Bulletin The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists/ La Société canadienne de biologie végétale Message from the President Message du Président Dr. Geoffrey Wasteneys Dear CSPB/SCBV Members Welcome to another northern summer. For many CSPB members, this represents a shift from teaching to intensive research, for others the time to get the field trials completed, and for everyone, this is confer- ence season. Our AGM this year will be big as we join up with two other societies, our much larger sister society, the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), and the International Society of Photosynthesis Research. Plant Biology 2018 will be held from July 14-18 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. This con- ference has been in the planning stages for several years. Anja Geitmann and I, as part of the Scientific Planning Committee, have been meeting with our ASPB and ISPR counterparts since September 2016 to organize the scientific program. Last year, we welcomed François Ouellet from the Université de Québec à Montréal, who, together with Anja, is busy planning the local events associated with this large conference. At Plant Biology 2018, you can look forward to plenary talks in five major symposia covering ranslationalT Science, Cell and Developmental Biology, Innovative Technologies, the Ecophysiology of Photosynthesis, and Mechanisms of Genome Evolution, plus an awards symposium on Sunday that will feature our 2017 CD Nelson Award winner, Marcus Samuel. Be sure to attend the CSPB President’s Symposium on Sunday July 15: Integrative Signals in Plant Cell Monday evening, and the closing In the Fall 2017 Bulletin, I raised Biology and Development. I am party on Tuesday evening. Mon- concern regarding the state of very pleased to bring together treal is a fabulous city to explore, research funding in Canada, and four brilliant scientists: Liz Has- and the conference venue is in the complete failure of the Gov- well from Washington University the most historic part of town, ernment of Canada to respond to in St Louis, Mark Estelle from close to many cultural attractions. the recommendations of the pan- the University of California, San el led by David Naylor in 2017 to Diego, Daphne Goring from the In addition to the scientific pro- make substantial funding increas- University of Toronto, and Karin gram, Plant Biology 2018 is when es for basic research. Since then, Schumacher from the University the CSPB conducts our annual there is some reason for cautious of Heidelberg (Germany). Their business meeting. I encourage optimism, with the government presentations will highlight excit- everyone to attend this meeting, announcing on February 27, 2018 ing discoveries that help us better which is scheduled for Tuesday an additional four billion dollars in understand sensory, transcrip- July 17th from 5:30 to 6:30pm. funding over the next five years. tional and physiological respons- This is your opportunity to hear NSERC’s share of this amounts to es in plants. about what the executive and $454.7 million. While falling short committee members have been of the Naylor Report recommen- While the plenary sessions are up to, vote on important deci- dations, this is undoubtedly the reason enough to attend the sions, and contribute your ideas. largest single increase in Canadi- meeting, prepare to be dazzled The business meeting will also be an federal funding for fundamen- with a huge selection of concur- the point at which we will an- tal science research. How that will rent talks, hundreds and hun- nounce the Presidents Award for translate into the NSERC Discov- dreds of posters, a wide range best student poster – please see ery program, which is the foun- of technical and career-focused the Vice-President’s message for dation support for fundamental workshops, and trade displays. more details. research for most of us, remains Expand your network at the unclear. planned social events, which Make sure you are well rested include a Saturday evening recep- before coming to Plant Biology CSPB ran two very successful re- tion for all participants, a CSPB/ 2018. It is going to be an experi- gional meetings late last year: the SCBV mixer and awards event on ence. Eastern Regional Meeting was held on November 25th at the McDonald campus of McGill Uni- versity, and the Western Regional Meeting took place from Dec 10th to 12th in Winnipeg. The details of these two meetings are found in the Vice-President’s and Western Regional Director’s reports. Looking forward to next July, CSPB will be hosting the Plant Canada 2019 Conference in Guelph. This meeting will bring together seven societies includ- ing CSPB, the Canadian Botanical Association, Canadian Society for Horticultural Science, Canadian Bull whip kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) Weed Science Society, Canadian from wikipedia commons Association for Plant Biotechnol- ogy, Canadian Phytopathological Society, and the Canadian Society and Diversity Taskforce (Allison Director since 2015, and Shrikaar of