Dear ASPS members,

This is to confirm the ASPS AGM will be held in the Riverbank room 7/8 of the Adelaide Convention Centre at 1335 on Thursday 5^th October during COMBIO.

Please see attached the draft adgenda, the minutes from last years meeting are up on the ASPS website.

We are looking for nominations for two student members (preferably close to Sydney as they are organising COMBIO 2018)

We are also looking for a new member of our Phytogen and comms team, so if you have an interest and a passion for Science communication please get in contact.

And finally we are still looking for two discipline reps:

1x Education

1x Global change biology: Ecophysiology and Environment

Please see our nomination form attached.

Please note the ASPS AGM clashes with poster session B which is less than ideal, apologies for this, but there was little flexibility in the program as this year COMBIO is a three day meeting.

Therefore, I would encourage all to make the most of poster session A and the other poster times prior to session B. I would also encourage people wanting to speak to those with a poster in session B to make every effort to contact those people before session B, before the AGM. Students from session B will be standing by their posters during Poster session A for award judging.

Please email matthew.gilliham@adelaide.edu.au if you have an agenda item or would like to send apologies.

_________________

Professor Matthew Gilliham

ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology

Deputy Head of School (Research)

School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

University of Adelaide

Ph: +61 8 8313 8145 | Twitter: @IonPlants

Lab website: Plant Transport and Signalling Lab

Honorary Secretary, Aust Soc Plant Scientists

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you to share some good news. Several of our esteemed colleagues and friends have received prestigious awards over the last few months. This includes

• Susanne von Caemmerer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London;
• John Evans was elected a Corresponding Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists;
• Graham Farquhar won a Kyoto Prize for his work on photosynthesis and water use efficiency.

The most recent news is that John Patrick (a Life Member of ASPS) was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. The summary of his research leading to this prestigious award is as follows:

John Patrick is internationally renowned for his theoretical and experimental advances in the regulation of nutrient transport and partitioning in plants. He has developed a novel theoretical framework that identifies control points for the regulation of nutrient transport through, and unloading from, the plant vascular network to fuel organ development. Patrick’s innovative experimental approaches have shown how metabolic demand for nutrients is coordinated with vascular transport by phytohormones, cell turgor and nutrient pool sizes. These discoveries have laid a conceptual framework to further elucidate nutrient transport and partitioning mechanisms and to identify novel targets for improving crop yields to share.

Our congratulations also go to Anna Koltunow who was also elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2016 and was formally inducted this year.

Hello ASPS members,

Attached please find details of two post doc opportunities in the USA.

Hello ASPS members,

Attached please find details of two post doc opportunities in the USA.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to alert you to the current call for applications for the AW Howard Research Fellowship, the Tim Healey Memorial Scholarship and a NEW AWARD, the AW Howard Memorial Trust Honours Scholarship. Details are available on the AW Howard Memorial Trust website  http://pir.sa.gov.au/top_menu/pirsa_careers/aw_howard_memorial_trust

HOWARD FELLOWSHIPS  – pastures – see http://pir.sa.gov.au/top_menu/pirsa_careers/aw_howard_memorial_trust/research_fellowships

Many of you are familiar with the AW Howard Fellowships.  These are top-up stipend awards for up to 3½ years for outstanding PhD students undertaking (or about to undertake) research on the development, management and use of pastures, including sown pastures, natural pastures and rangelands, forage crops and dual-purpose (grain plus grazing) crops, and including livestock production from pastures. The research field is not restricted to pasture agronomy but may include pasture-related natural sciences (including molecular biology, plant pathology, pasture plant systematics, ecology, soil science, weed science) and social science (including economics). Applicants must be Australian citizens or must have been resident in Australia for three years at the time of commencing PhD studies.

HOWARD HONOURS SCHOLARSHIPS – pastures – see http://pir.sa.gov.au/top_menu/pirsa_careers/aw_howard_memorial_trust/honours_scholarships .

This is a new award.  It is to be made annually on a competitive basis for one year during which a student will complete an honours degree at an Australian university in a field relevant to the development, management and/or use of pastures (including sown pastures, natural pastures and rangelands, forage crops and dual-purpose (grain plus grazing) crops, and including livestock production from pastures). Students must be Australian citizens or must have been resident in Australia for three years immediately prior to the year in which the honours project is to be undertaken.  Up to 5 awards will be made each year, subject to the number and quality of applicants. Each scholarship is valued at up to $8,000 ($5,000 stipend and up to $3,000 operating expenses).

TIM HEALEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP – Australia’s farming industries – see http://pir.sa.gov.au/top_menu/pirsa_careers/aw_howard_memorial_trust/tim_healey_memorial_scholarship

This PhD top-up stipend award for up to 3½ years, is for an outstanding student whose research will make a positive contribution to the improvement, modification, adaptation or increased understanding of Australia’s farming industries. A wide range of research areas are eligible, including farming systems (including climate adaptation and mitigation, on-farm salinity, sustainable resource utilisation, on-farm biodiversity); pastures; field crops; livestock management; soils or agronomy; farm business management; agricultural system-based woody crops; rural social research in relation to farming (including resilience); economic research in relation to farming; and historical research as it relates to formulation of future agricultural policy. International students may apply, but preference is given to Australian citizens or permanent residents.

