NCP
Northern California Parasitologists
NCP is an Affiliate of the American Society of Parasitologists
Officers for 2007-08
President
Ravinder Sehgal
San Francisco State University
sehgal@sfsu.edu
Past President
Anne Kjemtrup
California Department of Public Health
Anne.Kjemtrup@cdph.ca.gov
Secretary Treasurer
Chindi Peavey
San Mateo Mosquito Abatement District
cpeavey@smcmad.org
Objectives
The Northern California Parasitologists was officially organized May 14, 1968 with the objectives of advancing study of Parasitology in the region and furthering the mutual interests of its membership. The NCP is a loose affiliation of students and professionals who are interested in medical, veterinary and plant Parasitology. Some of our members are full-time researchers in the field, while others are simply interested in monitoring the health and ecology of Northern California. The NCP sponsors an annual winter meeting and a spring conference. We hope that the interactions fostered at these two meetings will provide members with lasting contacts and a broader sense of the diseases present and research being conducted throughout California. We are also committed to supporting students entering these fields by providing opportunities for presentations, funding, and student awards. So, if you are a physician, vet, vector ecologist, epidemiologist, plant pathologist, or aspiring to be one, then we look forward to seeing you at our next meeting.
Join the Northern California Parasitologists
Membership form (click to pdf)
Student Awards
Balamuth-Horen Award: One hundred dollars for an excellent student paper.
The Balamuth-Horen Best Student Paper award was created following William Balamuth’s death in 1981.
William Balamuth was an eminent protozologist and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He was an active member of the NCP during the Society’s early years. He served as President-elect and then as President from 1975 - 1977. He placed great emphasis on the development of graduate programs and served as an Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Science and Science and Faculty Assistant to the Chancellor at UC Berkeley.
Peter Horen was an active member of NCP and taught the Parasitology lab and performed diagnostics at the University of California, San Francisco in the Tropical Diseases Laboratory with Donald Heyneman. He was a steadfast and devoted teacher of Parasitology to medical students for many years.
Walter Carr Award: One hundred dollars for an excellent student paper.
The Walter Carr Student Paper award was created in 2007 to honor Walter Carr, a long-standing and enthusiastic member of NCP who passed away in 2004. Walter Carr was a general surgeon from Pleasant Hill with a keen interest in all things in the natural world, ranging from Geology to Parasitology.
Of those two awards, the student presenting the best paper is eligible for an American Society of Parasitologists Marc Dresen Student Travel Grant award for the ASP 2009 annual meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee
Summary of 2008 Activities
The winter NCP meeting was hosted on January 24th by Dr. Ravinder Sehgal at San Francisco State University with Dr. Lynn Kimsey from U.C. Davis providing a fascinating presentation on delusional parasitosis. The website is complete and will be hosted by the American Society of Parasitologists. It was decided that the President-Elect will be chosen at the spring meeting, every other year, due to greater attendance at that meeting.
The Northern California Parasitologists (NCP) met for their annual meeting March 8-9 at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall CA. Twenty four members and guests attended. Dr. Gediminas Valkiunas of the Laboratory of Parasitology, Institute of Ecology, Vilnius University provided an excellent key note speech entitled:"Avian haemosporidian parasites: the patterns of their pathogenicity, diagnosis, and their use in studies of speciation".
At the spring meeting, seven presentations were given by graduate students. Subject areas included tick borne disease, avian blood parasites and various protozoa. The winner of the Balamuth-Horen award was Karen Shapiro for the presentation, “Transport of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in Aquatic Habitats.” The winner of the Walter Carr award was Anthony Chasar for the presentation “Comparison of avian malaria prevalence and sequence data at eight paired sites in Cameroon”. Anthony’s award qualified him for the Marc Dresden travel grant to the 2008 ASP meeting.
Dr. Kjemtrup passed the presidential duties to the new president, Dr. Ravinder Sehgal. Dr. Sehgal looks forward to leading the NCP for the next two years.
Officers of the Northern California Parasitologists: President: Ravinder Sehgal, PhD. Dept. of Biology, San Francisco State University. Previous President - Anne Kjemtrup, DVM, MPVM, Ph.D. California Department of Health Services. Treasurer: Chindi Peavey, Ph.D., San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District.
