Endowment Lecturers

Preamble

The Indian Society of Cell Biology organizes three Endowment lectures, Prof S P Ray-Chaudhuri 75^th Birthday Endowment Lecture , Prof J Das Memorial Lecture and Prof. Rita Mulherkar Award Lecture. as mark of its respect to Professor S.P. Ray-Chaudhuri, Prof J. Das and Prof. Rita Mukherkar in recognition of their immense contributions to Cytogenetics and Cell Biology. The first two are delivered in alternate years, while the Dr Rita Mukherkar Award Lecture alternates with the year of ISCB Presidential Address. Nominations for these lectures are invited from members of the ISCB and a selection committee appointed for the purpose identifies the speaker, who is presented with a special plaque and a citation. In selecting the Lecturer, due recognition is given to outstanding Indian Cell Biologists, preferably those working in India. The Lecturer would be free to select the subject of his choice in the broad area of Cell Biology. Each of the the lectures will be serially numbered.

Selection Committee

A special committee consisting of the following will be constituted by the Executive Committee of the Society for inviting nominations and selecting the Lecturers. The committee will function for two years (being co-terminus with the term of the elected office bearers) will select, each year, the speaker for the lecture due in that year. The process of choosing the Lecturer will start one year before the given lecture is scheduled to be delivered.
1. President of the Society
2. Two Vice-Presidents*
3. Secretary (Convenor)
4. Three members nominated by the Executive Committee
(*One of the Vice-Presidents (determined in alphabetical order) shall act as chairman in case the President resigns from the Committee or is not available for the meeting. In case the President and both Vice-Presidents are not available, the members of the Selection Committee will elect a Chairman from amongst themselves).

The nominated members of the Committee should be members of the Society (with at least two years’ standing) and should preferably represent different areas of Cell Biology. To ensure a healthy tradition, no member of the selection committee will be eligible for nomination for the Lecturership. In the event of a selection committee member being nominated for the award and his agreeing to be considered, he/she shall resign from the Selection Committee. In his/her place a new member will be co-opted by the Committee. The tenure of the Selection Committee shall be co-terminus with that of the Executive Committee. The selection committee members cannot be re-nominated for the next committee excepting those who may be elected as office-bearers (President, Vice-Presidents and Secretary) and thus would serve in ex-officio capacity.

Selection of the Speaker

1. Nomination: Soon after constitution of the Selection Committee, the Secretary will invite nominations for the Lecturership from Life and Ordinary members of at least three years standing and those who have paid all their dues to the society till the current year. Nominations will be made on the nomination form provided by the Secretary. The nominating member will obtain the consent and bio-data etc. of the nominee and send these alongwith the duly filled in nomination form to the Secretary before the last date fixed for the purpose.

2. Eligibility for Nomination: The person to be nominated need not be a member of the Society when nominated but may be requested to become a member in due course of time. The person to be nominated will ordinarily be an Indian citizen at the time of nomination/selection and should be an eminent scientist who would have made outstanding original contributions to Cell Biology or contributed substantially to growth of the subject in India. For the Prof. Rita Mulherkar Award Lecture the nominee should not be more than 45 years of age on 31st December of the year in which nomination is made.

Mode of Selection and Recommendation

After receipt of nominations, copies of the bio-data etc. will be forwarded by the Secretary to all members of the Selection Committee. The Committee will be free to suggest or consider any other name(s) not formally proposed. However, all the particulars of the person nominated by a member of the Committee should be placed on record and will be included in the minutes of the meeting of the Selection Committee. The members may communicate with each other and with the Secretary and express their opinion. The entire proceedings of the Committee will be treated as strictly confidential.

As far as possible, the Committee should arrive at a unanimous recommendation. In case of disagreement, the decision will be arrived at by secret ballot. The Executive Committee will ordinarily endorse the recommendations of the Selection Committee. However, in exceptional circumstances the recommendations of the Selection Committee may be altered only by an unanimous vote by the Executive Committee, provided there is full quorum.

The Executive Committee will treat the recommendations of the Selection Committee as confidential. The President or in his absence the senior Vice-President or in his absence the elected Chairman of the Selection Committee is authorised to communicate with the person and obtain his/her consent. After obtaining consent of the speaker, the President will entrust the Secretary to proceed with arrangements for holding the lecture.

The selected speaker is required to deliver the lecture in the appointed year. If on account of genuine reasons, the lecturer is unable to deliver the lecture in the particular year, the executive committee may allow him to deliver the lecture in the following year, without affecting plans for subsequent years. The lecturer will provide five copies of the summary (not exceeding 2500 words) of his lecture. The Society will reserve the right to publish it in any form.