USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Needs Stakeholder Input on Food, Agriculture Priorities The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is accepting input from stakeholders regarding research, extension, and education priorities in food and agriculture. A series of four in-person listening sessions hosted in different regions across the country and submission of written comments … Read more
A research community thrives best when it acts with a consensus voice and agrees to commonly held priorities. An effort to achieve such consensus within the plant science community was first launched with the 2013 publication of the document Unleashing a Decade of Innovation in Plant Science: A Vision for 2015–2025 (http://bit.ly/DecadalVision). The Decadal Vision … Read more
Congratulations to the inaugural class of the ASPB Conviron Scholars Program. These 21 scholars were selected from a strongly competitive group of over 150 applicants. Read more about each awardee. Special thanks to Conviron for making this program possible through their financial support. Mary Modupe Adewole, University of Ibadan, Osun State, Nigeria Beverly Agtuca, University of … Read more
Plant Biology 2017 welcomed students in Honolulu with an exclusive undergraduate poster session. Among those undergraduates represented, I had the pleasure of meeting many talented young researchers at the poster session, and was able to chat in depth with 14 of the ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) awardees at both the undergraduate poster session … Read more
At Plant Biology 2017, the Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) awards were the focus of the Education Booth. These grants are awarded on a competitive basis to fund innovative ideas to increase education and outreach projects focusing on plant science literacy. Four previous award winners came to Hawaii to share the products of … Read more
Publications are important, but these days it takes more than a couple of nice papers to move your career to the next level. Also, increasingly scientists are looking outside the (academic) box for their next career move. ASPB provides many ways through which scientist can build their careers and diversify their skills. Here are a … Read more
Guotian Li, Rashmi Jain, and Mawsheng Chern, featured first authors of The Sequences of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitate Rapid Functional Genomic Studies Guotian Li Current Position: Deputy Director of Grass Genetics/Project Scientist at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a joint position between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, … Read more
Are you a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher interested in a chance to get involved and trained in K-12 outreach? Would you like to mentor student research teams, without ever leaving your desk? Do you have the time to commit to mentor 2-3 teams in BOTH the Fall and Spring PlantingScience Sessions? ASPB invites its members to join … Read more
In July 2017, PlantingScience hosted a professional development workshop at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) in Colorado Springs, CO as part of the PlantingScience: Digging Deeper Together grant funded by NSF and lead by efforts from BSCS, BSA, and ASPB. The workshop included 24 high school teachers from around the country with 12 plant … Read more
On June 24, 2017 ASPB began accepting applications for the ASPB Conviron Scholars Program. The year-long program is open to exceptional undergraduate and graduate students and will deliver an experience intended to serve as a foundation for a career in plant science. ASPB asked Steve Kroft, Conviron’s President & CEO, to share his perspective on … Read more
From abstract algebra to zoology, women participate in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM), but sometimes their stories are not as well known as those of their male colleagues. To remedy this, PhD student Josie Maidment is conducting a one-year Twitter education campaign called “@365womeninSTEM,” in which every day she provides a mini-biography of a … Read more
Day 3 of Plant Biology for me can be summed up as informative and inspirational. The day began with a major symposium covering the chemical dictionary of plants. Plants make hundreds of thousand different compounds for a variety of purposes. Harro Bouwmeester shared his journey which began wondering how parasitic plants found their host roots … Read more
Day 2 in Honolulu, Hawaii was full of hard choices. The day started at 7 am with both the Women in Plant Biology breakfast and the Undergraduate Poster Session running concurrently. Both events were immensely successful. The quality of research presented by the undergraduates of ASPB is incredible! These budding plant scientists will ensure … Read more
What a fabulous starting day for Plant Biology here in sunny Honolulu Hawaii! The day started bright and early with 3 concurrent workshops: Primarily Undergraduate Institute Workshop, A Discussion of the Future of Plant Science, Introducing RNA-Seq Data Analysis with R and Integrated Genome Browser, and Talk Story and Communication in Hawaii and the Pacific … Read more
Thank you for attending Plant Biology 2017– here’s your Sunday meeting update! Here is your daily guide to activities curated by our team. When in doubt, you can also check the schedule and the conference app, or stop by Registration and ask one of our friendly volunteers. Sunday Highlights Start your morning bright and early with … Read more
Are you a creative, articulate and web-savvy plant scientist looking to connect with other like-minded folks? We need your help to nurture and grow Plantae, the online community for the global plant science community. We are looking for individuals who are interested in being highly engaged contributors by curating content and facilitating discussions. The benefits … Read more
Jennifer Wisecaver, featured first author of A Global Co-expression Network Approach for Connecting Genes to Specialized Metabolic Pathways in Plants Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University. Education: PhD (2012) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona. BS (2007) Biological Sciences, Humboldt State University. Non-scientific Interests: Spending time with family, friends, and … Read more
Many thanks to those members who took the time to vote this spring; and hearty congratulations to our newly elected Council members, Robert Last (incoming president elect) and Christine Foyer (incoming elected member)! Christine and Rob will begin their next cycles of service to ASPB on October 1, 2017. Thanks, too, to Joe Kieber and … Read more
Your “elevator pitch” is how you present yourself in an intriguing, attention-grabbing and articulate way. When someone asks you about yourself or your work, being prepared with your “pitch” immediately catches their interest and opens the conversation so you can provide more detail. Developing and refining your pitch is more difficult than it sounds, which is why there are … Read more
Looking for learning opportunities and activities during Plant Biology 2017 that will help you navigate your career path? Then check out the following list, which has been curated by the ASPB team. 1. Improve your skill set Attend any of these workshops Talk Story and Communication in Hawaii and the Pacific Rim (Saturday, … Read more