We have made much progress with the website lately. First, following the SMB Board decision last July, we have moved our site from its previous location in McGill University to a commercial service (Seagull Networks). This service has been chosen after much careful ``shopping around" and seems to offer the best deal.

The move took place over the Thanksgiving vacation, to minimize interference with communication. It was successful, and we hope this will provide us with a reliable service.

The website has also been improved in several ways. Following members' requests, a Member's e-mail search engine has been put into place and so far is running well. To avoid junk mailings, the search engine does not accept "wildcards" (like * or a blank line) and will return at most 5 entries. There is no access to this database to the outside world other than through the search engine.

IMPORTANT: All members are requested to check their own address as it appears in the website listing, and let us know if corrections or updates are needed. (Email to our webmistress, Elizabeth H. Scholl)

Another issue concerns the updating of our "services" database. We would like the SMB website to become a source of much useful information (such as announcements of open positions, funding sources and more). This new database will gradually replace the old, outdated ftp archives database. The databases (each on its own web page) will include:

• Biomath undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Positions open (post-doc and beyond).
• Positions sought (links to members' CV/web pages).
• Sources of funding (research, travel, etc).
• Resources for minorities and women in the sciences.
• Useful software.
• Bibliography of biomath books.
• Useful websites of other organizations.
• General tips and advice.

We are lucky to have help from several volunteers: Jorge Velasco-Hernandez, the BMB book review editor, is preparing a bibliography of biomath books; Rebecca Tyson is working on sorting out additional materials; and Rob Capellini is surveying the web for more information. If you have materials that may be appropriate, especially if you would like to recommend web pages that may be useful for SMB members, please email suggestions to Rebecca

Denise Kirschner has suggested that graduate programs in biomath will send us a summary, or a link to their web page, which will include info about which faculty and how many are doing math biology at the school, what the (biology) areas of focus are, application procedures and requirements, etc. If you participate in such a program (studying or teaching!) please encourage the program directors to include this info in their web page and send us its address. Info about PROGRAMS OUTSIDE THE U.S. is especially needed!

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