmental Dynamics is fully compliant with the current open access policies of major funding agencies. Beyond that, a large percentage of our content—including all reviews, special issues, primers, and highlights—is open access immediately upon publication and all DD content is open access 1 year after publication. Open access policies for the various public and private funding agencies have evolved rapidly during the past year, leading to considerable confusion among funded authors about how to comply with the new mandates. To help clarify the current situation, specific details about DD's full compliance with open access policies is outlined below. NIH-funded authors are subject to a mandate requiring deposit of the accepted versions of their articles into PubMed Central (PMC), with those versions to be made publicly available within 12 months from publication of the final article. Wiley-Blackwell supports DD authors by posting the accepted version of DD articles by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon acceptance by the journal. The accepted version is the version that incorporates all amendments made during peer review before the publisher's copy-editing and typesetting. This accepted version will be made publicly available in PubMed Central 12 months after publication. The NIH mandate applies to all articles based on research that has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH and that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. NIH-funded and other authors can also purchase immediate open access through the Wiley-Blackwell OnlineOpen option. With OnlineOpen, Wiley-Blackwell will at the time of publication deposit into PMC and post on the DD's official site (www.wiley.com/developmentaldynamics) the final published PDF and XML of the article—the final, authoritative version of the article, after peer review, editing, any final corrections, online and print formatting, and publication. The cost for this service is $3,000 per article. To ensure that selecting this option has no influence on the peer-review and acceptance process, OnlineOpen is available to authors only at the point when the article is accepted. When the proofs of the accepted article are received, the author should inform the Production Editor (Patrick Snajder at [email protected]) about his or her intention to make this payment. For more information about OnlineOpen, visit www.interscience.wiley.com/onlineopen The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Wiley-Blackwell have agreed to make post-peer reviewed author manuscripts of articles funded by HHMI publicly available 6 months after final publication. This policy will be implemented for those DD articles published after October 1, 2007. Wiley-Blackwell will deposit in PMC the author's accepted manuscript (i.e., the post-peer-reviewed and accepted, but not edited and typeset version) of original research articles on which any HHMI investigator is an author. This arrangement requires nothing of the grantee; identification and deposit are the responsibility of the publisher and HHMI covers the cost. The Wellcome Trust announced in 2006 that all grant holders must deposit their research papers in PMC and that they must be made publicly available within 6 months of the journal publisher's official date of final publication. This requirement can be met for DD articles through the Wiley-Blackwell OnlineOpen option described above. The Wellcome Trust has stated in its position statement, dated February 2008, that it “will provide grant holders with additional funding, through their institutions, to cover open access charges, where appropriate, in order to meet the Trust's requirements.”

We are pleased to announce that the Anatomical Record (AR) is fully compliant with the current open access policies of major funding agencies. Beyond that, most of the journal's content—including all regular papers, special issues, thematic papers, and reviews—is open access immediately upon publication, and all AR content is open access 1 year after publication. This important and comprehensive compliance extends the long-standing benefits of free color figures and pages to all authors. As authors know, open access policies for the various public and private funding agencies have evolved rapidly during the past year, leading to confusion among authors who are funded by such agencies about how to comply with the new mandated policies. To help clarify the current situation, specific details about AR's full compliance with open access policies is outlined as follows. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandate applies to all papers based on research that has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH and that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. NIH-funded authors are required to deposit the accepted version of their manuscript into PubMed Central (PMC), with the version to be made publicly available within 12 months from publication of the final article. Wiley-Blackwell supports AR authors by posting the accepted version of AR papers by NIH grant-holders to PMC upon acceptance by the journal. The accepted version is the version that incorporates all amendments made during peer review prior to the publisher's copyediting and typesetting. NIH-funded and other authors can also purchase immediate open-access through the Wiley-Blackwell OnlineOpen option. With OnlineOpen, Wiley-Blackwell will deposit the final, published version of the article (i.e., including publisher's copyediting and typesetting) into PMC for public distribution at the time of publication. The article will also be made freely available on AR's official site (http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-AR.html). To ensure that selecting this option has no influence on the peer review and acceptance process, OnlineOpen is available to authors only at the point when the article is accepted. Wiley-Blackwell will deposit the final PDF and XML of the article—the final, authoritative version of the article, after peer review, editing, any final corrections, online and print formatting, and publication. The cost for this service is 3,000 per article. When the proofs of the accepted article are received, the author should inform the production editor about his or her intention to make this payment. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Wiley-Blackwell also have agreed to make post-peer-reviewed manuscripts of articles funded by HHMI publicly available 6 months following publication. This policy will be implemented for those AR articles published after October 1, 2007. Wiley-Blackwell will deposit in PMC the author's accepted manuscript (i.e., the post-peer-reviewed and accepted, but not edited and typeset version) of original research articles on which any HHMI investigator is an author. This arrangement requires nothing of the grantee; identification and deposit are the responsibility of the publisher, and, importantly, HHMI covers the cost. The Wellcome Trust announced in 2006 that all grant holders must deposit their research papers in PMC and that those research papers must be made publicly available within 6 months of the official date of final publication. This requirement can be met for AR articles through the Wiley-Blackwell OnlineOpen option described earlier. The Wellcome Trust has stated in its position statement, dated February, 2008, that it “will provide grant holders with additional funding, through their institutions, to cover open access charges, where appropriate, to meet the Trust's requirements.”

