ASPB members share a common goal of promoting the growth, development, and outreach of plant biology as a pure and applied science. This column features some of the dedicated and innovative members of ASPB who believe that membership in our Society is crucial to the future of plant biology. If you are interested in contributing to this feature, please contact ASPB Membership at info@aspb.org.

Membership Corner

Name: Andy McCubbin
Title: Assistant professor
Place of Work or School: School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University
Research Area: Molecular aspects of plant breeding systems and pollen tube growth
Member since: 1995

1. Why has being a member of ASPB been important?
ASPB has been integral to my career, providing me with a number of important opportunities: presenting my work at major national meetings, networking with other scientists, two high-quality journals in which I have been fortunate to publish some of my work. I got my faculty position through an advertisement I first saw in the ASPB Job Bank. Essentially, ASPB has provided an important hub through which to communicate with a broad spectrum of plant scientists.

2. Was someone instrumental in getting you to join ASPB?
Not specifically, but I had become aware of ASPB through Dr. Jim Ross, a faculty member at the University of Reading, UK, where I was an undergraduate and graduate student. He had joined while a postdoc at Michigan State University in the 1970s and had kept up his membership after returning to the United Kingdom.

3. What would you tell colleagues to encourage them to join?
As a plant scientist, if you join a single professional society, I am not aware of any that will provide as many benefits as ASPB. Supporting the Society through membership is essential to help the organization continue to function effectively.

4. Have you enhanced your career using ASPB job postings or through networking at an ASPB function?
Yes, I have made numerous contacts with other researchers in my field at annual meetings and have been able to make poster and oral presentations on my research. More specifically, I found the job advertisement that led to my faculty position posted in the ASPB Job Bank.

5. Have you had any success at finding candidates as a result of a job posting at the Plant Biology meeting or on our online Job Bank?
No. I have used the job bank to advertise a position, which did result in a considerable number of applications, but ultimately I did not fill the position through it.

6. Do you read print journals? If so, where do you usually read them?
Rarely. I rely more on online resources. When I do read print journals, it is usually in our science library.

7. What do you think is the next “big thing” in plant biology?
I am excited about the expansion of genomic technologies to other, in some cases “old,” model systems. The use of Arabidopsis has clearly been amazingly productive for studying basic plant growth and development. On the other hand, given the vast diversity of form, function, and life strategies found in the plant kingdom, there is a vast wealth of untapped resources, including many classical model systems.

8. What person, living or deceased, do you most admire?
Alexander Fleming, for showing us that the most important thing in science is not necessarily performing our experiments flawlessly to obtain the results we predict, but rather to take the time to notice and follow up on strange or unexpected outcomes.

9. What are you reading these days?
As an untenured faculty member and the father of two small boys, I do not have a lot of time to read. Being in this situation I find the New Yorker is a great compromise, providing me with excellent articles covering current events, politics, some medical and scientific articles, as well as short pieces of fiction.

10. What are your hobbies?
I try to spend as much time as I can with my family. I have two sons, ages 2 and 4. They are just getting to an age where I can involve them in my “pre-family” passions: camping and hiking, mushrooming, and cooking.

11. What is your most treasured possession?
A sense of humor.

12. What do you still have left to learn?
I do not have enough time to answer that. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I really know!