For the second consecutive year, the University of Maryland’s 22nd Annual Plant Biology Symposium and the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists held a joint meeting at College Park, MD on May 30-31, 2019. The two-day meeting had broad range of subjects including plant development, plant cell biology, plant genomics, plant-biotic interactions, plant engineering, and population genetics & beyond. The joint meeting was highlighted by a special lecture by the American Society of Plant Biology president, Dr. Robert Last, Michigan State University, Networks: why membership matters in metabolism and life, and a keynote address by member of National Academy of Sciences Dr. Xinnian Dong, Duke University, Live and let die: A defense strategy in plants.
The meeting highlights young investigators and new PIs, and among the 22 lectures with 12 from graduate students and post-docs. Of the approximately 100 attendees from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, North Carolina New York, 41 were undergraduate and graduate students and 16 were post-doctoral fellows. The meeting also featured three poster sessions and a Career Development session with panelists from academia and industry. The panelist were Dr. Robert Last (ASPB), Dr. Derek Bartlem (KWS-US), Dr. Quedeng Qiu (Syngenta), Dr. Walter Nelson (KeyGene-USA).
Awards were presented for best posters, and all of the awardees were from the University of Maryland, College Park: Ying Wu (PSLA) from Dr. Shunyuan Xiao’s lab, Yun-Ting Kao (CBMG) from Dr. Caren Chang’s lab, best graduate student posters, Adam Schoen (PSLA), and Alex Mahlandt (PSLA) both from Dr. Vijay Tiwari’s lab best undergraduate posters.
Photo Left-right: Best graduate student posters: Ying Wu from Dr. Shunyuan Xiao’s lab,Yun-Ting Kao from Dr. Caren Chang’s lab; best undergraduate student posters: Adam Schoen, and Alex Mahlandt both from Dr. Vijay Tiwari’s lab.