Being an AAA student member has just gotten twice as easy because AAA has cut student dues to half the price! In a move designed to bring more students into the society and retain them as members through their postdoctoral and early faculty years, AAA's Board of Directors has approved a plan to reduce student dues by 50% beginning in 2007, lower dues for postdocs, and extend “early career” eligibility from 1 to 7 years. The dues changes were proposed by a task force headed by AAA Secretary-Treasurer Rick Drake; other task force members included David Burr, Matt Velkey, and Judy Venuti. Drake believes that the low $30 rate for students might encourage department chairs or senior faculty to provide a gift of AAA membership for their graduate students. In fact, AAA is now offering gift cards, enabling advisors, mentors, and department chairs to give their students a great birthday gift, stocking stuffing, or reward that truly keeps on giving. For less than the cost of 10 grande lattes, students can enjoy all that AAA has to offer, including student travel awards of $250 or $350. Any smart department chair would call that a “no brainer”! Reduction in student dues by 50% to $30 with membership including online, not print, access to the selected AAA journal. Eligibility for this category could be maintained until the individual receives his/her degree or for 7 years, whichever is less. Establishment of a new dues category for postdoctoral/nonfaculty positions with membership including online, not print, access to the selected AAA journal. Eligibility for this category could be maintained until the individual obtains a faculty position or for 5 years, whichever is less. Dues for 2007 will be $45; postdocs now pay $60. Extension of “early career” eligibility from 1 to 7 years. Individuals could qualify for this category until promoted to an associate professor or for 7 years, whichever comes first. “Early career” dues for 2007 will be $90. Elimination of the “international member” category so foreign members pay the same dues and receive the same benefits as regular members. AAA pays dues to FASEB for each regular, international, and postdoctoral member and pays its publisher, John Wiley & Sons, varying fees for each member who subscribes to the print or online editions of The Anatomical Record or Developmental Dynamics. While the new student and postdoc rates will not cover these costs, the AAA Board views these dues reductions as an investment in AAA and in anatomy as a discipline.

Lynne A. Opperman, associate professor of biomedical sciences at Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, has been chosen as AAA program co-chair and will serve in this position from 2006 to 2010. Lynne A. Opperman Opperman, whose research interests include craniofacial growth and development, intramembranous bone growth, molecular regulation of craniofacial suture development and morphogenesis, succeeds Robert Tomanek in the co-chair slot. She will share the AAA programming role with current program co-chair Marion “Emmy” Gordon. In her candidate's statement, Opperman noted that the anatomical sciences are “undergoing an exciting resurgence with the introduction of sophisticated new techniques for visualizing molecular and cellular events, both in vivo and in vitro.” As program co-chair, she hopes to create crossover areas of interest combining physiological, molecular, and morphological methods, both in research and in education. Also elected to the AAA Board of Directors were Carol C. Gregorio, associate professor of cell biology and anatomy, University of Arizona; Jeffrey T. Laitman, distinguished professor, professor and director of anatomy and functional morphology, professor of otolaryngology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; and Tamara A. Franz-Odendaal, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University. Carol C. Gregorio Jeffrey T. Laitman Tamara A. Franz-Odendaal At the AAA Annual Business Meeting held on April 3 in San Francisco, AAA president Kathy Svoboda thanked outgoing board members Robert Tomanek, Chi-Bin Chien, Rochelle Cohen, and J. Matt Velkey for their service, presenting them each with a certificate of appreciation. Members also raised a glass of champagne toasting Duane E. Haines for his service as chairman of the New Anatomist Editorial Advisory Board from the publication's inception in 1998 through 2005.

The AAA Board of Directors has voted to discontinue publication of the New Anatomist (NA) at the end of 2006 and has asked its publisher, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., to develop a business plan for a new anatomy education journal. Following the board's vote on 31 March, AAA President Kathy Svoboda relayed the decision to the New Anatomist Editorial Board at its 4 April meeting, outlining the steps the board had taken in reaching this difficult decision. A confluence of three key factors led AAA to appoint a task force to assess the New Anatomist, published as a supplement to the Anatomical Record (AR) since 1998, and make recommendations for the future. These factors were as follows: Kurt Albertine taking over as editor of the Anatomical Record in 2005 with a new vision for the journal; Duane Haines stepping down as chair of the NA Editorial Board; and revelation of the fact that NA was no longer being tracked for impact factor, which led to concern about the effect this situation was having on AR. As part of its assessment, the NA Task Force developed an online survey that was sent to all AAA members and posted on the NA Web site. Most of the 317 who responded viewed the publication favorably. For example, more than half of the respondents read all or some of the articles in each issue and 55% reported using ideas from these articles or discussing them with a colleague. Numerous suggestions for changes and improvements were offered. In particular, many were interested in a stronger focus on anatomy education; numerous respondents recommended a greater emphasis on submitted rather than invited articles. AAA and Wiley representatives also met with Thomson Scientific, the company that tracks journal citations and impact factors. Thomson officials explained that they had discontinued coverage of NA because it publishes material that does not meet their criteria of scholarly content. Thomson further confirmed that beginning the “Part A/Part B” designations of the Anatomical Record and the New Anatomist in 2003 led to a situation whereby the Anatomical Record (published from 1906 to 2002) was viewed as a completely different journal from the Anatomical Record: Part A (published from 2003 to the present). This, in turn, made it appear that the Anatomical Record no longer had an impact factor and, conversely, that the Anatomical Record: Part A did not have an impact factor history. In either case, this was a critical concern as Albertine began his tenure as editor. Meanwhile, in discussions about the future of the New Anatomist, a proposal emerged for a new peer-reviewed education journal that would cover all areas of the anatomical sciences. Recognizing that it would take time to assess the feasibility of such a publication, the AAA board asked Wiley to drop the “Part A/Part B” designations, but to continue publishing the New Anatomist until a decision could be reached on a possible new publication. However, Wiley said that if AAA wanted to continue publishing the New Anatomist through 2007, pending a decision for the long-term, then Wiley preferred to retain the “Part A/Part B” distinction through 2007 to avoid confusing libraries. Recognizing that there would be continued damage to AR as long as the “Part A/Part B” distinction exists, the AAA board decided instead to end bimonthly publication of the New Anatomist with the November 2006 issue. This facilitates quicker implementation of an AR impact factor adjustment proposed by Thomson. NA Managing Editor Mark Paalman and the NA Editorial Advisory Board are moving ahead to fill the final issues with high-quality articles that fulfill NA's original mission of promoting and enhancing the image of anatomy. The AAA board expressed its gratitude to the NA Editorial Advisory Board: Duane Haines (chairman emeritus), Richard Drake, Paul Heidger, Jr., James Olds, Joy Reidenberg, Charles Slonecker, Ian Tattersall, and Robert Trelease. Meanwhile, the NA Task Force, chaired by Lynne Opperman and including Kurt Albertine, Richard Drake, John Fallon, and Andrea Pendleton, is working with Wiley to determine the viability of a new international education publication with both submitted and solicited articles. The scope of this journal would encompass all levels of anatomical sciences education, including undergraduate, allied health, medical (both allopathic and osteopathic), dental, graduate and postgraduate, covering issues related to gross anatomy, embryology, histology, and neuroscience education. AAA has asked both the American Association of Clinical Anatomists and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society to participate in the new publication; both societies have expressed an interest. The AAA board expects to review a feasibility report this fall and make a decision no later than its April 2007 meeting.