Submitted by Ravinder Sehgal, PhD
President of Northern California Parasitologists
Summary of 2006-2007 Activities
Northern California Parasitologists met twice during the academic year 2006-2007. The one-day fall meeting was held at University of California, Davis on December 9, 2006. Dr. Anne Kjemtrup presented a talk entitled “Case study of parasites in public health: locally acquired paragonimiasis in Orange County, CA” (presentation created by Dr. Michele Cheung, Orange County Health Care Agency). The annual spring meeting of NCP was held April 21-22, 2007 at the Marconi Center, Marshall, CA. The keynote presentation was made by Dr. Peter Deplazes, a visiting professor from the University of Zurich, entitled “Wilderness in the city and zoonotic transmission of parasites.” The Balamuth-Horne Award for an excellent oral presentation by a student was awarded to Debbie Ruelas of the University of San Francisco for her work entitled “Pre-approved drugs as a source for novel schistosomicides.” A new award for a student presentation was created to commemorate the late Dr. Walter Carr, an enthusiastic and long-standing member of NCP. The first recipient of the Walter Carr award was Daniel Rejmanek of the University of California, Davis for his talk entitled “Opossums and sea otters: the Sarcocystis neurona connection.”
Anne Kjemtrup presents achievement award to Chindi Peavey
Summary of 2004-2005 Activities
The Northern California Parasitologists met twice during the academic year 2004-2005. The Fall/Winter meeting was held on December 10 at the University of California, Berkeley. Patricia Conrad, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine: Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of California, Davis gave an address entitled “ Adventures and new discoveries at the wildlife - domestic animal - human interface.” At this meeting we also honored Walter Carr, M.D., an active and enthusiastic member of Northern California Parasitologists who passed away in 2004.
The Annual Spring meeting was held on April 9-10, 2005 at the Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite, California. The invited speaker was Melissa Miller, D.V.M., Ph.D., Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center, California Department of Fish and Game and University of California, Davis. Her address was entitled “Oh no! Seafood again: How diet location and other factors affect the parasite fauna of sea otters.”
The winner of the best student paper competition was Scott Peat. His paper was entitled “A phylogenetic analysis of Sacrocystis isolates from Southern sea otters”. Scott Peat is a master’s student in the Biology Department at California State University, Fresno. His co-author/ advisor is Paul Crosbie.
Officers of the Northern California Parasitologists- President: Kerry A. Padgett, Ph.D., Vector-borne Disease Section, California Department of Health Services, President Elect: Paul Crosbie, Ph.D., Biology Department, California States University, Fresno; Treasurer, Chindi Peavey, Ph.D., San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District.
Submitted by Kerry A. Padgett, Ph.D., Northern California Parasitologists
NCP is an Affiliate of the American Society of Parasitologists
Officers for 2007-08
| President | Ravinder Sehgal | San Francisco State University | sehgal@sfsu.edu |
| Past President | Anne Kjemtrup | California Department of Public Health | Anne.Kjemtrup@cdph.ca.gov |
| Secretary Treasurer | Chindi Peavey | San Mateo Mosquito Abatement District | cpeavey@smcmad.org |
Objectives
The Northern California Parasitologists was officially organized May 14, 1968 with the objectives of advancing study of Parasitology in the region and furthering the mutual interests of its membership. The NCP is a loose affiliation of students and professionals who are interested in medical, veterinary and plant Parasitology. Some of our members are full-time researchers in the field, while others are simply interested in monitoring the health and ecology of Northern California. The NCP sponsors an annual winter meeting and a spring conference. We hope that the interactions fostered at these two meetings will provide members with lasting contacts and a broader sense of the diseases present and research being conducted throughout California. We are also committed to supporting students entering these fields by providing opportunities for presentations, funding, and student awards. So, if you are a physician, vet, vector ecologist, epidemiologist, plant pathologist, or aspiring to be one, then we look forward to seeing you at our next meeting.
Join the Northern California Parasitologists
Membership form (click to pdf)
Student Awards
Balamuth-Horen Award: One hundred dollars for an excellent student paper.
The Balamuth-Horen Best Student Paper award was created following William Balamuth’s death in 1981.
William Balamuth was an eminent protozologist and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He was an active member of the NCP during the Society’s early years. He served as President-elect and then as President from 1975 - 1977. He placed great emphasis on the development of graduate programs and served as an Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Science and Science and Faculty Assistant to the Chancellor at UC Berkeley.
