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SPECIAL EVENTS
The following provides details on all of the special events to be held at Plant
Biology 2009. Information will be added as it becomes available.
Opening Address & Awards Ceremony, Saturday, July 18, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
All attendees are invited to attend this prominent annual ceremony, which recognizes meritorious research and service in plant biology by the presentation of awards to deserving individuals. Awards to be given this year are the ASPB-Pioneer Hi-Bred International Graduate Student Prize, the Early Career Award, the Charles Albert Shull Award, the Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award, the Corresponding Membership Award, the Fellow of ASPB Award, the Martin Gibbs Medal, the Dennis R. Hoagland Award, and the Stephen Hales Prize. The ceremony is immediately followed by the ASPB Opening Symposium, which will feature the Charles Albert Shull Award Winner, Sheng Luan from the University of California.
Perspectives of Science Leaders, Saturday, July 18,
7:30 – 8:30 pm
Speaker (by video): Dr. William H. Danforth II
Dr. William H. Danforth II has received the 2009 ASPB Leadership in Science Public Service Award. Although he is unable to travel to Hawaii to receive the award in person, Dr. Danforth has pre-recorded his Perspectives of Science Leaders talk, which will be shown in full at this event. Danforth is Chancellor Emeritus of Washington University in St. Louis, serving as the university’s thirteenth chancellor from 1971 until his retirement in 1995. Initially trained as a medical doctor and biochemist, Danforth has nevertheless maintained a lifelong interest in food, agriculture and sustainability. Indeed, following his retirement as Chancellor, Danforth became the driving force behind establishment of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center which, since its establishment, has vigorously pursued its mission to improve the human condition through plant science research. In 2003, Danforth was appointed by then Secretary of Agriculture, Ann M. Veneman, to chair the Research, Education and Economics Task Force of the USDA, which recommended that the US establish the National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the USDA. The mission of this institute, since authorized by Congress, is to encourage technological innovations in and enhancements to American agriculture. Danforth is a member of the Institute of Medicine, is a director on the Board of Trustees of the Danforth Foundation, and is a trustee of the American Youth Foundation.
Opening Reception/Mixer (Guest tickets, $10), Saturday, July 18, 8:30 - 10:00 pm
Come and see old friends and colleagues, meet new friends and colleagues and enjoy a relaxing evening while having a little snack.
PSA Endowment Auction, Sunday, July 19, 7:00 - 9:30 pm
The purpose of the Auction is to raise funds for the Hoshaw Travel Award Fund, which are used to provide travel grants for students to attend the PSA annual meeting. The Auction also provides an opportunity for phycologists to exchange items of phycological interest. Past auction items have included: algal jewelry (pins, earrings, tie tacks, necklaces, belt buckles), books about algae including newly published books, and phycological classics, kelp baskets, seaweed wreaths, photographs of algae, photographs of phycologists, sculptures of algae, dinoflagellate prints, boxer shorts decorated in an algal motif, diatom pillows, note cards decorated with pressed algae, etc. All members and friends of PSA are invited to attend and bid on their favorite items.
Small Colleges/PUI Networking Breakfast ($12 ticket required), Sunday, July 19, 7:00 – 8:30 am
This annual event serves as an opportunity to bring people from PUIs together to network, share information on strategies for teaching and research in plant biology, and explore other opportunities.
Career Workshops I & II ($12 fee includes dinner!), Held concurrently
on Sunday, July 19, 7 - 10 pm
This year, the Women in Plant Biology Committee
will present two career workshops at Plant Biology 2009. The workshops will
not only focus on careers in the U.S. but also on international careers.
Career Workshop 1: "How to Survive A New Job"
This program for early-career individuals will highlight maximizing performance,
becoming a manager, the importance of mentoring, networking skills (internal
& external), and recognizing discrimination/bias. Following presentations
from panelists with experience in these topics, participants will review two
to three case studies and have the opportunity to ask questions and engage
in discussion with the following panelists:
Time Management to Maximize Output/Performance
Judy Callis, University of California, Davis
Becoming a Manager
Simon Gilroy, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Mentoring
Winslow Briggs, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Networking Skills
Rob McClung, Dartmouth College
Discrimination/Bias
Marta Laskowki, Oberlin College
Career Workshop II: "Alternate Careers"
This program will include presentations from individuals with experience in
non-academic careers for plant biologists. Careers will include industry,
science diplomacy, non-profit research, publishing/journalism, commercialization/patents,
federal government, international companies, and R&D in commercial companies.
Following the presentations, participants will have the opportunity to ask
questions and engage speakers in discussion within small groups.
