Special Events
(times and locations are subject to change)

FRIDAY, June 27
Opening Address & Awards Ceremony 1:30 -3:50 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center – Salon Merida
All attendees are invited to attend this prominent annual ceremony, which recognizes meritorious research and service in plant biology by the presentation of awards to deserving individuals. Awards to be given this year are the ASPB-Pioneer Hi-Bred International Graduate Student Prize, the Early Career Award, the Charles Albert Shull Award, the Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award, the Corresponding Membership Award, the Fellow of ASPB Award, the Charles F. Kettering Award, the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research, and the Stephen Hales Prize. The ceremony is immediately followed by the ASPB Opening Symposium, which will feature the 2007 Charles Albert Shull Awardee, Samuel C. Zeeman (ETH Zurich), and the 2007 Stephen Hales Prize Winner, Sarah Hake (USDA Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany).

Perspectives of Science Leaders 4:30 – 5:50 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center – Salon Merida
Luis R. Herrera-Estrella, Ph.D., professor of plant genetic engineering at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, Irapuato, Mexico, will be the featured speaker. Luis will receive the 2008 ASPB Leadership in Science Public Service Award during the program.

Plant Biology 2008 Opening Party 7:00 - 10:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center
7:00 – Welcome by Governor
7:45 – Ballet
8:30 – Reception in Courtyard 1 block away

SATURDAY, June 28
Poster Session and Lunch      12:30 – 3:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall
12:30 – 1:00 pm Undergraduate Poster Session
1:00 – 2:00 pm Even Poster Numbers
2:00 – 3:00 pm Odd Poster Numbers

Exihbit Hall and Posters Open             12:30 – 7:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall

Small Colleges/PUI Networking Reception     7:30 – 10:00 pm - Intercontinental - Grand Salon I
This annual event serves as an opportunity to bring people from Primarily Undergraduate Institutions together to network, share information on strategies for teaching and research in plant biology, and explore other opportunities.  This event requires a pre-purchased ticket.

Education Workshop Evaluation, Assessment, and Research in Life Science Education: What, How, and Why? 7:30 – 9:30 pm - Intercontinental - Imperio
Whether you are broadening the impact of your research through educational activities or considering how to improve your own teaching, evaluation will help you know when it works and help you learn when it does not. To assist scientists in considering how to evaluate their educational efforts, including teaching and K-12 outreach, the ASPB Education Committee is dedicating the Plant Biology 2008 Education Workshop to science education evaluation. The workshop session will start with an introduction to evaluation and an explanation of how it differs from education research and assessment. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluation and assessment will be described. Conferees are invited to bring evaluation questions, ideas, and challenges to discuss, as half of the session will be structured in a working group format. A variety of resources useful for designing and implementing science education evaluation as well as mechanisms for garnering funding and publishing results will also be presented. Erin Dolan will be leading the session on behalf of the Education Committee. She will be joined by Nancy Moreno (Baylor College of Medicine). Food and beverages will be available for workshop registrants.

Digital Art Workshop I: Guidelines for Preparing Digital Art — Beginner 7:30 – 9:30 pm - Intercontinental - Grand Salon II
Speaker: Michael Hepp of The Sheridan Group There are a lot of variables when creating digital art. What software are you using? What size should the figure be? In which format should it be saved? What color mode should be used? We can help you create publication-ready figures from the beginning so you won’t have to spend time fixing problems later. If you’ve never created digital figures on your own, or you know only the basics, this is the best place to start. The interactive presentation will include live demonstrations in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, along with material on how to prepare figures that will reproduce the finest detail and most accurate color both online and in print. Topics will include color space, resolution, fonts, and file type. The presenter will be Michael Hepp, Technology Strategist for The Sheridan Group, the company that produces Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. There will be ample time for Q & A at the end of the session.

