Many exciting new initiatives have been put in motion. The past year has been a busy, productive one. One advantage of being new is being unburdened by history. But, of course, that also could be a disadvantage, so I have relied on a fine staff and faculty to prevent us from repeating mistakes—few as they are—of the past. Much of my first year was devoted to learning about my surroundings; I also encouraged everyone else in the college to take a fresh look at theirs. We have begun a process of assessing our responsibilities and our ways of doing things and we expect to enter the 21st Century better prepared to face its challenges. Looking back on the year and a half that I have been at Ohio State, I am pleased to report that many exciting new initiatives have been put in motion, and several are coming to fruition. We have committees working on a number of projects that will improve our programs and offer even more value to our students. As part of this overall review process, we plan to evaluate all undergraduate majors and graduate programs. A committee on reorganization is looking at ways to update programs and departments to meet the challenges and opportunities of the new millennium. The most visible result has been the proposal to change the name of the Zoology Department to the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology. Despite its length, we feel that the new name more accurately reflects the exciting teaching and research programs in that department. This renaming has the approval of virtually all faculty in the college and is now going through the approval process in the Office of Academic Affairs and the University Senate. Another committee has been focusing on the General Biology Program and has submitted its report to the Dean's Office. This draft report recommends changing the title of the program to the Introductory Biology Program. In addition, several substantive changes in administrative structure should improve the quality of this important teaching program. Curricula of each of the introductory courses also are being reviewed. We have a renewed commitment to improving diversity in our student/faculty population, and a Diversity Committee is tracking our progress in this area. Another kind of diversity, Biodiversity, has been on the minds of several faculty from the incipient new Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology. They were constituted as a planning committee and are developing a proposal for a university-wide initiative in Biodiversity. Faculty from our college are providing much of the leadership for this exciting initiative, but faculty from several other colleges also will be involved. Architects have been selected for the new Life Sciences Building and are working on a design that will provide modern laboratory space for our faculty now housed in B&Z. We expect to break ground within the next year. As some of you may know, one of our new initiatives is the formation of an Alumni Society for the College of Biological Sciences. There are about 12,000 alumni of the departments of this college, and we hope to tap the leadership ability of those alums to help us to improve our status as a world leader in the biological sciences. We have new additions to the Dean's staff: Jeremy Smith, Microbiology, 1975, is our new OSHA officer. Larry Rummell, who is introducing himself to you on our Development page, is our new Development Officer and Coordinator of Alumni Affairs. Joan Ray, our new Webmaster, is working on our home page and a variety of other projects. In this issue of Synergy, you will read about our first-ever alumni event and subsequent meetings that will pave the way for a vital biological sciences alumni presence on this campus. We hope that all of you will want to join us in this new endeavor for the college. We have initiated an alumni profile page; in this issue we talk with Dr. Edward Richter, who is also our representative on the Alumni Advisory Council and an active and enthusiastic friend of the college. You also will notice that Synergy has returned to its magazine format, one which we believe is better suited to its mission. And, for the first time ever, we are using color photographs inside. There are some things that simply give the reader more information if they can be shown in color. We are trying to make Synergy as appealing to our readers as possible. The sky HAS been the limit this year, as our cover story indicates. It may seem that plant biologists are taking over the world, but we assure you that researchers in all of our departments are equally successful and productive. In other words, biologists are taking over the world! This has been an exciting year for us, and we look forward to continuing the momentum that has been generated. Finally, for those of you who are Ohio residents, I urge you to read the following, highly important and timely message from Ohio State Interim President Richard Sisson. We hope you like this issue. Please let us hear from you. Sincerely, Alan Goodridge, Ph.D. Dean