Industry
Frederick Perlak, Monsanto
Science Diplomacy
Flo Paoli, USAID in the Israeli Programs Office, Office of Agriculture
Nonprofit Research Institutes
Rick Dixon, Samuel R. Noble Foundation
Publishing
Susanne Brink, Trends in Plant Science
Government Agencies
Sharlene Weatherwax, US Department of Energy
International Jobs
Huishan Guo or Weihua Tang, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Research and Development in Companies
Patrick Morgan, LiCor
International Research Networking Workshop, Sunday, July 19, 7:00 –
9:00 pm
This session will provide an informal opportunity to learn about plant science
research in other countries. Representatives from various U.S. funding agencies
will be present. The goal for this session is to stimulate international interactions
by increasing awareness about research activities across all nations. Tables
will be set up to provide an opportunity for scientists working in various areas
of plant biology to meet each other and discuss possible collaborative projects.
USDA Reception, Sunday, July 19, 7:00 - 8:00 pm
All employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are invited to attend this annual reception. Enjoy the opportunity to share a beverage and mingle with this diverse group.
Education Workshop (Free - pre-reserved ticket is required), Sunday,
July 19, 7:30 - 9:30 pm
Talking Science in Public: evolution, GMOs, and other challenging issues
Do you sometimes avoid talking about controversial issues in science? Do you
prefer to just “stick to the facts” because it’s too hard to gauge and respond
to the needs or interests of your conversation partner(s)? Then come to the
Education Workshop and learn how to test the waters and then wade confidently
into talking about GMO’s, evolution, and other challenging issues of science.
Discover research and resources for teaching about controversial topics in a
variety of school and outreach settings.
Guidelines for Preparing Digital Art - Beginner, Sunday, July 19, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Speaker: Michael Hepp of The Sheridan Group
There are a lot of variables when creating digital art. What software are you using? What size should the figure be? In which format should it be saved? What color mode should be used? We can help you create publication-ready figures from the beginning so you won't have to spend time fixing problems later. If you’ve never created digital figures on your own, or you know only the basics, this is the best place to start. This presentation will include demonstrations in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, along with information on how to prepare figures that will reproduce the finest detail and most accurate color both online and in print. Topics will include color space, resolution, fonts, and file type. The presenter will be Michael Hepp, Technology Strategist for The Sheridan Group, the company that produces Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. There will be ample time for Q & A at the end of the session.
ASPB Women in Plant Biology Sponsored Lunch & Speaker: Mary Lou
Guerinot, Dartmouth College, Monday, July 20, 12:20-2:30 pm ($12 for students/post
docs, $28 for regular members)
Our speaker this year is
Mary Lou Guerinot, Dartmouth College. Attendees will enjoy a lovely lunch,
networking with colleages at all levels of experience, and a dynamic speaker.
TAIR Workshop I: How to effectively use the tools and resources at TAIR to enhance your research, Monday July 20, 12:20 – 2:00 pm
Speakers: Philippe Lamesch, Donghui Li, A.S. Karthikeyan
TAIR (www.arabidopsis.org) is a community database for Arabidopsis thaliana.
This workshop is designed for users who wish to more effectively utilize the curated data and software resources provided by TAIR. We will address curation of three major data types: gene structure, gene function and metabolic pathway. We will also teach effective search strategies and highlight some important data sets available at TAIR. Both beginning and experienced users will undoubtedly learn new tricks for getting the information they need and are likely to discover new types of data housed at TAIR that can enhance their research efforts. In the Gene Structure Annotation section, we will give details on the recent TAIR9 genome release. We will explain how we used a variety of experimental data types to update gene structures. We will talk about upcoming projects aimed to further improve existing annotations and add missing genes. An overview of how to search for gene structure related data in TAIR will also be given. In the Gene Function section, we will describe the process of annotating from the literature using GO and PO controlled vocabularies, and then demonstrate how controlled vocabularies allow for standardization of annotation, assist in comparative genomics and can be used to classify large data sets. The Metabolic Pathway section will explain the process of pathway curation and methods of assigning genes to pathways. We will demonstrate how to query and retrieve information on pathways, enzymes, genes and metabolites. We will also discuss the use of tools for displaying and analyzing microarray, proteomic and metabolomic data. Finally we will also explain how the user community can actively participate in the ongoing process of improving database contents at TAIR.
Guidelines for Preparing Digital Art—Advanced, Monday, July 20: 2:30 PM – 4:10 PM
Speaker: Michael Hepp of The Sheridan Group
If you are familiar with the basic concepts related to creating digital art, this session will cover more advanced topics such as color management and using ICC profiles, working with MS Office documents and PDFs, and more. It will include demonstrations of advanced techniques for creating publication-ready figures. The presenter will be Michael Hepp, Technology Strategist for The Sheridan Group, the company that produces Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. There will be ample time for Q & A at the end of the session.