SUNDAY, June 29
Poster Session and Lunch      12:30 – 3:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall
1:00 – 2:00 pm Even Poster Numbers
2:00 – 3:00 pm Odd Poster Numbers

Exhibit Hall Open         12:30 – 5:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall

Career Workshop I – Getting the Most out of the Postdoc Experience - 7:30 – 10:00 pm - Fiesta Americana - Yucatan 1
Panelists will discuss the range of postdoc options, what PIs are looking for in postdoc applicants, how to choose a mentor and a project, and many other topics.

Career Workshop II – How to Get and Keep a Job – in Academia, Industry, or Government 7:30 - 10:00 pm - Fiesta Americana - Yucatan 2
Networking strategies, negotiation skills, balancing job responsibilities, and writing effective application letters are among the topics up for discussion.

Grantsmanship Workshop     7:30 - 8:30 pm - Fiesta American - Yucatan 3&4
Federal Grant Opportunities and Grantsmanship: A session on federal plant research and education programs to learn about new directions in funding, new priorities within current programs, and how to get these good ideas into well-written, appealing programs.  Both research- and education-centered opportunities will be explored.

Minority Affairs Committee Sponsored Speaker and Dinner      7:30 – 9:00 pm - Hyatt Regency 2,3 &4
Featuring David Burgess from Boston College who will speak on “There is Water Flowing Out of the Pipeline; Why Not Take a Drink?”  This annual reception is sponsored by the ASPB Committee on Minority Affairs for meeting attendees. This event requires a pre-purchased ticket.

TAIR Workshop: Introduction to TAIR     7:30 - 10:00 pm - Hyatt Regency 1
Speakers: Peifen Zhang, David Swarbreck, Donghui Li Address: TAIR, 260 Panama Street, Stanford CA 94305 Email: curator@arabidopsis.org
The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR; http:www.arabidopsis.org) is a web resource providing free access to a wide array of biological data and tools for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This workshop will include an introductory overview of TAIR’s features before giving more detailed information about TAIR’s on-going efforts to annotate gene structure and function. The general orientation will describe the content of the database and the resources linked from the TAIR portal pages as well as demonstrating how to search mutant seed stocks based on phenotypes. In the Gene Structure Annotation section, we will describe how Arabidopsis serves as an important resource and potential benchmark for the annotation of other plant genomes. As such, a "gold standard" of gene structure annotation is demanded. We will describe our progress in meeting this aim and give details of the recent TAIR8 genome release. We will also explain how we integrate community data into TAIR and outline the resources available for viewing and accessing this data. The Gene Function Annotation section will detail the challenging task of trying to extract information from over 2,000 papers published each year on Arabidopsis genes. We will briefly describe the process of annotating from the literature using controlled vocabularies, based on GO and PO terms, and then demonstrate how controlled vocabularies allow for standarization of annotation, assist in comparative genomics and can be used to classify large data sets. Finally, we will provide some suggestions for preparing manuscripts that can be quickly and accurately curated and publicized through TAIR.

Gramene & SGN Database Overview Workshop 7:30 – 10:00 pm - Hyatt Regency - Uxmal
Gramene is a major comparative genomics and genetic database for the plants with an emphasis on capturing genotypic and phenotypic information from grasses and cross-species sequence comparisons. SGN is a major clade-oriented database for the Solanaceae, including tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant and other species. In the first part of the workshop, the different data modules of Gramene and their associated user-interface and tools will be presented. In the second half, the respective features of SGN will be presented, including resources of the tomato genome sequencing project. The intended audience for these workshops are people new to grass or Solanaceae genomics and people who have used these databases in the past but desire to know more.

