Conviron Scholars 2020 – Applications Now Open

ASPB and Conviron are delighted to announce an exciting opportunity to nurture the next generation of plant scientists. Open to exceptional undergraduate and graduate students studying plant biology, the ASPB Conviron Scholars program delivers an experience intended to serve as a foundation for a career in plant science. Applications welcome from any country.  Students who … Read more

Plant Science Startups wow the crowds at Plant Biology 2019

In keeping with the innovation and tech valley theme of our San Jose location, ASPB welcomed five plant science startups to Plant Biology 2019 to take part in what we called the “Innovation AveNEW” row of exhibitors in a section of the tradeshow floor.  In case you couldn’t make it to the conference, here’s a … Read more

Support the Creation of an Early Career Researcher Section of ASPB

It is proposed that ASPB establish a new section that is organized around Early Career Researchers (students, post-docs, scientists in transition, and generally anyone who self-identifies as an Early Career Researcher). The creation of this section will benefit ECRs currently within the society by establishing a formal means of communication among the ECR leadership, as … Read more

Halfway to Establishing the New Primarily Undergraduate Institution Section

BY ANDREAS MADLUNG University of Puget Sound For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to focus my career on working with students; designing curricula, lesson plans, and lab activities; and passing on my excitement about living things to anyone who might share this interest. While in graduate … Read more

Press Release – Blake Meyers Appointed Next Editor of The Plant Cell

Rockville, Maryland, October 21, 2019 – The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Blake C. Meyers to serve as editor-in-chief of The Plant Cell beginning January 1, 2020. The Plant Cell publishes novel research of particular significance in plant biology, especially in the areas of cellular biology, molecular … Read more

Registration and Abstracts Are OPEN for Phenome 2020!

The survey results are in, and over 88% of Phenome 2019 attendees would recommend this conference to their colleagues! So we are pleased to invite you to the fourth annual Phenome conference, Phenome 2020, which will be held from February 24-27, 2020 at the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, AZ. You asked and we listened: … Read more

Policy Update – NSF Announces Next Phase of Reintegrating Biology Initiative

October 2019 Washington Update – Prepared by Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC for the American Society of Plant Biologists Following their Town Halls in September, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Reintegrating Biology Initiative has announced the next phase of the process.  Reintegrating Biology will convene four “Jumpstarts”, two and a half-day workshops to “develop new and innovative … Read more

Policy Update – NIFA Relocation

October 2019 Washington Update – Prepared by Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC for the American Society of Plant Biologists Employees of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and Economic Research Service (ERS) have begun work in Kansas City, with the first report-to-work date occurring on September 30.  Although the agencies have begun to hire new … Read more

Press Release – Gene Responsible for Lutein Esterification in Bread Wheat Identified

The activity of this gene controls the timing of esterification in grain, which is related to storage and nutritional qualities of bread wheat and other grains. This work provides insight into the timing and control of esterification, related to storage and nutritional qualities of bread wheat and other grains. ASPB is pleased to announce the … Read more

Getting engaged in my PB19 T-shirt: The whole story!

The background story to the ASPB article ‘From San Jose to “Yes!”‘ Everyone loves a good heartfelt romantic story… so if you’re curious how Plant Biology 2019 had a role in my romantic relationship- read on! I have lived in Annapolis, Maryland since I was born. I graduated from the University of Maryland (go Terps!) … Read more

Plant Biology 2020 Call for Workshop Proposals!

The ASPB program committee is inviting proposals for one-hour workshops to be held during Plant Biology 2020 in Washington, D.C.,  July 25-29, 2020.   All ideas are welcome, but the preferred areas of focus for the workshops – intentionally broad – are:  Technical Development and Innovation Professional Development  Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion The committee encourages submissions … Read more

President’s Letter – Be the Change

By Rob Last, Michigan State University, and Mary Williams, Features Editor, The Plant Cell “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Attributed to Margaret Mead (1901–1978), American cultural anthropologist Whether or not Dr. Mead actually uttered this quote, the words … Read more

Action Alert – America Grows Act

  The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN) are pleased to pass along an Action Alert released by the American Society for Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in support of new legislation introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The … Read more

ASPB and Open Peer Review

It’s Peer Review Week (#PeerRevWk19) ! What better time than now to blog about how two of ASPB’s journals (The Plant Cell and Plant Direct) have approached open peer review? In 2018, Nature published a Comment titled “Publish Peer Reviews” (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06032-w).  This Comment references an open letter (http://asapbio.org/letter) signed by two of ASPB’s own: the Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell, … Read more

Request for Proposals – Transforming Education in Plant Biology 2020

View the full RFP and apply by October 31, 2019.  In the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other stakeholders have called for transformation in undergraduate biology education via the Vision and Change report.  The core message of the Vision and Change initiative is a … Read more

New Teaching Tool “Computational Image Processing in Microscopy”

We’re excited to announce the publication of The Plant Cell’s latest Teaching Tool, “Computational Image Processing in Microscopy,” by Adrienne Roeder, available without subscription at Plantae.org (and in the October issue of The Plant Cell). The age of big data includes sophisticated imaging datasets. Computational image processing is essential for extracting quantitative information from these … Read more

What VRPlants was up to this Summer

It’s been a busy and productive summer for our VRPlants team. Plant Biology 2019 Our team had the pleasure of exhibiting within the ASPB Education booth and presenting two talks at the ASPB Plant Biology 2019 conference in San Jose, California. Colin Keenan gave two talks. The first,“Can These Glasses Help to Cure Plant Blindness?,” was given as part of the education session. And … Read more

Cool tools from Academia and Industry

Notes from PlantSynBio19 Day 3 Aug 9, San Jose California – on the final morning of PlantSynBio19, researchers from academia and industry showcased the latest tools and technologies to manipulate plants for commercial production of bio-products Synbio, Ag, and Industry Matt Mattozzi from Conagen provided an industry perspective on the production of food additives (for more see his interview  Plantae). Reliably … Read more

Notes from PlantSynBio19 Day 2

Aug 8, San Jose California – day two of the Plant Synthetic Biology Meeting invited speakers presented work with an emphasis on metabolic engineering and the necessary tool development. Tools Patrick Shi, Director of plant biosystem design at JBEI and assistant professor at UC Davis, presented his group’s work on manipulating metabolism to accumulate co-products in … Read more