History of the Korean Society of Applied Entomology for its First Fifty Years

The Korean Society of Applied Entomology (KSAE) celebrates its First 50 years history this year, 2011. It began in the year 1962, as the Korean Society of Plant Protection (KSPP) to discuss all aspects of plant protection including entomology and plant pathology. At that time it was one of the earliest scientific ones among agricultural societies in Korea. Before liberation from the Japanese colonial rule there were a few scientific societies for Japanese scientists only in the Korean Peninsula. It seemed that there was a single exception, in medical field, formed by and operated for Korean ethnics. Right after the liberation, Korean scientists rushed to form new scientific societies in the fields of mechanical engineering, architecture, textile, internal medicine, biology, etc. in 1945, mathematics, chemistry, metallurgy, etc. in 1946, and so on. But agricultural scientists had to wait for more time before setting up their own scientific society, Korean Agricultural Society, comprising all agricultural subfields, in 1954. They had annual meetings and published their own journal every year until 1962. Then those working in the plant protection field established their own KSPP, right after their section meeting in 1962. At that time the total number of participants for KSPP were only around 50. KSPP scientists were interested in plant pathology, agricultural chemicals, weed science, or bioclimate, besides entomology. They had annual meetings once or twice a year until 1987 and published their own journal, Korean Journal of Plant Protection (KJPP), once a year at the earlier years but soon gradually increasing the frequency to four times a year later. Articles on entomology and plant pathology occupied about 40% each, but the number of oral or posters were a little bit higher on plant pathology than entomology, with the rest on nematology, agricultural chemicals, or soil microarthropods. There also had a number of symposia and special lectures. The presidentship lasted for two years and most of president served only one term, except for the first two. The current president should be 28∨th. In the year 1988, KSPP had to be transformed into the applied entomology society, Korean Society of Applied Entomology (KSAE), because most of plant pathologists participating left the society to set up their own one, Korean Society of Plant Pathology in 1984. Since that time the Society concentrates on entomology, basic and applied, with some notes on nematology, acarology, soil microarthropods, agricultural chemicals, etc. The Society has been hosting annual meetings at least twice a year with special lectures and symposia, from time to time, on various topics. It also hosted international symposia including binational scientific meetings twice with two different Japanese (applied entomology in 2003 and acarology in 2009) societies and the Asia-Pacific Congress of Entomology in 2005. The regular society meeting of this year, 2011, turns out to be the 43rd and this autumn non-regular meeting would be the 42nd. It has been publishing two different scientific journals, Korean Journal of Applied Entomology (KJAE) since 1988 and the Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology (JAPE) since 1998. Both journals are published 4 times a year, with articles written in Korean or English in the first, but those in English only in the latter with cooperation from the Taiwan Entomological Society and the Malaysian Plant Protection Society since 2008. It is now enlisted as one of those SCI(science citation index) extended. The highest number of topics discussed at their annual meetings was on ecology, behavior, and host resistance. But at the annual meetings jointly with the Korean Society of Entomology, members were more interested in basic aspects, instead of applied aspects, such as physiology and molecular biology fields. Among those societies related to entomology and plant protection, plant pathology, pesticide, and applied entomology societies are almost similar in membership, but entomology and plant pathology societies are publishing more number of articles than any others. The Society is running beautifully, but there are a few points to be made for further improvement. First, the articles or posters should be correctly categorized on the journals or proceedings. It may be a good idea to ask members to give their own version of correct category for their submissions, either oral or poster or written publication. The category should be classified detailed as much as possible (one kind of example would be systematics, morphology, evolution, ecology, behavior, host preference or resistance, physiology, anatomy, chemical ecology, molecular biology, pathology, chemical control, insecticides, insecticide resistance, biocontrol, biorational control, natural enemies, agricultural pest, forest pest, medical pest, etc.) and such scheme should be given to members beforehand. The members should give one or two, first and second, choices when submitting, if they want. Then the categories might be combined or grouped during editing for optimal arrangement for journals or proceedings. Secondly the journals should carry complete content of the particular year and author index at the last issue of that year. I would also like to have other information, such as awards and awardees in handy way. I could not find any document for listing awards. Such information or article categorization may be assigned to one of the vice presidents. I would rather strongly recommend that the society should give more time and energy on archive management to keep better and more correct history records.