The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced its Innovation Fellowship to recruit early career scientists and engineers to serve two-year positions at DARPA. Through the program, fellows will manage a research portfolio in collaboration with DARPA program managers and build relationships with DARPA performers in academia, industry, and nonprofits. Fellows will be part … Read more
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released its fiscal year (FY) 2020 solicitation for the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program. In addition to accepting regular project proposals for grants through the IGE program, NSF for this competition will also be accepting proposals for a one-time cooperative agreement award to create an IGE Innovation Acceleration … Read more
The Plant Science Research Network attends two conferences each fall to support undergraduate research and education: SACNAS and ABRCMS. Connecting undergraduate students to research opportunities in the plant sciences is a goal of the PSRN, which curates resources to support student research, careers, and connection to the plant science community. If you were not with … Read more
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
President’s Letter—March/April 2019 By Rob Last, Michigan State University, ASPB President. Co-authored by Laura Grapes, Bayer Crop Sciences, and Andrew Hanson, University of Florida. We continue the experiment of expanding participation in ASPB started with the last President’s Letter (http://bit.ly/SecuringFuturePl…). This letter is part of a collection of resources (http://bit.ly/NextGenerationCa…) about training and jobs in the … Read more
Preparing graduate students and postdocs for diverse careers Changes in the workforce are challenging academia to prepare scientists to be adaptable and adept at communicating across boundaries. To meet these demands, the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN, plantae.org/PSRN) is shifting the focus to enable trainees to take ownership of their training experiences. “Since President Lincoln … Read more
The staff and editorial boards of ASPB, The Plant Cell, and Plant Physiology would like to offer our appreciation and best wishes to Patti Lockhart, who is leaving her position as managing editor of the ASPB journals for a new opportunity at the Transportation Resource Board of the National Academies. Patti has been with ASPB … Read more
This article is by guest author Abigail Miller, whose ASPB-funded research has just been published in Nature Communications. Congratulations Abigail! Applications for the summer undergradate research fellowships are new being accepted, through March 15, 2018. Learn more here. The American Society of Plant Biologists Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship award (SURF) was a great experience for … Read more
The National Science Foundation is initiating a national search for the Assistant Director for Biological Sciences (BIO) and they are seeking your assistance in the identification of visionary candidates to lead the Directorate during the coming years. The Assistant Director, BIO, manages a budget of approximately $750.0M and a portfolio comprising the various fields of … Read more
Are you interested in science writing? Do you want to help people understand complex scientific issues? Apply for the ASPB/AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program and learn how to increase public understanding of science and technology. Fellows in the 10-week 2018 summer program will work as reporters, researchers, and production assistants in mass … Read more
Elizabeth Henry, featured first author of Direct and Indirect Visualization of Bacterial Effector Delivery into Diverse Plant Cell Types During Infection Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Discovery and Project Support in Crop Efficiency and Seed Growth, Biologics R&D at Bayer Crop Science. Education: PhD (2016) Plant Pathology, University of California at Davis. BS (2008) Botany, University … Read more
PlantingScience is an online mentoring program that virtually connects scientists with junior high or high school students as they participate in inquiry-based activities with plants. Mentors commit to an hour or so per week over roughly two to four weeks, during which they respond to student questions and help them design and interpret their experiments. … 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
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
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
Rakesh David, featured first author of Transcriptome-wide Mapping of RNA 5-Methylcytosine in Arabidopsis mRNAs and non-coding RNAs Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, University of Adelaide. Education: PhD, Plant Molecular Biology, Plant Science Division, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Australia. Non-scientific Interests: Cycling, cricket, movies and reading. … Read more
Jenna E. Gallegos, from the University of California, Davis, has been selected to represent ASPB as the 2017 ASPB/AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow. She will spend 10 weeks this summer training as a science journalist at the Washington Post in Washington, D.C. In June, Jenna will earn her PhD in plant biology with … Read more
Masanori Izumi, featured first author of Entire Photodamaged Chloroplasts Are Transported to the Central Vacuole by Autophagy Current Position: Assistant Professor, Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University. Education: Ph.D. (2012), Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan. Non-scientific Interests: Playing tennis, Travel to Japanese hot springs. When I was an undergraduate student, … Read more
Guest post by Erin Sparks, Guillaume Lobet, Larry York and Frédéric Bouché It is midnight on a cold winter evening and you are scheduled to give a seminar at 8 am the next morning. All you are missing to complete your presentation is one last graphic to illustrate your conclusions. You wearily open Adobe Illustrator, … Read more
