BSA Announcement Board

MEETINGS

• California Botanical Society Centennial Celebration: Botanical Frontiers: Past and Future, Berkeley, CA, April 12 - 14, 2013
  Mark your calendar for this landmark event! The California Botanical Society will be celebrating one hundred years of Western North American botany this spring at its Centennial Celebration.  The Celebration will be held at the University of California in Berkeley, California and will include field trips and an evening mixer on Friday April 12th, a symposium and banquet on Saturday April 13th, and the 24th annual Graduate Student Symposium on Sunday April 14th.  Discounted hotel rooms are available at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza. For more information about the Centennial Celebration and to register for the events, please visit our website:  http://www.calbotsoc.org/centennial_symposium.html. Questions? - email Anna Larsen at secretary [at] calbotsoc [dot] org. Hope to see you this spring!
  
  
• Plant Genomics Congress - London, May 13-14, 2013
  In the last few years there have been significant cost reductions and advances in next generation sequencing technologies that genomic specialists must keep abreast of developments and increasingly manage an explosion in data. This congress has been designed to meet this need by combining a panel of exceptional speakers with exhibitors from leading suppliers, one-to-one meetings and a drinks reception, in order to provide a unique networking opportunity during the congress breaks and evening reception.
  The Congress Agenda will cover NGS Technologies for Plant Research , Bioinformatics, Data Management & Analysis , Plant Genomic Case Studies.
  
  
• MONOCOTS V: 5th International Conference on Comparative Biology of Monocotyledons - New York Botanical Garden from July 7 - 13, 2013.

  
  Registration Is Now Open, With Early Bird Rates! Click on the “Register Now” button in the upper right corner of the Monocots V website.

  Conference to be held at The New York Botanical Garden and Fordham University in Bronx, New York City, Sunday, July 7, 2013 7:00 AM – Saturday, July 13, 2013 12:00 PM. The scientific program will consist of symposia, contributed papers and posters, and workshops. Optional activities will include a ticketed banquet, tours of the Botanical Garden Science campus, and post-conference field trips to theHudson Highlands of New York and the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Accommodations will be in the Fordham University residence halls. In addition, several area hotels are offering discount rates to Monocots V registrants. Hope to see you in New York in July!
  More information is available at  http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1060172; Email: monocotsv@gmail.com. 
  The organizing committee:
  Lisa M. Campbell
  Jerrold I. Davis
  Alan W. Meerow
  Robert F. C. Naczi
  Dennis Wm. Stevenson
  W. Wayt Thomas

• 8th Plant Life of South West Asia conference, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland, 1-5 July 2013
  This conference has been running every five years since 1970, when the inaugural conference was hosted in Edinburgh. It brings together professional and amateur researchers and conservation practitioners from around the world who share an interest in the plants of SW Asia, fostering collaboration and information exchange. This year we would like to attract delegates from as many different countries, cultures and disciplines as possible, and host sessions on a variety of topics of interest to all participants.

• SPS Conference 2013: Plant signalling in a changing environment, Evry - FRANCE, July 4-6, 2013
  As sessile organisms, all plants have the capacity to sense and respond to changing conditions in their environment to appropriately modify their development and physiology. During land colonization, different plant species have used diverse strategies to cope with largely variable environmental conditions. Although a great amount of knowledge has been accumulated in many areas of plant biology, the molecular mechanisms underlying signaling and adaptation to the environment are still largely unclear. It is the aim of this conference to discuss the latest discoveries on how plants respond to changes in their abiotic and biotic environmental conditions. The conference will look at different strategies revealed by studying natural variation, highlighting novel insights into the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, and showcase how this knowledge can be applied to improve crop production to meet the needs of the future. https://colloque.inra.fr/spsconference
  
  

• “Clays in Earth-life evolution” during the 2nd International Conference on Clays, Clay Minerals and Layered Materials – St Petersburg, Russia, 2-6 September, 2013
  The symposium embraces all aspects of mineral-life interaction where clays, layered minerals or related mineral phases (e.g., their precursors in the alteration sequence) feature. The emphasis of the symposium is on the mutual influence that the living organisms and minerals have in the evolution of life (e.g., adaptation to physical and chemical environmental conditions; exploitation of energy sources from minerals) and of the lithosphere (e.g., mineral alteration; sediment composition; landscape; element budgets). http://www.ruclay.com
  
  

• Elsevier's 2nd Plant Genome Conference - Amsterdam, September 8-10, 2013

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS & PROPOSALS

• APS Special Projects RFP - March 31, 2013
  The purpose of the APS Special Projects Program is to stimulate activities that promote knowledge and appreciation of Penstemons. The Society is particularly interested in funding projects that: 1) Promote conservation of Penstemon species in the wild, especially rare or sensitive ones, through understanding of factors that affect their survival, and 2) Promote appreciation for the diversity and beauty of Penstemons in domestic landscapes, through horticultural research, dissemination of information of interest to gardeners, or the construction or enhancement of educational display gardens. For more information on submitting a proposal: http://apsdev.org/library/references/special_projects_app_20122013.pdf

• CALL FOR PROPOSALS - SABBATICAL SCHOLARS AND COLLABORATIVE WORKING GROUPS - Deadlines Vary
  Proposals for Sabbaticals and for collaborative working groups (Working Groups and Catalysis Meetings) are now being accepted at The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). We are looking to support innovative approaches to outstanding problems in evolutionary biology. In particular, proposals that have a clear interdisciplinary focus, or involve evolutionary concepts in non-traditional disciplines, are strongly encouraged, as are proposals that demonstrate international participation and a mix of senior and emerging researchers, including graduate students. Proposals for Working Groups and Catalysis Meetings are accepted twice a year, with deadlines on July 10 and December 1. Proposals for Sabbaticals may be one semester to a full year (deadlines June 10 and December 1) or they may be for short-term visits (2 weeks to 3 months; deadlines on January 1, April 1, July 1 and September 1). NESCent is also now seeking to include graduate traineeship to our portfolio by offering one-semester fellowships for graduate students to pursue research either with a NESCent sabbatical scholar or with a NESCent Working Group. For more information, please see our website at https://www.nescent.org/science/proposals.php.
  