Have you ever wondered how your embryology course compares to others in terms of faculty/student ratio? Or whether you offer fewer lecture hours in neuroscience than other departments? Or what the trend is in laboratory hours in gross anatomy? Well, wonder no more! Results of the American Association of Anatomists' Education Course Survey are available online in an active database that can be easily updated when your course changes. Curricular change at any educational level is a challenging process, but it can be even more challenging if tackled in a vacuum, with little knowledge of what comparable schools and departments are offering. The AAA Education Course Survey—completed by course directors in gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, neuroscience, and embryology—provides you with important benchmarks against which to assess your own curriculum and can be a powerful tool for convincing others of the need to change…or not! For each course, data are available on specific issues related to students, faculty, laboratories, and examinations. In addition to viewing combined responses for individual courses, you can view specific questions and responses from individual schools or responses from all schools on a cumulative list. Survey results are found online (www.anatomy.org/forms/cs_serv/SearchInstructions.asp). The original survey, spearheaded by Rick Drake, director of anatomy at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, was carried out in cooperation with the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. Further refinements now enable you to update the 2005 data or add data for courses and institutions not included in the earlier results. If you participated in the initial process, you've recently received an e-mail telling you how to update your course information (if not, contact AAA at exec@anatomy.org for details). If we missed you for the first survey, here's how to set up an account to complete the survey and access the database for future updates: using Internet Explorer, go to www.anatomy.org/forms/cs_login.asp; click on “New Account” at bottom of screen; fill out all fields designated by an asterisk (save your user name and password for future Education Course Survey updates); select your specific course and click “Continue”; fill out the survey questions. To make the results even more robust, you can encourage other course directors at your school to participate; each institution can establish up to five accounts. By increasing participation, we hope to provide a complete, accurate, and up-to-date database detailing how courses in gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, embryology, and neuroscience are being taught. This important information will assist anatomical science educators as they design programs for the future, filling the data void in which curricular change sometimes take place.

AAA now has an award recognizing exceptional achievement as an anatomical sciences educator equivalent to the current Henry Gray award, which has long been AAA's highest honor for scientific achievement. The Henry Gray/Elsevier Distinguished Educator Award, with a prize of $4,000 plus travel support provided by Elsevier, will be awarded for the first time in 2007. The new award is for human anatomy education in the anatomical sciences as broadly defined—including gross anatomy, embryology, histology, and neuroanatomy—at the medical/dental, graduate, or undergraduate level of teaching. Only AAA members may submit a nomination; nominees must also be AAA members and be full-time or emeritus faculty members of accredited colleges or universities. The award committee, to be named this spring, will look for independent evidence of excellence in classroom teaching over a number of years at undergraduate, graduate, or professional levels; commitment to the improvement of teaching within the candidate's own institution; and contributions to anatomical science education at the local community, national, or international levels. Unlike AAA's other awards, the Henry Gray/Elsevier Distinguished Educator Award will have a two-step nomination process. By September 15, a nominator must submit the nomination form and a letter of support outlining the nominee's qualifications. Then each nominee will be asked to submit additional documentation by December 1, including a detailed CV and letters of recommendation. AAA's original Henry Gray Award will now be known as the Henry Gray/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Scientific Achievement Award; the deadline remains December 1. AAA's Basmajian Award will continue to recognize members in the formative stages of their career who teach human or veterinary gross anatomy, can document excellence in their contribution to the teaching of gross anatomy, and have outstanding accomplishments in biomedical research or scholarship in education. Additional information about the new educator award, including selection criteria and a nomination form, will be posted on AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org) and sent to members via E-Stratum this spring.

Regenerative medicine is the basis of 21st-century biomedicine. A special 2-day AAA mini-meeting on this topic will highlight the novel role of stem cells in tissue turnover and regeneration, identify important basic science issues, and demonstrate how understanding basic science principles can be translated into novel therapeutic and diagnostic modalities. The program, chaired by Vladimir Mironov (Medical University of South Carolina), features its own poster session, chaired by Jay Potts (University of South Carolina), and four symposia, described below. Regenerative medicine could be defined as applied stem cell, regenerative, and developmental biology. The stem cell is the keystone of the ongoing regenerative medicine revolution. Both embryonic and adult stem cells demonstrate potential for effective applications in regenerative medicine. However, effective clinical translation must be based on systematic studies of stem cell biology, tissue turnover, and regeneration, as well as on understanding the mechanisms of integration of implanted cells into preexisting tissues and organs. This session focuses on different types of stem cells and their application in regenerative medicine. Chair: Marc Hedrick (Macropore Biosurgery Inc). Regenerative medicine is impossible without effective cell delivery. It is obvious that designing an optimal microenvironment is critical for successful cell therapy and cell transplantation. Injectable tissue engineering is based on employing intelligent hydrogels or functional biomimetic matrices. Functional matrices from modified natural polymers are closely mimicking natural components of extracellular matrix and even have some additional advantages because they are designed as stimuli-sensitive or smart hydrogels. This session focuses on the application of biomimetic matrices in regenerative medicine. Chair: Kevin Healy (University of California at Berkeley). Endothelial cell and tissue biology is a fundamental basic research field that is critically important for progress in cardiovascular regenerative medicine. Angiogenesis and vasculogenesis are the current focus of research on endothelial cell and tissue biology. However, endothelial cells produce new blood vessel and proliferate in response on signals or injury. Endothelial-mesenchymal transformation and associated fibrosis are becoming recognized as potential pathogenetic mechanism for many fibroproliferative diseases. This session focuses on the application of endothelial mesenchymal transformation to emerging field of cardiovascular regenerative medicine. Chair: Joyce Bishoff (Harvard University). Self-assembly is a fundamental biological process at all scales. Exploring principles of directed and even self-directed tissue self-assembly opens a unique opportunity for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Many soft tissues and especially cell aggregates are not solid but rather viscoelastic fluid-like structures and they can flow and fuse. This session focuses on new emerging tissue engineering technologies for regenerative medicine based on the principles of tissue self-assembly. Chair: Vladimir Mironov (Medical University of South Carolina). AAA initiated its successful mini-meeting format in 2004. A mini-meeting is a 2-day event during the AAA Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology that addresses a timely issue of sufficient breadth to attract registrants from several FASEB societies. The program includes four 2-hour symposia, each with four invitedspeakers, and a concurrent poster session posted for both days of the mini-meeting. AAA provides $10,000 to help defray a portion of travel costs for invited speakers and covers the registration and abstract fees for eight of the invited speakers. All other expenses must be supported by outside funding solicited by the organizer or covered by individual speakers. If you'd like to organize your own mini-meeting for EB 2007 or future years, just go to the AAA Website (www.anatomy.org), click on “Meeting/Proposal Form,” review the guidelines, and submit a proposal. All proposals will be evaluated by the AAA Annual Meeting Program Committee on April 5. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to create new synergy in your own area of research!

