Vol. 54—2000 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

Presidential Add ......
Delivered January 4, 1999 at the
53rd Annual Meeting of the
Northeastern Weed Science Society
Boston Marrioll Cambridge Hotel
Cambridge, MA
David B. Vitolo
Novartis Crop Protection, Inc.
Hudson, New York
WHY ARE GRADUATE STUDENTS LIKE DOGS?
Good Morning, and Happy New Year.
Welcome to the fifty-third Annual Meeting of the Northeastem Weed Science Society.
Thank you for coming, and particular thanks to all of you who have volunteered your
time and efforts throughout the year to keep this society functioning this year.
Before I begin I want to take care of some housekeeping:
• I have had two bosses in the thirteen years I've worked for Ciba, and now
Novartis, and I want to thank them both, Charlie Pearson and Stan Pruss, for their
tolerance these past few years (atthough this is probably the first time tolerance and
Stan Pruss have been used in the same sentence).
• I thank my family for twenty years of Christmas, New Years, and NEWSS.
• And I thank Diane Keil, my co-worker at our research station, for all her hard
workand assistance.
• Finally, I want to let Brad Rauch (my summer intern) know that this tie is not a
signal about anything.
I'm going to keep this simple and short. I know that all presidents say that, but trust
me... That said, I'll never get this chance again. So I 'm going to try to fit in several
SUbjects into this talk.
First, What it takes to make this society function: I've been impressed these past few
years with how much effort it takes from so many people to keep this group going. This
particular position, President, has been a lot of fun (and you can come face-to-face with
your strengths, and weaknesses, in front of 200 people) I'd recommend gelling involved
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