Agronomy. Barry Micallef has McDonald, Ken Wilson, Heather Kambhampati (Western) who has very generously agreed to chair McFarlane and Janice Cooke) and been our Student / Postdoctoral the Local Arrangements Commit- the Committee tasked with es- Representative since 2016. Final- tee and will be working closely tablishing the terms of reference ly, on behalf of the whole society, with our Eastern Regional Direc- for the new Carl Douglas Prize I will also take this opportunity tor Robert Mullen, who has kindly for post-doctoral fellows (Robert to express deepest gratitude agreed to chair the fundraising Mullen, Jacqueline Monaghan, to Barry Micallef (University of committee. As President of the Robert Guy). At the CSPB Busi- Guelph) who, after serving four host society I will be chairing the ness Meeting on July 17, the rec- consecutive two-year terms, will Scientific Planning Committee, ommendations of the Equity and be stepping down as Secretary, and welcome any suggestions Diversity Taskforce and the terms but stepping up to organize Plant you might have. of reference of the Carl Douglas Canada 2019. As always, a very big thank you Prize Committee will be present- to all members of the executive ed and discussed. À bientôt à Montréal and our numerous committees who have volunteered their Three members of the executive Geoffrey Wasteneys time, talent and energy to keep will be stepping down at this The University of British Columbia CSPB amazing. I would like to year’s AGM. I would like to take President CSPB/SCBC take this opportunity to thank, in this opportunity to thank Mark particular, the volunteers on two Belmonte (University of Man- ad-hoc committees, the Equity itoba) who has been Western Message from the Vice-President Message du vice-président Dr. Daphne Goring University of Toronto We had a very successful East- David Des Marais (Massachusetts ern Regional Meeting held last Institute of Technology, GxE and November 24-25 at Macdonald the genomic basis of environmen- campus, McGill University. I filled tal response in plants). These Lumba (University of Toronto) in for Robert Mullen, our Eastern presentations were followed by wrapped up the meeting with a Regional Director, to organize the three concurrent sessions cover- final plenary lecture (How par- student presentation judging as ing plant development, regula- asitic weeds wake up: Cracking Robert was off on quite an adven- tion and metabolism, and abiotic the germination code). All-in-all, ture of a lifetime which had been stress. We took a break for lunch, a busy day full of very interesting planned some time ago! The which was followed by poster presentations! I would like to ex- meeting started off with two ple- presentations and three more tend a big thanks to the co-chairs, nary lectures: Dr. Anne-Lise Rout- concurrent sessions covering Jean-Benoit Charron and Olivia ier-Kierzkowska (Université de biotic interactions, growth and Wilkins, and the organizing com- Montréal, How plants use physics regulation, and bioinformatics mittee for all their hard work in to survive and thrive), and Dr. and molecular tools. Dr. Shelley organizing this meeting. Thanks also to all the judges and volun- factors in differentiating abscis- presentation, please also indicate teers who were actively involved sion zones in Arabidopsis). Honor- that you will be bringing a poster in running this meeting. able mentions went to Farzaneh to present at the meeting. Final- The judges for the student pre- Tamnanloo (Concordia University, ly, I will be looking for judges to sentations were kept busy judg- MKP1 controls stomatal cell fate help out with this competition ing 26 student oral presentations differentiation during stomatal so please consider volunteering and 16 student poster presenta- development in Arabidopsis) and when you see my email… tions (all in a one-day meeting). Mohannad Mahmoud (McGill I congratulate the students in University, Transposons Tagging Please also look out for notices presenting high calibre oral and System as a Tool for Functional to attend the CSPB/SCBV Annual poster presentations, and as Genomics in Oat, Avena sativa). Business Meeting at Plant Biol- always generating quite a discus- ogy 2018. One of the items that sion with the judges in selecting Plant Biology 2018, the Joint I will be discussing is the report the following winners and honor- ASPB-CSPB/SCBV meeting is com- submitted by the Equity and able mentions: ing up very rapidly (Montreal July Diversity Taskforce in June 2017. Oral presentation winners: The 14-18, 2018); please see President Past-president Anja Geitmann Director’s Award for the best Geoffrey Wasteneys’ message for had assembled the Equity and oral presentation went to Eliana more details on this meeting. The Diversity Taskforce in June 2016 Vonapartis (University of Toron- society had a record number of with the goal of developing an to-Scarborough, Exploring the student/postdoctoral applicants equity and diversity policy for the role of XERICO in Arabidopsis for the George H Duff Travel society.