Peter Horen was an active member of NCP and taught the Parasitology lab and performed diagnostics at the University of California, San Francisco in the Tropical Diseases Laboratory with Donald Heyneman. He was a steadfast and devoted teacher of Parasitology to medical students for many years.
Walter Carr Award: One hundred dollars for an excellent student paper.
The Walter Carr Student Paper award was created in 2007 to honor Walter Carr, a long-standing and enthusiastic member of NCP who passed away in 2004. Walter Carr was a general surgeon from Pleasant Hill with a keen interest in all things in the natural world, ranging from Geology to Parasitology.
Of those two awards, the student presenting the best paper is eligible for an American Society of Parasitologists Marc Dresen Student Travel Grant award for the ASP 2009 annual meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee
Summary of 2008 Activities
The Northern California Parasitologists (NCP) met for their annual meeting March 8-9 at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall CA. Twenty four members and guests attended. Dr. Gediminas Valkiunas of the Laboratory of Parasitology, Institute of Ecology, Vilnius University provided an excellent key note speech entitled:"Avian haemosporidian parasites: the patterns of their pathogenicity, diagnosis, and their use in studies of speciation".
At the spring meeting, seven presentations were given by graduate students. Subject areas included tick borne disease, avian blood parasites and various protozoa. The winner of the Balamuth-Horen award was Karen Shapiro for the presentation, “Transport of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in Aquatic Habitats.” The winner of the Walter Carr award was Anthony Chasar for the presentation “Comparison of avian malaria prevalence and sequence data at eight paired sites in Cameroon”. Anthony’s award qualified him for the Marc Dresden travel grant to the 2008 ASP meeting.
Dr. Kjemtrup passed the presidential duties to the new president, Dr. Ravinder Sehgal. Dr. Sehgal looks forward to leading the NCP for the next two years.
Officers of the Northern California Parasitologists: President: Ravinder Sehgal, PhD. Dept. of Biology, San Francisco State University. Previous President - Anne Kjemtrup, DVM, MPVM, Ph.D. California Department of Health Services. Treasurer: Chindi Peavey, Ph.D., San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District.
Submitted by Ravinder Sehgal, PhD
President of Northern California Parasitologists
Summary of 2006-2007 Activities
Northern California Parasitologists met twice during the academic year 2006-2007. The one-day fall meeting was held at University of California, Davis on December 9, 2006. Dr. Anne Kjemtrup presented a talk entitled “Case study of parasites in public health: locally acquired paragonimiasis in Orange County, CA” (presentation created by Dr. Michele Cheung, Orange County Health Care Agency). The annual spring meeting of NCP was held April 21-22, 2007 at the Marconi Center, Marshall, CA. The keynote presentation was made by Dr. Peter Deplazes, a visiting professor from the University of Zurich, entitled “Wilderness in the city and zoonotic transmission of parasites.” The Balamuth-Horne Award for an excellent oral presentation by a student was awarded to Debbie Ruelas of the University of San Francisco for her work entitled “Pre-approved drugs as a source for novel schistosomicides.” A new award for a student presentation was created to commemorate the late Dr. Walter Carr, an enthusiastic and long-standing member of NCP. The first recipient of the Walter Carr award was Daniel Rejmanek of the University of California, Davis for his talk entitled “Opossums and sea otters: the Sarcocystis neurona connection.”
Anne Kjemtrup presents achievement award to Chindi Peavey
Summary of 2004-2005 Activities
The Annual Spring meeting was held on April 9-10, 2005 at the Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite, California. The invited speaker was Melissa Miller, D.V.M., Ph.D., Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center, California Department of Fish and Game and University of California, Davis. Her address was entitled “Oh no! Seafood again: How diet location and other factors affect the parasite fauna of sea otters.”
The winner of the best student paper competition was Scott Peat. His paper was entitled “A phylogenetic analysis of Sacrocystis isolates from Southern sea otters”. Scott Peat is a master’s student in the Biology Department at California State University, Fresno. His co-author/ advisor is Paul Crosbie.
Officers of the Northern California Parasitologists- President: Kerry A. Padgett, Ph.D., Vector-borne Disease Section, California Department of Health Services, President Elect: Paul Crosbie, Ph.D., Biology Department, California States University, Fresno; Treasurer, Chindi Peavey, Ph.D., San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District.
Submitted by Kerry A. Padgett, Ph.D., Northern California Parasitologists