Graduate student presentation awards

Alicia Manfree (upper left), Cecilia Vasquez-Robinet (upper right)

Jennifer Barwick (lower left), Indrani Murkherjee (lower right)

As has become a standard at the annual Southern Section meeting, the quality of the graduate student presentations was excellent. In fact, the quality of the presentations was so good, that the judges decided to award three runner up cash awards in addition to a cash award for the outstanding graduate student presenter.

The outstanding graduate student presentation was awarded to Jennifer Barwick (University of South Carolina Upstate) for the presentation “Functional Characterization of the nicotianamine synthase (NAS) gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana”.

The runner up awards were presented to

Indrani Murkherjee (University of South Carolina) for the presentation “The FRO3 ferric reductase plays a vital role in iron homeostasis in Arabidopsis”,

Alicia Manfree (Clemson University) for the presentation “Characterization of a functional knockout in Arabidopsis thaliana Group 1 LEA, ATEM6”, and

Cecilia Vasquez-Robinet (Virginia Tech) for the presentation “Differential expression of heat shock proteins genes in preconditioning for photosynthetic acclimation in drought-stressed loblolly pine”.

Judges for the graduate student competition were: Stephen Banks, Mel Oliver, and Jay Mellon.

The Aubrey Naylor Undergraduate Poster Award

The Aubrey Naylor Outstanding Undergraduate Poster award was presented to Peter Aspesi (North Carolina State University) for the poster “Is InsP3 signaling involved in plant defense responses to pathogens?”

(Unfortunately, Mr. Aspesi was unavailable for photography)

Although the number of participants in the undergraduate poster competition was small, the quality of the poster presentations was very good. Again, the judges decided to award a runner up as well as and outstanding undergraduate presentation. The runner up award was presented to Sarah Murray (Louisiana State University – Shreveport) for the poster “Cotton boll growth in genetically engineered strains under saline conditions”.

Judges for the undergraduate poster competition were: Kent Chapman, Caryl Chlan, and James Mahan.

Two graduate student talks were recognized with awards:

Scott M. Pelitire (above left) for the presentation “Functional analysis, subcellular localization, and gene expression patterns of four cytochrome b5 isoforms cloned from developing tung (Aleurites fordii Hemsl.) seeds.”  Scott worked with Dr. John Dyer (pictured with Scott) at the University of New Orleans.

Ruby Ynalvez (above right) for the presentation “Characterization of an insertional mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.”    Ruby worked with Dr. Jim Moroney (pictured with Ruby) at Louisiana State University.

Judges for the graduate student presentations were: Mel Oliver, Barbara Triplett, and Tim Sherman
Judges for the poster competition were: Jay Mellon, Bill Outlaw, and Rickey Turley

Two awards were presented for graduate student talks. One award went to Stephen Stout (right), UT Austin, for his presentation entitled “Polarity Development in Ceratopteris richardii” and the other oral presentation award winner was Collene Jeter (left) , UT Austin, for her presentation entitled “ATP and ADP function as extracellular signals in plants: induction of the secondary messenger calcium”.

Both students worked with Dr. Stan Roux of the University of Texas.

Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation
Award Winner: Denise J. D'Abundo
(shown with Dr. Mel Oliver)
Mentor: Dr. David J. Longstreth

2001 Student Competitions

The quality of student presentations seems to get better every year. This year two awards were presented for graduate student talks. One award went to Jason Sterling (top left) Univ. of Georgia, (Identification of a galacturonosyltransferase in Arabidopsis thaliana (var. Columbia): Partial purification and a strategy to isolate the first gene encoding a pectin biosynthetic glycosyltransferase) and the other was presented to Michael J. Wheeler (top right) Louisiana State University – Shreveport (Transgenic expression of yeast casein kinase I isoform 2 (YCK2) as a means of conferring salt tolerance to cotton).

We had a number of really impressive posters by undergraduates as well. This year’s award for best undergraduate poster went to Robin Gaines (bottom) (Site-directed mutagenesis in the CP43 protein of photosystem II alters the chloride requirement for growth and oxygen evolving activity in Synechocystis 6803).

We thank the Student Presentation Judging Committee (Drs. Caryl Chlan, Ed Etxeberria, and Wayne Barger) for making the tough calls!

Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation
Award Winner: Jason Sterling
Mentor: Dr. Debra Mohnen    

Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation
Award Winner: Michael Wheeler
Mentor: Drs. Stephen Banks and Dalton Gossett

Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Award Winner: Robin Gaines
Mentor: Dr. Cindy Putnam-Evans

2000 Student Competitions

Of course, it wouldn't be an SS-ASPB annual meeting without the student competitions, now would it?. The grand tradition was continued with the Best Undergraduate Student Poster and Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation competitions.

The Judging committee (Drs. Caryl Chlan, Cindy Galloway and Bill Marcotte, Jr.) had their hands full making decisions on the winners. All students participating in these competitions were congratulated by the judging committee for the considerable effort they put into their presentations. The winner of the graduate student competition was Carole Dabney-Smith, University of Tennessee, Knoxville ("Interactions between precursor proteins and artificial bylayers: implications for chloroplast protein import"). The winner of the undergraduate student competition was Jennifer Millsaps, Maryville College, TN ("Use of resolved higher plants photosystem I particles for photo-hydrogen production")

Southern Section thanks the Judges for their considerable efforts in this critical function in our annual meeting. The section also wishes to express its gratitude to ASPB (national) for support of the student awards competitions. And to the potential student participants in next year's competitions, remember that both your meeting registration and banquet fees are waived. We feel that these competitions represent an excellent opportunity for students to gain valuable experience  (specially oral) presenting their research in a public arena before a knowledgeable, yet friendly audience. Mentors: please encourage your students to participate in this worthy activity. It could be the beginning of great achievements in plant research!. Southern Section continues to produce quality student presentations.