It's time for anatomists to stand up and be counted! Or, more precisely, to sit down, fill out a brief online survey, and be counted. Are there too many, too few, or just enough future anatomists in the training pipeline to meet teaching needs in the coming years? The answer to that question should matter to anyone who ever has an X-ray, goes to a physical therapist, takes a new medication, or sees a doctor—in other words, nearly all of us, including medical school faculty, department chairs, and deans. The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) and the Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology Chairpersons (AACBNC) are conducting a census of all anatomy-related departments to compile key data on faculty, graduate students, and postdocs. The ultimate goal is to develop strategies to meet future anatomy education needs. The census is a follow-up to the Survey of Academic Departments Related to Anatomy carried out by AAA and AACBNC in the summer of 2002. (Results are available at www.anatomy.org/Membership/survey_academic_departments.htm; also see a news report in The New Anatomist 275B:181, available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ar.b.10040). The original sur- vey was done in part to determine if there are enough, too many, or too few future anatomists being educated to meet teaching requirements in the coming years. In a paper scheduled to appear in Academic Medicine next month, AAA president Robert S. McCuskey and coauthors Stephen W. Carmichael and Darrell G. Kirch conclude that the current shortage of teaching anatomists is reversible, with enough individuals now being trained. The challenge, they say, is to provide resources and create incentives for graduate students and faculty to become and remain anatomy educators. Based on the anatomy census now underway, AAA will create a database of those currently trained and being trained in anatomy. We then expect to maintain this database to provide information on who is in the training pipeline and to track anatomy-related graduate students and postdocs. Data are being gathered via a simple Web-based survey form to be completed by each faculty member. The form has been sent to nearly 200 anatomy-related department chairs as a Web link that can be E-mailed to each faculty member in the department, who then can submit it individually. Each faculty member is asked to provide basic information on courses taught, research areas, and graduate students and postdocs supervised. In addition, each department chair is asked to identify where else in their institution anatomists might be lurking and, conversely, what other departments or disciplines they may be drawing on to handle courses in their department. As with all scientific endeavors, data collection is a key step. AAA and AACBNC council members have been assigned to nudge colleagues in selected departments in an effort to collect data from as many departments as possible. To avoid further nudging, please take a few minutes to complete the survey form and encourage your chair and colleagues to do the same. If you haven't received the survey or have misplaced it, just go to http://www.anatomy.org/forms/Anatomy_Census_2005.asp. Then please sit down and be counted!

David B. Burr, professor and chair of anatomy and cell biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, has been chosen as AAA president-elect after serving just a year as AAA secretary-treasurer. David Burr In his candidate's statement, Burr pointed to several key challenges facing AAA and the anatomy discipline in the coming years, including: Dealing with the potential shortage of future instructors, particularly in gross anatomy. “Our discipline depends on our central role in education. This is one reason to develop associations both with medical educators in AACA and with undergraduate educators, many of whom belong to HAPS (the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society).” Maintaining the vitality and novelty of research in the morphological sciences. “Anatomists have a fundamental role to play both in the imaging technologies and in characterization of genetically modified animal models. We are well positioned to take advantage of NIH's new Roadmap, which stresses translational research and clinical relevance, but the important role that we can play is not widely recognized outside our field.” Sustaining AAA financially. “There is a strong push by NIH for open access to published research. Science must be a public endeavor, and descriptions of research findings must be available to anyone who wants or needs them. However, scientific societies derive significant revenue from journal publication. AAA's financial vitality would be seriously damaged without this source of support. The challenge is to balance access to published literature with the needs of scientific societies.” Also elected to the AAA board of directors were: Charles D. Little, professor of anatomy and cell biology, University of Kansas. Charles Little Hazel L. Sive, member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and professor of biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hazel Sive Julian A. Guttman, postdoctoral fellow, Biotechnology/Michael Smith Laboratory, University of British Columbia. Julian A. Guttman At the AAA Annual Business Meeting held on April 4 in San Diego, former president John Fello congratulated Kathy Svoboda as she moved up to assume the AAA presidency for the coming 2 years. Svoboda announced that Richard L. Drake, Professor and Director of Anatomy at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, has been appointed secretary-treasurer to fill the vacancy caused by Burr's election. Finally, McCuskey thanked outgoing board members John Fallon, Kimberly Latacha, Lynne Opperman, and Robert Specian for their service, presenting them each with a certificate of appreciation. Kathy Svoboda Richard L. Drake

