We are happy to announce that this year’s Ambassador of the Year award is presented to Arif Ashraf, who is currently in Japan, although will be moving to Michigan shortly. Please read below to learn more about Arif, in his own words. I am Arif Ashraf. I graduated from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular … Read more
I could already sense the festivity in the air when I arrived at the Maker’s Faire in downtown Shreveport early on a Saturday morning. I scanned the rows of vendors and food trucks as I looked for my target – the booth for Sciport: Louisiana’s Discovery Center. With help from the center and my mentor, … Read more
We are proud to partner again with the National Park Foundation, to support the 2016 White House Easter Egg Roll on March 28th at President’s Park on the South Lawn of the White House. In addition to having volunteers on site, ASPB will have several plant science experts, the My Life as a Plant activity book, and … Read more
Research often involves hundreds of hours of behind the scenes work before results come together, ultimately culminating in presenting a snapshot of the project as a whole. This past year has offered me a glimpse into this process through my participation in ASPB’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Over the summer of 2015 I … Read more
ASPB partners with PlantingScience to support authentic plant science research in middle and high school classrooms across the United States and Canada. The spring session kicked off Monday, February 15. Already, almost 120 student teams from 11 schools are online and introducing themselves to their scientist mentors. Many other schools will be coming online soon. … Read more
Three grand prize winners will take home $500 and an all expenses paid trip to New York City — the most populated city in the U.S. — to visit the U.N. headquarters in November 2016 and share their story of urban sustainability with world leaders. Sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Planet Forward Storyfest 2016 is looking for stories about … Read more
Our day-to-day life here at Western Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) is infused with the study and appreciation of plants. Several school-wide, year-round projects reflect our belief that the study of botany, ecology, and the environment is fundamental to an education that provides young people with the knowledge and skills needed to become leaders and changemakers … Read more
By Hanna Rovenich and Setareh Mohammadin of the EPS PhD council. Benefits of a Netherlands-wide multi-university graduate school The interuniversity Graduate School ‘Experimental Plant Sciences‘ (EPS) trains over 300 PhD candidates at any given time across seven different universities including Wageningen University, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Free University of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, Leiden … Read more
We are proud to be a partner and join with the National Park Foundation to support the 2015 White House Easter Egg Roll. In addition to having volunteers on site, ASPB will have several plant science experts, the My Life as a Plant activity book, and mini garden necklaces to help kids dig into plant … Read more
Students in the University of Maryland-Baltimore Campus (UMBC) Plant Molecular Biology course taught by Prof. Hua Lu can earn extra-point opportunities for the course this semester by participating in the Fascination of Plants Day on May 18th. The class will conduct events on the UMBC campus, such as making a poster to show how great plants … Read more
On February 14-15, visitors to the ASPB interactive exhibit on plant science will use plants to explore genetics and DNA. Kids of all ages also will play games that underscore how critical plants are to our planet and our daily lives. With plant-y interests primed, booth visitors will be invited to share Fascination of Plants … Read more
1st Pennsylvania plan shared for Fascination of Plants Day 2015! WoMo Artists, Maryann Worrell (Arcadia University) & Doug Mott will build a participatory installation called Crisis Farm: Seed to Table. With help from the Street Road Artists Space, this portable garden & gallery exhibition aim to cultivate community-wide fascination with essential elements of our natural … Read more
How to get your audiences to care as much as you do. You can explain your research with publication-worthy panache. So why don’t people outside of your niche seem to get jazzed about your topic? Maybe your presentation is upside down. Successfully engaging the public or students is much more – and less – than … Read more
As part of the iConnect team, I had the good fortune to go to several workshops during the conference Plant Biology 2014 organized by the American Society of Plant Biologists. ASPB offers a diverse set of venues to acquire new skills and improve our careers by encouraging networking and initiation of collaborations. This year, … Read more
A key benefit of being a member of ASPB, at least for me, is that we have access to several activities to enhance career skills. One of my favorites is the Education Committee workshop. I’ve had the privilege to attend several by now. As a result, my teaching tools box has improved a lot and … Read more
PUI=a category within academia, RUI=a category of NSF grants, phooey=what we say when realizing a session already started. The Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI) Networking Event had a great turnout and fruitful discussion Saturday morning. This event is the opportunity for faculty from institutions that award no (or few) PhDs in the sciences to connect and share ideas for maintaining … Read more
Today was a day for personal connections and actually getting an opportunity to see some science talks. The day began with the second in series of sessions on the challenges of feeding 9 Billion people, with a focus on not just feeding, but nourishing them successfully. David Jenkins, Alan De Brauw, and Ricardo Uauy all … Read more
The Minority Affairs Committee luncheon began with an informal lunchtime discussion between faculty and students. As suggested by attendees of a previous year’s luncheon, the setup involved assigning several faculty to each table and allowing students and post-docs to fill the remaining seats. The room was abuzz with discussion for the first portion of the … Read more
I am writing this at quarter past midnight on day one of the #plantbiology14 American Society of Plant Biologists annual meeting and am trying to blog each day about my experiences/ perspective. Just know that this was written quickly because I need sleep for day 2! I arrived what I thought was early this morning … Read more
The first day of the ASPB meeting, 2014 included the major symposium on abiotic stress control in plants, presenting insights on the broad range of abiotic stress that impacts plants from extreme atmospheric conditions and availability of micronutrients; with discussions on recent experimental approaches in laboratory and fields to overcome those hurdles. Dr. Michael F. … Read more