• IRES: Molecular Ecology and Evolution of Marine Photosynthetic Organisms - Station Biologique de Roscoff, France
  This NSF-funded International Research Experience for Students (IRES) will provide US graduate students with opportunities to gain international research experience at the Station Biologique de Roscoff  (SBR) in France, a research and training center in marine biology, oceanography, and marine genomics operated by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Students will work closely with SBR researchers on the molecular ecology and evolution of marine photosynthetic organisms.  SBR is located in Brittany, a western region of France.  Students interested in the program can apply for stays up to 6 months.  Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. For more information regarding the IRES project and the application process please contact:  http://armbrustlab.ocean.washington.edu/ires/
  

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

• FIELD IDENTIFICATION OF TROPICAL PLANTS (TROPICAL DENDROLOGY).  SHORT INTENSIVE COURSE IN COSTA RICA
  June 24-July 6, 2013 (in English) and April 15-27 (en Español).   Two-week courses given, since 1993,  in 4 contrasting environments (Life Zones).  Highly efficient teaching methodology. Students are prepared to identify, down to family and important genera level, about 80% of the trees and shrubs in the Tropics. All inclusive US$ 1600.00;  Airfare is not included. Find complete information and Testimonies from previous students at www.hjimenez.org      Direct contact: Dr. Humberto Jimenez-Saa. hjimenez@racsa.co.cr

• Go Botany!
  New England Wild Flower Society announces Go Botany, a suite of new on-line tools for anyone interested in plants. Use Go Botany in the field or on your desktop computer to identify and learn about thousands of native and naturalized plant species of New England. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this innovative website is free at http://www.newenglandwild.org/gobotany. Go Botany features an interactive Simple ID Key to 1200 of the more common vascular plants of the region, covering all species groups from aquatic plants to graminoids to trees. In three easy steps, users home in on the identification of a plant species while increasing observational skills. All technical terms are linked to illustrated, pop-up defintions. Users can visit informative species pages to learn more: fun facts and uses, maps of the species range, gorgeous images, information about all its features, look-alike species, and whether it is native, invasive, or rare in New England. Coming soon will be a set of advanced tools for more experienced botanists, including a Full Key, which uses the same friendly interface as the Simple ID Key to identify all 3,500 species, subspecies, and varieties of plants in the New England flora, and a clickable, technical Dichotomous Key that allows users to trace their steps, change their choices, and key out families or genera. A growing body of teaching resources will also be available. Later this summer, the site will introduce PlantShare, an online forum that connects users with other plant enthusiasts to create and share checklists and photographs of species they have seen. New England Wild Flower Society has tested the Simple Key with beginners and experts, students and teachers, aged 8 to 80, and it is welcomed by a broad audience as a way to learn and teach about plants. Go Botany is a user-friendly, comprehensive, and sophisticated web application that allows many people to identify and learn about the plants of our region. Although our emphasis is on the New England flora, botanists throughout the northeast will find it very useful. The Society is also working with several organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution, to customize the Go Botany database and software for other regional floras. For more information, contact gobotany@newenglandwild.org
  
  

• State Herbarium of South Australia publications now online
  

  Since 26 October 2011 the new publications web-page of the State Herbarium of South Australia is online (www.flora.sa.gov.au/publications).  Users can view information on all books published by the State Herbarium and its staff, the Board of the Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium (Adelaide), and botanical books published by the ‘Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee’.  If in-print these can be ordered via email.  Some out-of-print books are available for download, e.g. Womersley’s Marine benthic flora of southern Australia or Bates & Weber’s Orchids of South Australia.  More scanned books will be added over time.
  
  The complete back-issues of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from Vol. 1 (1976) to Vol. 24 (2010) are also accessible in PDF form (www.flora.sa.gov.au/jabg).  The journal mainly publishes research papers and articles on botanical taxonomy, systematics and nomenclature.  It is one of five taxonomic journals published by Australian herbaria and botanic gardens.  The next volume of the journal is scheduled for 2012.
  
  Finally, the first chapters of the new, 5th edition of Flora of South Australia were launched in October as well (www.flora.sa.gov.au/ed5).  These include an introduction, glossary and revised treatments for 17 families or larger groups, such as Amaranthaceae, Droseraceae, Ranunculaceae, and part of Fabaceae.  For people who want to bind these chapters into a folder, cover pages are also provided for print-out.  More than 60 botanists are contributing to the new flora.  We anticipate to release more treatments every 4 to 6 months.

  Jürgen Kellermann
  State Herbarium of South Australia
  DENR Science Resource Centre
  Adelaide, Australia
  juergen.kellermann@sa.gov.au