Midwest Section Holds 2004 Annual Meeting

The Annual Midwest ASPB Sectional Meeting was held jointly with the Ohio State University Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Symposium on March 19 and 20th at the Business Technology Center in Columbus. The meeting was organized by Dr. Richard Sayre, Ohio State University.

The meeting was a great success. Over 125 persons attended the conference from as far away as Omaha, Nebraska. The President's Lecture was given by Dr. Stan Gelvin of Purdue University and was entitled "Plant Genes Involved in Agrobacterium-mediated Transformation". The oral and poster presentations were outstanding. Thirty-six oral presentations were given by undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs, and 22 posters were presented.

Awards were presented to Ms. Sareena Singh (OSU) from Dr. Richard Sayre's lab for the best undergraduate oral presentation entitled ""Structure/Function Studies of the H43, Iron-Binding Protein of Chlamydomonas"; to Tomas Sors (Purdue) from Dr. David Salt's lab for the best graduate student oral presentation entitled "Production of Se-methylseleoncysteaine in transgenic plants expressing selenocysteaine methyltransferase; and to Dr. Ashverya Laxmi (OSU) from Dr. J.C. Jang's lab entitled "Sugar Regulatory Networks in Arabidopsis".

At the business meeting Dr. John Gray, from the University of Toledo, was elected the vice-president of the section. Dr. Alan Showalter, from Ohio University and past sectional president, was elected as the sectional representative to the national organization. Alan replaces Dr. Steve Rodermel of Iowa State University. Dr. Karen Koster assumes the position of President of the Midwest Section. It was decided to try and hold the next annual meeting in Missouri.