ASPB Minority Affairs Committee Sponsored Dinner & Speaker: Clifton
Poodry, Director, Division of Minority Opportunities and Research, National
Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH, Monday, July 20, 6:30-8:30 pm ($12
for students and post docs, $28 for regular members).
Clif will give a talk entitled "Developing Plant Scientists for 2020".
Attendees will enjoy a pleasant dinner, the opportunity to network with colleagues
at all levels of experience, and a dynamic and very well informed speaker.
TAIR Workshop II: TAIR, PMN, Gramene and SGN workshop: focus on comparative genomics and new tools, Monday July 20, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Speakers: Philippe Lamesch, A.S. Karthikeyan, Lukas Mueller, Pankaj Jaiswal
In this workshop, four plant genome databases will give an overview of new tools available on their websites, including those focusing on comparative genomics. We will present our vision of the future in plant genome databases, and how they impact plant biology research.
TAIR (www.arabidopsis.org) is the central database for the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana which serves as an important resource and potential benchmark for the annotation of other plant genomes. New datasets and tools have recently been added to TAIR that should help non-Arabidopsis researchers analyze their data. For example, a track has been added to the TAIR genome browser GBrowse that allows the user to easily find orthologs of Arabidopsis genes in over forty different species. Another GBrowse track displays VISTA plots, which visualize genome sequence similarity between Arabidopsis and other plant genomes. Other Arabidopsis-specific tools recently added to TAIR will also be demonstrated.
The Plant Metabolic Network (PMN, www.plantcyc.org) is a collaborative project among databases and biochemists with a common goal to build a broad network of plant metabolic pathway databases. We will present an overview of the PMN resources and discuss how researchers can use this information to identify missing enzymes and to study metabolism in their species of interest.
The Sol Genomics Network (SGN, http://sgn.cornell.edu) is a clade-oriented, community driven database for the Solanaceae, such as tomato, potato and pepper, and closely related Asterids such as coffee and snapdragon. The SGN workshop aims to inform and demonstrate on how to employ (1) SGN comparative tools, such as the comparative map viewer, the alignment viewer, and tree browser; (2) SGN community annotation tools, which allow researchers from the community to contribute and share data. The workshop will also offer an overview of how to access the constantly emerging tomato genome data, and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis functionalities.
The Gramene (www.gramene.org) is a comparative plant genomics platform and a systems biology database. It hosts several annotated genomes, genetic maps from over 30 intra- and/or inter-specific crosses, storage of genetic markers and plant nucleotide sequences from GenBank and more. In this workshop we will demonstrate how researchers can use these resources (1) to carryout online data analysis, hypothetical modeling or confirmation of lab based findings using both forward and reverse genetics approaches to find genes, proteins, phenotypes (mutants and QTLs), function(s), expression, gene-gene interaction(s), metabolic pathways and polymorphisms in a genomic region of interest, (2) to make comparisons across genetic maps, genomes, genes and gene families and (3) to find candidate genes associated with phenotype and/or functional characteristics by way of whole genome alignments and synteny views.
Grantsmanship Workshop, Monday, July 20,7:00 – 8:30 pm
Representatives from Federal Grant Agencies will provide overviews of funding opportunities. This is a session on federal plant research and education programs for attendees to learn about new directions in funding, new priorities within current programs, and how to get good ideas into well-written, compelling proposals. Both research- and education-centered opportunities will be explored. Tips and perspectives on grantsmanship will be shared. The workshop will be set up as an open forum facilitating discussion rather than a primarily formal presentation.
PSA Banquet ($50 tickets available for PSA members and their guests), Tuesday, July 21, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Wakiki Aquarium
The Phycological Society of America's 2009 banquet will be held on the evening of July 21 on the oceanside grounds of the beautiful Waikiki Aquarium. The evening will include a buffet-style Pacific-fusion dinner and the annual PSA awards ceremony, set within a Hawaiian theme. The Aquarium exhibits will be available for viewing during the evening. Transportation will be provided to and from the Convention Center, although you may also enjoy the 1.9 mile walk along the shores of Waikiki beach. Buses will leave from in front of the Hawaii Convention Center at 6:00 pm and at 6:15 pm. They will also return you to the convention center around 9:15 pm and 9:30 pm.
Final Party ($10 Guest tickets available), Tuesday, July 21, 7:30 – 10:00 pm at the Hilton Lagoon
Come enjoy a beautiful lagoon side party, where you can enjoy one last night of lovely Hawaiian air, music, food and great conversation.
Post-meeting Workshop: C3 to C4: A Workshop to Evaluate Strategies for engineering C4 Photosyntheseis in C3 Plants. ($100 ticket required, limited tickets available) Thursday, July 23, 8:00 am - 8:00 pm
A one day workshop.
Events listed above are available when registering. Already registered? Add it to your registration right online!
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