Anatomy in Motion: Put Your Best Image Forward! Do you have some exceptional micrograph images that highlight your research? Send them to exec@anatomy.org for inclusion in a special “Anatomy in Motion Image Display” at the AAA booth at EB 2006. All submitted images should be 1,280 × 1,024 resolution and must be received by February 1, 2006. Go west, young anatomist! And this year, more than ever, AAA will make it worth your while for young and not-so-young alike to attend the AAA Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology (EB) 2006 in San Francisco! AAA not only significantly increased travel grants for student and postdoctoral members, but we've also added a new workshop to help graduate students, postdocs, and scientists now working in academia think outside the academic box when it comes to future employment. AAA teams up with the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) for a workshop on Beyond Academia: Career Options in Industry and Biotech—a perfect networking opportunity where you can meet informally with representatives of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and contract research organizations to find out what it takes to embark on a successful career in industry and learn about the career options these companies offer. Join us on Sunday, April 2, from 10 AM until noon. In continuing partnership with the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), AAA is cosponsoring a mentoring luncheon on Opening Doors: Networking and Professional Visibility, which immediately follows the AAA-ASPET Career Workshop. For the first 20 AAA student/postdoctoral members to register, the mentoring luncheon is on the house! Other recent additions to the AAA Annual Meeting schedule have been so well received that they are now part of “networking as usual”: two Saturday afternoon award sessions highlight the research of student and postdoctoral award nominees and our Monday evening Student Poster Session and Reception is the best place to meet your next mentor, grad student, postdoc, or new faculty member. The AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2006 runs from Saturday, April 1, to Wednesday, April 5. Here are some additional highlights! Dr. Judah Folkman Judah Folkman, MD, whose discoveries on the mechanism of angiogenesis opened this significant field of investigation, presents the AAA keynote lecture on “The Platelet Angiogenesis Proteome for Early Detection of Cancer” (Sunday, April 2, 5:00–6:00 PM). Folkman is the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston. His presentation is sponsored by the American Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairpersons (AACBNC) with support from JEOL USA. AAA's Education and Teaching Track covers 4 full days, combining the traditional focus of curriculum content with an in-depth look at the present and future of who is doing the teaching and how anatomy is being taught. Anatomy Education Breakfast Roundtables Diagnostic Imaging as a Teaching Tool Master Class: The Autonomic Nervous System Online Publication of Educational Resources: Who Owns What? Refresher Course: The Musculoskeletal System Role of Anatomy in Teaching Professionalism Teaching Innovations in Anatomy Workshop: Preparing Graduate Students to Teach the Anatomical Sciences Workshop: The Use of Tablet PCs in Teaching the Anatomical Sciences Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine Biomimetic Matrices for Regenerative Medicine Endothelial-Mesenchymal Transformation in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Tissue Engineering Technologies for Regenerative Medicine Beyond this outstanding program, the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2006 offers an extensive exhibit featuring state-of-the-art equipment and the latest publications. Take the opportunity to mingle with colleagues at the AAA Socializer, AAA Annual Awards Banquet, the ongoing ChatRoom in the AAA Office, and discussions in between sessions. Register by February 6 to save $70 with early-bird registration and an additional $100 if you're an AAA member! When submitting your EB registration form, it's important that you select “Anatomy/AAA” as your member society or area of interest. And be sure to reserve your hotel room by February 17 or sooner—inexpensive rooms are the first to go. For all of your AAA Annual Meeting/EB 2006 needs, plus up-to-date details on the AAA program, go to www.anatomy.org or contact AAA at 301-634-7910 (phone), 301-634-7965 (fax), or exec@anatomy.org.

AAA initiated a successful experiment with its new mini-meeting format at last year's annual meeting/Experimental Biology (EB) 2004. We're planning another mini-meeting in 2005 and invite you to propose and organize your own program for EB 2006 or future years. A mini-meeting is a 2-day event during the AAA annual meeting that addresses a timely issue of sufficient breadth to attract registrants from several FASEB societies. The program includes four 2-hour symposia, each with four invited speakers, and a concurrent poster session posted for both days of the mini-meeting. AAA provides $7,000 to help defray a portion of travel costs for invited speakers and covers the registration and abstract fees for eight of the invited speakers. All other expenses must be supported by outside funding solicited by the organizer or covered by individual speakers. In addition to financial support, AAA provides meeting rooms and audiovisual equipment, abstract processing, staff support onsite and prior to the meeting, and marketing assistance. Mini-meeting attendees must register for the Experimental Biology meeting and may attend the full AAA Annual Meeting, plus all EB scientific sessions and the EB exhibit. According to organizers Michiko Watanabe (Case Western Reserve University) and Robert Gourdie (Medical University of South Carolina), AAA's first mini-meeting—“Choreography of the Heart Beat: The Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction System”—met its ambitious goals of attracting potential new investigators, facilitating communication between widely scattered (in geography and discipline) current investigators, and seeding long-term communication that may foster research collaborations. Funding for the mini-meeting was generously provided by AAA, the Japanese Association of Anatomists, the March of Dimes, NIH NHLBI, and The Anatomical Record. Proceedings of the program are featured in a special issue of The Anatomical Record (volume 280A, issue 2, October 2004). Our meeting-within-a-meeting format continues in 2005 with “The Development of Sensory Systems,” cochaired by Chi-Bin Chien (University of Utah) and Monica Vetter (University of Utah). This 2-day program (3–4 April in San Diego), featuring a separate poster session, will look at regional identity and induction, neurogenesis, cell migration and polarity, and axon guidance and synaptogenesis, providing lots of time during and between sessions for quizzing participants and catching up with colleagues. The proposal submission deadline for a 2006 mini-meeting is 11 March. All proposals will be evaluated by the AAA Annual Meeting Program Committee on 6 April. Detailed guidelines and submission form are found under “Meetings” at www.anatomy.org. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to create new synergy in your own area of research!

Kurt Albertine, professor of pediatrics, adjunct professor of internal medicine and neurobiology and anatomy, and director of the Research Microscopy Facility at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, has been named editor in chief of the Anatomical Record, Part A, one of AAA's two flagship journals. Kurt Albertine Albertine, currently one of the journal's associate editors, begins his new role on 1 January 2006, when the present editor in chief Roger Markwald steps down after 8 years at the helm. Among the goals Albertine has set for the journal, he envisages that the Anatomical Record will be “the premier integrative anatomy journal attracting reports of hypothesis-driven studies and lasting invited reviews.” By integrative anatomy, he explains, “I mean anatomical research that incorporates other disciplines, including (but not limited to) physiology, pathology, biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, and/or neuroscience.” After doing his undergraduate work in biology at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Albertine went on to complete his doctorate in anatomy at Loyola University of Chicago-Stritch School of Medicine in 1979. He received postdoctoral training in pulmonary physiology at the University of California, San Francisco Cardiovascular Research Institute, followed by the University of South Florida, the University of Pennsylvania, and Jefferson Medical College, before joining the Utah faculty in 1993 as associate professor of pediatrics. Albertine became a full professor in 1996. Albertine's principal research focus is the molecular regulation of alveolar formation, which incorporates the disciplines of anatomy, morphometry and stereology, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, cell biology, and molecular biology. “Our studies offer a unique opportunity to identify molecular mechanisms that lead to dysregulated alveolar formation in a pediatric health problem that is eclipsed in incidence and cost by asthma only,” he notes. Beyond his research efforts, Albertine was instrumental in establishing a graduate training program for anatomy teacher-scholars at the University of Utah and bringing about institutional changes to reward faculty for their teaching-related endeavors. He recently stepped down as director of Utah's highly successful human anatomy course, now one of the most respected courses in the medical curriculum, thanks to Albertine's efforts over the past 5 years. In addition to his role with the Anatomical Record, Albertine is on AAA's Educational Affairs Committee and on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular. He belongs to numerous professional societies, among them the American Association of Clinical Anatomists, the American Physiological Society, the American Thoracic Society, the International Society of Lymphology, the Microscopy Society of America, the Perinatal Research Society, and the Society for Leukocyte Biology. “With the advent of new imaging technologies, anatomy is once again a 'hot' field,” Albertine maintains. “I'll be using my links to other disciplines to stump aggressively for the Anatomical Record,” he says.

