Dear BSA Economic Botany Section Members

From: David Spooner, Chair (david.spooner@ars.usda.gov)

May 13, 2008

To: BSA Economic Botany Section Members

Re: Economic Botany Program at this years Botany 2008 Annual Meeting, July 26 – 30, 2008, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC

This year’s Economic Botany Program for the Botany 2008 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, consisting of 15 posters, 21 contributed talks, a luncheon, and annual business meeting is posted online at www.botany.org/news/newsletters/EB-Botany2008program.pdf. This program is a compilation of four files that combine the regular Economic Botany Section talks and three topical sessions under our section’s sponsorship: Applied Plant Biology, Evolution of Cultivated Plants, and Ethnobotany. There will be conference-wide poster sessions on Monday for even numbered posters and Tuesday for odd numbered posters from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. All other components of our sessions will be held on Wednesday, as listed in the attached file.

In addition to our posters and talks, we will have an Economic Botany Luncheon on Wednesday from 12:00 – 1:30 PM. This year’s speaker is Dr. Rainer Bussman, the new Director of the William L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources at the Missouri Botanical Garden (www.wlbcenter.org/).

Our section also is partially sponsoring a workshop (yet to be scheduled but likely the Sunday of the meeting) entitled: Applying Modern Genomic Tools to the Management and Characterization of Plant Genetic Resources (www.botanyconference.org/Workshops/2008WKS.php#ws1).

I have completed two three-year terms as chair and its time to give someone else a chance to lead our section. This is a wonderful leadership opportunity, and you are free to use your initiative to take the section in any direction you wish. We will elect a new chair from participants attending our annual business meeting, on Wednesday evening soon after our talks, from 5:00-6:00 PM. I encourage all interested parties to attend for nominations (self-nominations are welcome) and an election at the meeting. This is an exciting position, and with the administrative assistance provided at the BSA Business Office, and help I will be happy to provide, it will be an easy (and fun) transition.

I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Sincerely, David Spooner.

David M. Spooner
Chair, Economic Botany Section
Botanical Society of America
www.botany.org
www.BotanyConference.org
www.PlantingScience.org

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.

The objectives of The Society are to: sustain and provide improved formal and informal education about plants; encourage basic plant research; provide expertise, direction, and position statements concerning plants and ecosystems; and foster communication within the professional botanical community, and between botanists and the rest of humankind through publications, meetings, and committees.