The fifth major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, organized by ASPB President Sally Mackenzie (University of Nebraska), is dedicated to entrepreneurship in plant science. Plant biology researchers in academic labs make important discoveries with implications for agriculture, bioenergy, biomaterials, and human health. How can you, the researcher, translate your discoveries into real-world products? The “Plant … Read more
The fourth major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, organized by Barbara Valent from Kansas State University, entitled “Plants and Fungi: Friends or Foes”, will highlight current research on the interactions between fungi and living plant cells and their applications for improving sustainability in agricultural systems. Rice blast and wheat blast are two of the most … Read more
In the third major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, researchers from around the world will come together to share their insights into the chemical vocabulary of plants at a dedicated session, “The Chemical Dictionary of Plants: Origin and Translation”. Organizers Eran Pichersky (University of Michigan) and Natalia Dudareva (Purdue University) have lined up a diverse … Read more
The second major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, organized by Liam Dolan from the University of Oxford, is titled “Evolution of Cellular Development”. Symposium attendees will hear how new discoveries into the genetic regulation of development have provided fascinating insights into plant evolution. When plants first colonized the land, they evolved a suite of novel … Read more
The first major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, organized by Michael Udvardi of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, is titled “Away from the Brink – Towards the Sustainable Use of N and P in Agriculture”. Session attendees will be presented with a range of creative solutions for ensuring continued agricultural productivity while managing nitrogen and … Read more
In the Plant Physiology publishing workshop held at Plant Biology 2016, the question arose of how people keep up with the huge number of papers being published. Mike Blatt shared the strategy used by his lab, which I’m familiar with as an honorary member. The lab group meets weekly, and two of every four meetings … Read more
At the 2016 Plant Biology conference in Austin, Texas, we had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Gonzalez to get tips on pursuing a career as a Plant Biology Consultant. Here are some of the tips and suggestions Michael shared with us. For more information, you can contact him at michael@mdgonzales.com. Getting Started: The … Read more
July 13 was the final day of Plant Biology 2016. Traditionally, it ends with the President’s symposium, and this year President Dixon’s theme was ‘Specialized Metabolism’, or all the things that plants make that aren’t strictly necessary for survival (though this could be debated). .@ASPB President Dixon along a out why specialized metabolites matter for … Read more
The final major symposium of the Plant Biology 2016 conference was organized by ASPB President Richard Dixon and covered various aspects of specialized metabolism in plants (note that the term specialized metabolism has largely supplanted the older term secondary metabolism, which carries with it an implication that it is not as important as primary metabolism; … Read more
We spent all four days of Plant Biology 2016 recording “Plant Science: How I Work” interviews and fantastic elevator pitches following the Communication Workshop: How to Create a Winning Elevator Pitch facilitated by Teresa Evans and Geoff Hunt. Here are a few to inspire you! We’ll share more in Plantae.org along with the How I Work … Read more
Long Distance and Cell to cell signaling. Major symposia 4 organized by Philip Benfey was on long and short distance signaling between cells in plants. Benfey started off with a remark that plant cells are constantly communicating with one another, with neighbors and cells in entirely different parts of the plant. He then said “social … Read more
I started The Pub Club after a series of conference experiences left me wondering, “Why don’t I get to have this all the time?” If you’re anything like me – and I think most of you are – graduate school is a lot of struggle and frustration sprinkled with those rare moments of excitement and … Read more
There’s been some great discussions and dialogue at @ASPB #plantbio16 around careers and applying for jobs. Specifically there has been great dialogue around preparing cover letters and CV’s to submit as part of an application process. During a couple of the conversations that I’ve been involved in, I’ve realized that there is considerable confusion … Read more
There’s a lot of Twitter activity at Plant Biology this year (#plantbio16), but that’s a good thing even if it interrupts Twitter: Remember to mute #plantbio16 if you hate plants and science and are generally a horrible person! — Leon (@orchidhunter) July 11, 2016 Day 3 of Plant Biology started with the major symposia on … Read more
The first full day of Plant Biology 2016 started with a major symposium, organized by Harry Klee, that focused on the nutritional quality and taste of food. The first speaker, Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre (UK), set the stage by reminding us that food security involves both the nutritional quality and safety of … Read more
An early start An analog start at the Plantae pavilion started the day at Plant Biology, day 2. Many people got up early and met up over coffee and baked goods and chatted on “birds of a feather” tables focused on different topics. There was an early morning workshop on putting on workshops written up … Read more
Plant Biology 2016 officially got underway on July 9 in Austin, TX. With registration open, attendees flocked to the Draw Your Science board and a community coloring activity on the first floor off the conference center. Events underway quickly were the undergraduate poster session and a session on the much-needed reimagining of Postgraduate training in … Read more
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Are you on Twitter? Whether you are here with us in Austin or not, you can follow the stream here! #plantbio16 Tweets
To put it simply, The Community of Minds (COM) is the network of people who choose to engage in life from a rational, thought-driven, inquiry-based perspective. Of course, this is not exclusive to nor encompassing all scientists, but I would like to think that we are a large sector of this Community. If you, as … Read more