October, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 6 
navigable, highly aesthetic, and rich in quality 
scientific content. As “content” manager for 
this section of the NBII, I will be adding your 
link to our website soon. I have also passed 
your URL to the taxonomists associated with 
the Integrated Taxonomic Information System 
(ITIS) which is working on a somewhat similar 
standardized taxonomic database for biota of 
North America. I invite your group to learn 
more about ITIS at its main web site <http:// 
www.itis.usda.gov/plantproj/itis/index.html>. 
ITIS is currently initiating a web site redesign 
project and your web site provides a nice 
example of how technical scientific 
information can be provided in a pleasing and 
effective manner. 
Thanks for your message and I invite you to 
link back to NBII or ITIS if you find that 
appropriate. 
Best regards, 
Gary Waggoner, NBII Biodiversity 
Coordinator, USGS, Denver, CO” 
I hope webmaster Jay takes this positive 
feedback to heart. We can never thank him 
enough for all he does for SCAMIT in 
maintaining our website, and constantly 
working to improve it. Members might follow 
Dr. Waggoner’s suggestion concerning the ITIS 
database and the NBII, both of which are 
among the links on our webpage. 
My Life as a Biologist 
by Donald J. Reish 
Chapter 16.1 go to Europe 
I made the first of many trips to Europe in 
1962. I was asked to discuss a polychaete 
toxicological test at the First International 
Water Pollution Conference in London. I also 
presented a paper on the offshore State of 
California pollution study of 1955-59. The 
authors, Tibby and Barnard, could not make the 
trip. I took a 707 to Copenhagen with a 
midnight stop in Greenland. Wheeler North 
introduced me to the underground subway 
system in London. In those days you had to 
spend 2 weeks overseas otherwise the air fare 
was much higher. I made a trip to Plymouth 
and renewed by acquaintance with D. P. 
Wilson. I spent the week end with Robert and 
Mary Clark in Bristol. I also went to 
Gothenburg to visit some American friends. 
The conference was next to the Westminister 
Abbey and I walked through it each day on the 
way to the conference. I was startled to see the 
grave site of Sir Isaac Newton. I flew back to 
Copenhagen and went to the marine lab where 
I spent some time with Gunnar Thorson. 
My second trip was 4 years later. I was asked 
to present my D.O. studies with the 
polychaetes that I had used as pollution 
indicators to the 3 rd International Water 
Pollution Conference in Munich. I flew to 
Paris, saw some of the sights before flying to 
Marseille where I Met Gerard Bellan and his 
wife Denise Bellan-Santini. I went onto Monte 
Carlo and lost a few francs at the casino. 
Gerard Bellan was in Munich for the 
conference, and he discussed my presentation 
with me. After the conference I went to 
Amsterdam. As strange as it seems, the air fare 
to Europe today is about the same as it was 
then. 
Trip number 3 was my first of several 
associations with FAO, the Food and 
Agriculture Organization of the United 
Nations. They sponsored an international 
pollution conference in Rome. I was also 
involved in a work shop associated with the 
conference. I presented a paper there on the 
use of polychaetes as indicators of marine 
pollution. The Bellans were there also. They 
had spent the summer before in Long Beach 
with me. I made my first of 3 runs on the 
Circus Maximus, the chariot track of Roman 
Days. I never managed to complete a lap in any 
try. 
My 4 th trip to Europe in 1973 was a very busy 
one. I attended an invertebrate development 
conference in the former Yugoslavia organized 
by John Costlow (Duke University). I took 
living Neanthes, Capitella and Ctenodrilus 
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