Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

The Society of Protozoologists was established to promote a closer association among all those interested in any kind of protozoological research. The Society’s Constitution states that, “The aim of the Society was to form an association of workers for the presentation and discussion of new and important facts and problems in protozoology and for the adoption of such measures as will tend to advance protozoological science.” Therefore, there are no restrictions regarding age, academic degrees, nationality or professional occupation for membership. Six categories of membership are available: full, student, spouse, corresponding, emeritus and honorary. Membership in the Society peaked at 1300 or so members by the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and then leveled off to its present level of some 800 to 900 members in the 1990’s.

The organization was founded December 19, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois during an informal gathering of interested biologists while they were there attending the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. The first slate of officers was elected at that time. They were as follows: R.F. Nigrelli, President; B.B. Morgan, Vice-President; and T.L. Jahn, Secretary-Treasurer. Additional members of the Executive Committee elected were: D.L. Hopkins, R.R. Kudo, J.L.Mohr, K.L. Osterud and R.M. Stabler. A Constitutional Committee was composed of John L. Mohr, P. Hall and K.L. Osterud.

The first formal meeting of the entire Society was held on December 28, 1949 in conjunction with the AAAS meeting in New York City. There were fifty attending members who considered the issue of the Society’s Constitution and Bylaws and the established the Resolutions Committee, Nominating Committee, Program Committee and Auditing Committee. Annual Membership/Business meetings continued thereafter and were generally held in conjunction with a variety of biological science associations. Those organizations included the American Association for Advancement of Science, American Institute of Biological Sciences (most often,) American Society of Zoologists, and the Phycology Society of America. The Executive Committee (consisting of officers, Section representatives, and five elected members) generally meets during the annual membership/business meetings, but occasionally meet in supplementary sessions. Additionally, there were ten international conferences in a variety of world destinations. These were held every four to five years beginning in 1961. Some times the international conferences were held in conjunction with the annual meetings while other years domestic annual meetings were held at a different time.

In 1951 the Journal and Editorial Committees were established with the express task of formulating and overseeing the development of a scholarly journal for the Society. The first volume of the quarterly published Journal of Protozoology made its debut in February of 1954. William Trager was the Journal’s first editor. He served in this capacity from 1954-1965. The journal was regarded as a highly respected outlet for original research papers in areas of descriptive and experimental nature. In later years a supplement was added to the Journal, which contained the programs and abstracts of the annual meetings and officer and committee reports. Periodically membership lists and reprintings or revisions of the Constitution were also included in the Supplement. In 1989 the Journal began to be printed bimonthly instead of quarterly. In 1993 the name of the Journal of Protozoology was changed to the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, which remains its present name.

In addition the Society began to publish a the Newsletter in 1976 which was usually edited by the office of the Secretary. It contained announcements and other news of general interest to the membership such as information on future meeting sites, winners of awards, workshop notices, obituary tributes and letters form members. In 1991 an official editor was separately designated to oversee the newsletter’s publication. At this time the formal minutes of the Executive Committee meeting and annual Business Meetings, some committee and Section reports, constitutional revisions, international news and bits of “protozoology humor” were added to the newsleter. This allowed those members (Corresponding and Emeritus Memberships) who didn’t receive the Journal to be more informed about the Society’s activities.

The Society of Protozoology has always advocated an international outlook and attitude in membership and organizational affiliations. In 1961 the Society created a membership category called Corresponding Membership to encourage international growth. This allowed members residing outside the United States to have full participation in Society affairs (with the exception of receiving the Journal) at a reduced rate. Since its inception the Society has had more non-US members than any other “American” biological society, with members joining from over forty countries. The British Section was the first to be established in 1962. Other affiliated foreign sections have formed in Israel, Japan, Hungary, Scandinavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, India, Mexico and China. Sectional representatives became voting members of the Executive Committee; and since the 1960’s the office of Vice President has always been filled by a non-American who has full membership. Sections were also formed in France and the Soviet Union, but neither group has chosen to formally become a part of the Society.

The Society has established five funded awards beginning with Richard P. Hall Memorial Fund in 1969, which was awarded to students in order to help with publishing costs. In 1976 the Seymour H. Hutner Young Investigator Prize was established by Hutner and his friends to acknowledge a young scientist not long out of his/her Ph.D. for outstanding research on the “cutting edge” of some field of protozoology. Students of Dr. Theodore Louis Jahn established an award in his name shortly before his death in 1979. This was a cash prize given yearly to a student member of the Society who presented the best poster or research paper at a Society meeting. The final two awards were established during the 1990’s. The George G. Holz, Jr. and Robert L. Conner Travel Award was created to provide travel awards to students and young investigators that would facilitate their participation in Society meetings. The John O. Corliss Ciliate Systematics Award was established to recognize a young ciliatologist authoring a published research paper in ciliate taxonomy judged to be the most worthy. The Awards Committee has the responsibility of recommending to the Executive Committee (for their ultimate approval) those people chosen for the awards.

The Society currently is challenged by declining membership. This is thought to be in part due to the trend toward more specialized scientific organizations and perhaps by the needed increase in membership dues. Currently there is discussion concerning possible merger of the Society with another biological society. The Society is now called the International Society of Protistologists.