Danielle Mihram

Report on the 171st National Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Purpose – To report on the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Washington, DC in February 2005.Design/methodology/approach – An overview of the seminars, symposia, workshops and presentations at the conference.Findings – The theme of the meeting was The Nexus: Where Science Meets Society. The meeting was attended by 4,000 registrants, 105 exhibitors; and 900 members of the press. The meeting highlighted the academic role and infrastructure of technology in different science applications, including publishing, and national policy.Originality/value – A report of interest to library and information management professionals.

The AAAS 2007 Annual Meeting: Science and Technology for Sustainable Well Being

Purpose – To provide coverage and insights about the annual meeting of the AAAS where this years theme was “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well‐Being.”Design/methodology/approach – Environmental scan of annual national meeting. Of particular interest due to the range of backgrounds different attendees from all avenues of the scientific community.Findings – Sustainable well being has wide applications in different arenas but the informatics component was not as strong as at past conferences.Practical Implications – Much of the conference focused on intersections of theory and application and new ways of responding to sustainability. Particularly strong in the physical sciences.Originality value – Provides information of value to information professionals.

Report on AAAS 2010: on bridging science and society

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the 2010 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), its 176th meeting, held February 18‐22, 2010 in San Diego.Design/methodology/approach – Provides an overview of nine presentations as well as internet links (or bibliographic citations) of pertinent research, on each topic covered, for further understanding of the subject matter.Findings – There is plenty of research on which to report.Originality/value – The paper provides information on the latest research on: current technological advances relating to connectivity to the internet; key questions relating to the voluminous amount of data generated annually; and, how computational science, and its enabling cyberinfrastructure, is tackling some of the “grand challenges” facing science and society today.

AAAS 2009 annual meeting: our planet and its life: origins and future

Purpose – The aim is to report on the 175th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held in February 2009 in Chicago.Design/methodology/approach – Provides a concise review of the conference, whose theme was Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures.Findings – Not surprisingly, because of the primary focus on Darwin and the ecology of the earth, there were few symposia that concentrated on the application of technology outside of the Life Sciences and of the Earth Sciences. However, in view of the current evolution of “cloud computing” and the formation of “mega grids,” there were two symposia devoted to these topics.Originality/value – The paper is a useful summary of a conference of interest to library and information management professionals.

The AAAS 2008 annual meeting: science and technology from a global perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the 174th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held 14‐18 February 2008 in Boston, MA, USA.Design/methodology/approach – Conference report.Findings – The conference theme was science and technology from a global perspective, which emphasized the power of science and technology as well as education to assist less‐developed segments of the world society, to improve partnerships among already developed countries and to spur knowledge‐driven transformations across a host of fields.Originality/value – Overviews of six conference symposia are presented, which will be of interest to this journals readers.

Two 2008 Meetings: the AAAS's Forum on Science and Technology Policy and the ALA's National Library Legislative Day

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on The AAASs Forum on Science and Technology Policy, and The ALAs National Library Legislative Day, held in May 2008 in Washington, DC, USA. Design/methodology/report.–.Conference report. Findings – The underlying (single) theme of the two meetings was governmental funding. Each meeting was devoted to advising participants about the present status of budgetary allocations and appropriations of Federal funds for the current or subsequent years.Originality/value – Notes that four issues from the AAAs Forum would be of particular interest: “Cognition enhancement: promise or threat?”; “A skeptical view of advocacy [conducted by] by scientists”; “Ensuring the best presidential science appointments [after the 2008 elections]” and “Science and the new media”.

AAAS 2006: Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities

Purpose – To report on the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in St Louis, Missouri in February 2006.Design/methodology/approach – An overview of the seminars, symposia, workshops and presentations at the conference.Findings – The theme of the meeting was Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities. The meeting was attended by 4,000 registrants, 105 exhibitors; and 900 members of the press. The meeting highlighted the academic role and infrastructure of technology in different science applications, including publishing, and national policy.Originality/value – A report of interest to library and information management professionals.