David B. Burr, Professor and Chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, has been elected as AAA Secretary-Treasurer, and Marion K. Gordon, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, has been formally elected to the position of AAA Program Cochair. Gordon served in this capacity for the past year to fill a vacancy. Parker B. Antin, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Arizona; Judith M. Venuti, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; and J. Matthew Velkey, Ph.D. candidate, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School. At the AAA annual business meeting held on April 19 in Washington, DC, President Robert McCuskey thanked outgoing board members Duane Haines, Patrick Nahirney, Ann Poznanski, and Ray Runyan for their service, presenting them each with a certificate of appreciation. Based on the recommendations of a task force charged with reviewing the eligibility criteria for AAA's major scientific awards, AAA's board of directors approved some significant changes, including an increase in honoraria and the elimination of some requirements related to years since degree. Increased the honorarium for each award—Basmajian, Bensley, Gray, Herrick, Mossman, and Ladman—by $500; Eliminated the restriction regarding years past the terminal degree for the Bensley and Herrick awards; Broadened eligibility for the Basmajian/Williams and Wilkins Award to allow nonmembers to be nominated; Added 2 years' free membership and 2 years' annual meeting/Experimental Biology (EB) registration for the Basmajian, Bensley, Herrick, and Mossman awards; Increased travel reimbursement for the Basmajian award; and Adopted a policy whereby the Basmajian recipient will be asked to serve on the Educational Affairs Committee and to chair a “teaching innovations” platform session for the coming annual meeting. AAA's Task Force on Award Eligibility was chaired by John Sladek and included David Dean and Robert Klein. The AAA board also added a new Undergraduate Student Poster Award and made undergraduates eligible for AAA Student Travel Awards. For complete details on award criteria and information on how to make a nomination, just go to the awards/grants section of AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org). Nominations for the Bensley, Herrick, and Mossman awards are due September 15; nominations for the Basmajian, Gray, and Ladman awards are due December 1. Wanted: Data Mining Enthusiast The increasing drive to bring the fruits of cell and molecular research to the clinical arena will require investigators who can work at the systems and integrative level. Yet there is a perceived shortage of scientists who are trained in the area of systems and integrated biology and a lack of information concerning the actual size of the talent pool currently being trained or doing research in these areas. Therefore, AAA is seeking a senior anatomist willing to spend 6–12 months at the National Institutes of Health, based at one of the institutes as an independent researcher, to explore the grants database, gather information from program officers and others, and prepare a detailed report that can be used for planning purposes. Salary support for this effort is available. Interested? Want to learn more? Contact AAA at exec@anatomy.org.

If you can only justify traveling to a conference with a strong scientific program, the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) has got you covered. If a program that will help you become a better educator is enough to get you out of the classroom for a couple of days, we've got you covered there, too! And if putting it all together in one convenient package sounds even better, then you definitely need to be at the AAA Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology (EB) from Saturday, April 17, to Wednesday, April 21, in Washington, D.C. The annual meeting opens on Saturday with AAA's always popular imaging workshops. This year's topics are “Using Imaging for Data Mining” and “Whole Body Imaging of Gene Expression,” both with a focus on how to use these important tools in your own research. New on this year's program is a two-part competition for the best graduate student presentation (Langman Award Session, Saturday, 3:30–5 p.m.) and the best postdoctoral presentation (Presley-Zeiss Award Session, Saturday, 5:30–7 p.m.), with a networking refreshment break in between (a perfect spot to look for your next postdoc or a new faculty member)! The networking and contacts continue at Monday evening's Student Poster Session and Reception (7–8 p.m.) and at other social events throughout the meeting. Also new for 2004 is AAA's first meeting-within-a-meeting. “Choreography of the Heart Beat: The Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction System” features a separate poster session and two full days of programming on the anatomy, physiology, development, pathology, and repair of the pacemaking and cardiac conduction system. Keynote speaker Ting-Kai Li (director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) “Old Problems, New Approaches in Alcohol Research” R.R. Bensley Award Lecture in Cell Biology Carol Gregorio (University of Arizona) “How Do Cardiac Myocytes Regulate the Lengths of the Actin-Containing Thin Filaments?” C.J. Herrick Award Lecture in Neuroanatomy Linda J. Richards (University of Maryland School of Medicine) “Mechanisms of Axon Guidance in the Development of the Corpus Callosum” H.W. Mossman Award Lecture in Developmental Biology Olivier Pourquié (Stowers Institute for Medical Research) “Vertebrate Somitogenesis: A Paradigm for Animal Segmentation?” AAA's Education and Teaching (ET) track is both bigger and better than last year's annual meeting. In fact, anatomy educators could easily spend 4 very full days just going to education sessions and posters—and that doesn't even count the programs offered by other EB societies. Start out Saturday with the first in our new master class series, this one focusing on the gastrointestinal tract. Sunday includes a refresher course on “Redefining Ligaments, Joints and Sutures in the Molecular Age,” sessions on “The Visible Human” and “Teaching Medical Imaging,” plus a visit to the wide variety of teaching posters and computer teaching demonstrations in the exhibit hall. Monday opens with the ever popular Anatomy Education Roundtables, this year focusing on how teaching anatomy factors into faculty appointment and promotion decisions. Other Monday sessions look at the clinical and histological presentations of neurodegenerative disorders and innovations in teaching anatomy. Be sure not to miss our Tuesday sessions, beginning with presenting clinical relevance in teaching human embryology and winding up with another round of teaching innovations. Also on Tuesday, don't miss AAA's first Education Funding Fair. The program opens with a talk on “Finding Support for Educational Projects in Anatomy: Tips, Tools, and Lessons Learned.” Then speakers from the National Library of Medicine, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education will tell you where to find and how to apply for extramural funding to develop teaching programs and materials. There will be lots of opportunity for interaction, both in discussion groups following the speakers and during the box lunch immediately after the session. The AAA Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology—it's a multidisciplinary meeting with access to an extensive exhibit, an exceptional career resources center, and outstanding scientific presentations. But it's also a mini-meeting on cardiac conduction, a 4-day conference on anatomy education, and the best way for anatomy researchers and educators alike to connect with colleagues from around the world. Head for AAA's AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org) for a look at the full AAA Annual Meeting program.

