| V. News (March 15, 1956) 1956 Genetics Symposia, September 6-12, 1956, in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. The Agenda for the 1956 Genetics Symposia, as was announced in the circulars from the Japan Science Council, is how complete. Drs. Muntzing, Jenkins, Unrau, Harington and other wheat geneticists are expected to attend. An informal meeting of these visitors and the Japanese wheat geneticists will be planned for the evening of September 12 in Kyoto after the closing ceremony of the Symposia. The subjects to be discussed will be: 1) the possibility of Wheat Genetics Symposium in Montreal, Canada, in 1958, 2) gene symbols, 3) future management of the " Wheat Information Service ", and 4) various important problems in wheat genetics and cytology, such as nullisomics, B-genome, and others. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Wheat Newsletter Dr. E. G. Heyne, Department of Agronomy, State College of Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas, U. S. A., is preparing another Wheat Newsletter for 1955. He says: "It is an informal presentation of wheat research being conducted in the United States and Canada and is for limited distribution to people working in wheat research." 1954 Wheat Newsletter (Vol. 1) was published in April, 1955. Wheat Monograph An English translation of the " Studies on Wheat " published in 1954 in Japanese will be presented shortly by Mr. M. Okamoto with the assistance of Dr. Sears' group, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, U. S. A. Dr. Sears will look through it and send it to us before long. The writers will then complete it with necessary addtions pertaining to new data which have appeared after the Japanese edition was published. If necessary, Dr. Kihara himself will visit the U. S. A. and Europe in order to fill up the gap of the manuscript. Loss to the Scientific World It is with regret that we announce the passing away of the following three distinguished wheat geneticists. This is really a great loss to the scientific world. lt is not necessary to mention their invaluable contributions to wheat genetics, cytology and breeding, which will long remain with us. Dr. Georg Kattermann died on October 6, 1943, in Rusia, Dr. Ake Akerman in April, 1955, in Svalof, Sweden, and Dr. E. S McFadden on January 6, 1956 in College Station, Texas, U. S. A. The following is an extract of Dr. Kihara's letter expressing his sympathy to Dr. McFadden's family through Mrs. Meta Brown: "I had a chance to meet Dr.McFadden in 1953, and we had a long talk on the origin of common wheat. I liked him for his unassuming demeanor and the quite objective way of discussing our common problems. His name will always remain with the first synthesis of common wheat." Miscellaneous Dr. H. Kihara was appointed Director of the National Institute of Genetics, Misima, Japan. He will retire in April, 1956, from the position at the Kyoto University, where he will be succeeded by Dr. I. Nishiyama, one of his oldest pupils. Copies of WIS No. 1 and No. 2 are available. They will be sent free on application. |