European science: Opportunities for plant biologists 7:30 – 9:30 pm - Hyatt Regency - Chichen Itza
The symposium will present current trends in European Plant Science and discuss opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation. The program will include presentations by Laurent Bochereau, Head of Science, Technology and Education, Delegation of the European Commission to the USA, on the Transatlantic Cooperation and ERA-LINK; Professor Wilhelm Gruissem, Chairman of the European Plant Science Organisation, EPSO, Zürich, Switzerland, on Plant Science in Europe; and Professor Dianna Bowles, Project Coordinator, University of York, U.K. will focus on an Example of Transatlantic Cooperation in Bio-based products research: EPOBIO. A discussion will follow with Professor Sarah Hake, Center Director of the Plant Gene Expression Center and Adjunct Professor at University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Richard V. Greene, Program Manager for Energy Biosciences. Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. A Questions/Answers period will conclude the workshop.
 
MONDAY, June 30
Posters Open     8:00 am – 7:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall
12:30 – 3:00 Poster Session and Lunch

Exhibit Hall Open        12:30 – 3:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall

New Members/Section Reception       12:30 – 1:30 pm in the ASPB Booth Siglo XXI Convention Center - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall
A complimentary reception sponsored by ASPB Sections . All ASPB members are invited to attend the networking reception where all sections of the society will be represented. Learn more about the sectional societies of ASPB and meet their officers.

Women in Plant Biology Committee Sponsored Speaker and Dinner     7:30 – 9:00 pm - Fiesta Americana - Yucatan 2, 3 &4
Our speaker this year, Patricia Leon, from the Universiodad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) will speak on “The Good Side of a Macho Culture”.

USDA Reception     7:30 - 8:30 pm - Fiesta Americana - Celestun
All employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are invited to attend this annual reception. Enjoy the opportunity to share a beverage and mingle with this diverse group.

Digital Art Workshop II: Guidelines for Preparing Digital Art — Advanced 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm at the Fiesta Americana - Yucatan 1
Speaker: Michael Hepp of The Sheridan Group If you are familiar with the basic concepts related to creating digital art, this session will cover more advanced topics such as color management, using ICC profiles, working with MS Office documents and PDFs, and more. It will include live demonstrations of advanced techniques for creating publication-ready figures. The presenter will be Michael Hepp, Technology Strategist for The Sheridan Group, the company that produces Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. There will be ample time for Q & A at the end of the session.

Plant Metabolic Network (PMN) & Sol Genomics Network (SGN) & Gramene Metabolic Pathway Databases Workshop 7:30 – 10:00 pm - Fiesta Americana - Merida
This workshop will present a number of metabolic pathway databases: PlantCyc, MetaCyc, AraCyc, SolCyc and RiceCyc. The Plant Metabolic Network (PMN) is a new freely accessible on-line resource of plant metabolic pathways. PMN is also a platform for collaborative community curation of biochemical pathways, enzymes and genes. The PlantCyc database, developed by PMN, comprehensively catalogs biochemical pathways across all plant species. This is the first database of its kind, dedicated exclusively to plant research. The pathways in PlantCyc are manually curated from the literature. PMN also has a full collection of plant species-specific databases developed by PMN and collaborators, Sol Genomics Network (SGN) and Gramene among the others. The species-specific databases include AraCyc (Arabidopsis), RiceCyc (rice), LycoCyc (tomato), MedicCyc (medicago), to name a few. They each map the full metabolic complement of an organism. MetaCyc is a global reference database that also includes metabolism of prokaryotes and animals. This workshop will start with an overview of unique and common features of each database, explanation of the process of pathway curation and methods of assigning genes to pathways. We will then demonstrate how to query and retrieve the integrated information of pathways, metabolites, enzymes and genes. We will also discuss applications using the resources such as displaying and analyzing large scale microarray, proteomic or metabolic profiling data, studying comparative metabolism, and engaging in gene discovery. Finally, we will outline how the user community can contribute to the ongoing improvement of the database contents. Speakers: Peifen Zhang, Lukas Mueller, Chengzhi Liang

TUESDAY, July 1
Posters Open     8:00 am – 2:00 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Chichen Itza Exhibit Hall

Lunch available for purchase  12:20 – 1:30 pm - Siglo XXI Convention Center, - Gran Paseje