If you're involved in teaching anatomy, learning about anatomy, or learning how to teach anatomy—which would likely be everyone reading this article—then you'll want to be at the 2005 AAA Annual Meeting, scheduled for 2–6 April in San Diego. The Education and Teaching Track at the 2005 AAA Annual Meeting covers 4 full days, combining the traditional focus of teaching substance with an in-depth look at the present and future of who is doing the teaching and how anatomy is being taught. The Annual Meeting opens by offering a clean slate for the anatomy program of the future and asking, If we were building an anatomy syllabus from scratch, what would we teach and how would we teach it? Join us on Saturday, 2 April, for this special workshop on “anatomical sciences de novo,” in which participants will have the opportunity to plan an anatomy teaching program as if none had ever existed before. Workshop conclusions will be presented and discussed further in Monday morning's Anatomy Education Breakfast Roundtables. Two additional sessions—Endangered Species: Who Will Teach Anatomy in 2010? and Anatomy Education: Teach Now or Pay Later—will consider where future anatomy educators will come from and look at the potential impact of not teaching anatomy early on in the medical school curriculum. Moving from curriculum structure to curriculum content, AAA's popular Integrative Master Class series spotlights the cardiovascular system, while two new Refresher Courses provide updates on birth defects caused by environmental defects and how to integrate basic and clinical concepts in teaching histology. And, acknowledging the popular TV series, we'll turn one session into CSI San Diego to bring you up-to-date on applied anatomy in physical and forensic anthropology. Expanding on AAA's commitment to supporting biomedical researchers and educators early in their professional endeavors, we've added another new program to help student/postdoctoral members jump-start their careers. Several student/postdoctoral members who applied for 2004 Travel Awards have been asked to cochair an Annual Meeting session in 2005. These “shadow organizers,” matched with session organizers based on their research areas, will shadow the organizer and learn what it takes to put together an Annual Meeting symposium. They'll contact and connect with invited speakers, introduce some of the speakers at the symposium, and may lead the Q&A—excellent ways to become known by others in their area. All this, plus AAA will cover their registration fee and provide a 2005 Travel Award. Interested? If so, the first step is to apply for a 2005 Student/Postdoc Travel Award by going to AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org) and clicking on “awards/grants.” Some recent additions to the AAA Annual Meeting schedule have been so well received that they are now part of “networking as usual”: two separate award sessions highlight the research of student and postdoctoral award nominees and our Student Poster Session and Reception is the best place to meet your next mentor, grad student, postdoc, or new faculty member. Apart from an exciting education and teaching program, the AAA Annual Meeting offers you a strong scientific program of symposia, platform sessions, and posters, with an extensive exhibit featuring state-of-the-art equipment and the latest publications. If your work touches on other biomedical disciplines, the whole world of experimental biology is open to you. There are also lots of opportunities to mix, mingle, and network with AAA colleagues, including the Annual Meeting Socializer, the AAA Awards Banquet, the ongoing ChatRoom in the AAA Office, and impromptu discussions in-between sessions. So, recognizing that active learning is much more effective than passive, block out 2–6 April on your calendar and start thinking about the abstract that you're going to submit for the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2005—it's due by Wednesday, 3 November. Then head to AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org) for details on how to submit an abstract, register for the meeting, and book your hotel. See you in San Diego!

The American Association of Anatomists (AAA)'s organizational archives and archival materials related to the discipline of anatomy will all have exceptional places to reside in perpetuity, thanks to the efforts of the AAA's Historical Task Force: Lynne Opperman (chair), John Lough, Andrea Pendleton, and Ann Poznanski. The Albin O. Kuhn Library at the University of Maryland–Baltimore County (UMBC) will become the archival repository for materials related to the AAA as an organization. These materials will become part of the UMBC's Center for Biological Sciences Archives (CBSA), which already houses the papers of such organizations as the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Cell Biology, the American Society for Microbiology, and the Tissue Culture Association. The CBSA's mission is to identify, preserve, and provide access to manuscripts, personal papers, and archives generated by individuals and institutions involved in the biological sciences. As soon as the AAA archive is catalogued at UMBC, its contents will be available to researchers. For more information about the CBSA, go to http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/speccoll/cbsa.php3. The AAA's Historical Task Force worked with CBSA officials to develop policies for gathering and organizing the society's archival resources. Past and current presidents, board members, and committee chairs received a letter that explained the archive project and inquired as to what materials they might have that should be included. In addition, members of the AAA staff have begun the process of printing and identifying photographs, and assembling papers that now reside in the national office. If you have any materials related to the AAA as an organization (as distinct from anatomy as a discipline) that you think should be included in this archive, contact exec@anatomy.org to request an AAA materials checklist. Please do not send any materials without making arrangements with the national office. The AAA is working with the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) to establish an archival home for anatomy as a discipline. Letters. Memoirs, reminiscences, and diaries. Scrapbooks and photo albums. Professional papers. Genealogical information. Speeches and lectures. Business records. Subject files. Legal documents. Minutes and reports. Brochures and flyers. Photographs (labeled). Films, videos, and audiotapes (labeled). The AAA asks all of its members to consider donating such materials, after they first contact their own university's archive to determine whether that would be a more appropriate home. The AAA expects to appoint a “Culling Subcommittee” of members who are willing to review the actual materials before they are sent to the museum. The subcommittee's role will mainly be to assess the scientific or historical importance of the material. If you are interested in serving on this group, please contact the AAA at exec@anatomy.org. A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository www.archivists.org/publications/donating-familyrecs.asp A Guide to Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository www.archivists.org/publications/donating-orgrecs.asp

