Members and guests of ASP, it is my distinct pleasure and privilege to introduce our President, Dr. George D. Cain. I have considered George a longtime friend, having met him for the first time at these Annual Meetings of the ASP as graduate students in the late 1960s. At the University of Iowa in 1973, our paths crossed again where, as young faculty members, we became friends and collaborators, examining the cell biology and biochemistry of schistosomes and tapeworms.
I thought I knew George. He was a solid, thoughtful, and serious scientist! However, there is one line of George's CV that hints at a risk-taking and recklessness personality. In 1980, and claiming to be a sane individual, he voluntarily took the position of chairman in Iowa's Department of Biology! I knew his departmental faculty, and they presented a challenge, more like herding mountain lions than domestic cats. Those faculty, as...