15.1 full-time and 4.1 part-time faculty, 9.4 of whom are tenured 73 medical students, 12.2 graduate students, 7.5 postdoctoral fellows, and 4.5 administrative support staff 1.4 unfilled, full-time faculty positions salaries ranging from an average low of $37,764 for instructors to an average high of $122,375 for professors 41.8% of departmental income derived from extramural research institutional funding (2001–2002) of $1,443,143 11,870.4 sq. ft., excluding teaching space. Determine whether there are enough, too many, or too few future anatomists in the training pipeline to meet teaching needs in the coming years; Provide department chairs with benchmarking data to compare departmental funding, salaries, and infrastructure support with other schools in the United States and Canada; Provide information to assess graduate research and training programs in comparison with others. The impetus for this survey stemmed in part from reports that medical school administrators' plans for faculty hiring and curriculum changes are based on the supposition that too few anatomists are being trained to meet future teaching needs. A key goal of the survey was to gather the data to support or refute this assertion, which could then lead to the development of strategies for the future. The AAA's reading of the data from the 95 chairs who responded shows that we seem to be training enough anatomists to meet future teaching needs—but, for a variety of reasons, many of those who are trained do not subsequently teach. This issue was addressed in a February 2003 session at the AACBNC annual meeting and reported on in the March 2003 AAMC Reporter (reprinted in the AAA Newsletter, June 2003, page 5). The AAA is planning follow-up meetings this fall with other anatomy organizations. Because this was a first-time survey, we have no trends to report. The data can only be compared to what is “known” intuitively or found in other sources. Based on the feedback and interest of those who view the data, we expect to revise the survey as needed and repeat it periodically. Faculty Data Salary & Funding Data Infrastructure Training by Subject Teaching Gross Anatomy Verbatim Responses to questions such as: • You indicated that you anticipate great or moderate difficulty in finding people to teach Gross Anatomy. How do you plan to fill vacancies in this field? • What type of incentives does the institution provide for department faculty to augment their salaries from grant funds? To comment or request a more complete data compilation (available to members only), please send an E-mail to AAA at exec@anatomy.org.

AAA's Advisory Committee for Young Anatomists (ACYA) invites students, postdocs, and young faculty to join them for bagels, coffee, and conversation focusing on how to make yourself more marketable in today's academic environment (day and time to be announced). Worried that you might perish before you publish? Be sure to sign up for “Dancing with Journals: A Guide to Submission and Review,” a luncheon program about the ins and outs of scientific publication—a FREE lunch for the first 20 AAA student/postdoc members who register! (Sunday, April 13, noon–2 PM, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, Marina Ballroom G). Access to the Career Resources Center/Placement Service is FREE, including cover letter and resumé critique workshops and onsite interview facilities. Selected students will be asked to participate in a separate Student Poster Session—a special place to see and be seen! (Saturday, April 12, 6:30–8:30 PM, San Diego Convention Center, Room 25B/C). And, back by popular demand, the Young Experimental Scientist (YES) Mixer—open to all who are still awake after 9:30 PM! (Sunday, April 13, 9:30 PM–midnight, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, San Diego Ballroom A). The least expensive hotel rooms are the first to go, so make your reservations now. See you in San Diego!

It's a generally accepted maxim of learning that you get more out of participating in an activity than you do by just showing up. With that principle in mind, it's time to start thinking about the abstract that you're going to submit for the AAA Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2004—it's due by Wednesday, November 12! If you're wondering whether there will be enough to hold your attention once you have presented your own platform talk or poster, please read on. Several new or enhanced programs are planned for our 2004 meeting. Whatever your area of anatomy, there's bound to be plenty to pique your interest. Some of the highlights are described below. A full listing of all sessions is found on the next page. If you thought that the Education sessions at this year's Annual Meeting were great, just wait until 2004! AAA's Education and Teaching program not only gets better, but it also gets bigger. With two refresher courses, four symposia, platform sessions on teaching innovations and how to teach medical imaging, lots of posters, plus the always popular Anatomy Education Breakfast Roundtable, you can fill the entire meeting attending nothing but Education sessions. This year's Roundtable topic is “The Role of Anatomical Science Teaching in Faculty Appointment and Promotion Decisions.” The 2004 program also introduces a new format for AAA—a meeting- within-a-meeting on Choreography of the Heart Beat: The Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction System. This 2-day mini-meeting, featuring a separate poster session, will look at the anatomy, physiology, development, pathology, and repair of the pacemaking and cardiac conduction system. Continuing our efforts on behalf of student and postdoctoral members, AAA is adding two separate award sessions to highlight your research. And we'll repeat last year's successful Student Poster Session and Reception. Regular members will be encouraged to attend all of these events to meet their next postdoc or new faculty member! Plus AAA's Advisory Committee for Young Anatomists again invites students, postdocs, and young faculty to join them for bagels, coffee, and conversation focusing on how to make yourself more marketable in today's academic environment. Apart from these new programs and special events, the AAA Annual Meeting offers you a strong scientific program of symposia, platform sessions, and posters, with an extensive exhibit featuring state-of-the-art equipment and the latest publications. If your work touches on other biomedical disciplines, the whole world of Experimental Biology 2004 is open to you. At the same time, there are lots of opportunities to mix and mingle with AAA colleagues, including the Annual Meeting Socializer, the AAA Awards Banquet, the ongoing “Chat Room” in the AAA Office, and impromptu discussions in between sessions. So…about participating! Take a good look at the list of platform sessions and poster topics on the next page and decide where your work fits in. Then head to AnatomyLink (www.anatomy.org) for details on how to submit an abstract, register for the meeting, and book your hotel. Washington D.C. is lovely in April. Make plans now to join us for the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2004. But don't just show up—participate!