We would welcome your help in bringing these awards to the attention of any prospective applicants.  They need not be your own students, and you would be welcome to forward this message to any colleague whom you think may be interested. Please advise prospective applicants to READ CAREFULLY the respective PURPOSES of the awards.  PhD students may apply for both the AW Howard Memorial Trust Research Fellowship and the Tim Healey Memorial Scholarship; however, only one award will be made to a successful applicant. We expect that competition for Honours Scholarships will be strong, and while there is no age limit we will give preference to outstanding younger applicants who aspire to an ongoing career in pasture research.

Applications for the Honours Scholarships close on 30 September 2017, and  for the other awards on 30 October 2017. Successful candidates may anticipate advice on Honours Scholarships by early November 2017 and the other awards by early December 2017.

Further inquiries can be made to the Howard Trust’s Executive Officer at the South Australian Research and Development Institute, telephone (08) 8303 9401, Email: howard.trust@sa.gov.au.

With regards,

John Radcliffe

(CHAIR, AW HOWARD MEMORIAL TRUST)

A new conference has been added to the ASPS events page.

Global Plant Council E-Bulletin June 2017 Forward to a Friend | | View web version (also click here to translate to other languages!) Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  June 2017 This month our Executive Director Ruth has been busy across the pond, visiting the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research in St. Louis (MO, USA), and Plant Biology 2017 in Hawai’i! At Plant Biology 2017, the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists, the new and improved Plantae.org platform was launched – have you checked it out yet? Plantae is a digital social platform just for plant scientists – you can use it to network with others around the world, share teaching and learning resources, start or contribute to groups and discussions, and read up on the latest plant science news and views. It’s free to join, and you don’t have to be an ASPB or GPC member! The GPC’s next appearance will be at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden (3-6th July) – always an excellent meeting packed full of fascinating talks and symposia, and very well represented by the global plant science community. This will be shortly followed by our ‘New Breeding Technologies in the Plant Sciences‘ symposium (7-8th July), which we’re really looking forward to! We hope to see you there! Latest News /  View more… If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact sarah@globalplantcouncil.org  This month 60 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… Biologists find missing link for the ‘safe’ signal in plants Plant biologists at Utrecht University and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), have now discovered how the plant metabolises jasmonic acid, issuing a ‘safe’ signal when the threat of pests has passed.  Nitrogen-efficient crops on the horizon: how can we grow more with fewer emissions? Through a natural, affordable alternative to farmers’ heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers, science now offers an option to boost crop productivity and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions Detailed new genome for maize shows the plant has deep resources for continued adaptation A new, much more detailed reference genome for maize (corn) has been published in Nature.  Mathematical biology tackles destructive plant virus A team of researchers at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (USA) has used mathematical modeling to better understand the dynamics of maize lethal necrosis disease.  Vinegar: a cheap and simple way to help plants fight drought Japanese researchers have discovered a new, yet simple, way to increase drought tolerance in a wide range of plants – just by growing them in vinegar. Events / View more… If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email sarah@globalplantcouncil.org 4th International Symposium on Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources 03–07 September 2017. Giessen, Germany.  2nd Latin American Conference on Plant Phenotyping and Phenomics for Plant Breeding 20–22 September 2017. São Carlos, Brazil.  Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future 22–25 October 2017. Tampa, FL, USA.  Don’t forget, if you are a member of any of the GPC’s Member Organzations, you can claim a 20% discount on all training workshops offered by Transmitting Science! Just enter the code GC237648 when completing your registration. Policy / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. Good NEWS for the fight against malnutrition in Africa CIAT is developing a new innovation in the fight for food and nutrition security called the Nutrition Early Warning System, or NEWS. It will focus initially on boosting nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, but eventually NEWS will target vulnerable populations globally. Spatial database of the world’s rice production to address research and policy questions on food security Researchers from all over the world have developed the RiceAtlas: a spatial, open access database that answers key questions like where, when and how much rice is grown globally. Global diet and farming methods ‘must change for environment’s sake’ Reducing meat consumption and using more efficient farming methods globally are essential to stave off irreversible damage to the environmental, a new study says. Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing sarah@globalplantcouncil.org The Linnean Society has a number of active awards and funding calls at the moment, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is also offering a package of international fellowships to support highly-qualified international scientists and postgraduate students to work and study at and with CAS institutions. Read more about these funding opportunities here.  Congratulations to Dr Bina Agarwal (University of Manchester, UK),  Dr Paul Gepts (University of California, Davis, USA) and Dr Elena Poverenov (The Volcani Center, Israel), who have been awarded the 2017 Louis Malassis International Scientific Prizes for Agriculture and Food. The project “Adapting durum wheat varieties to the Senegal Basin for food security”, led by Dr. Filippo Maria Youssef Bassi (ICARDA) has also been awarded the 2017 Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security. Congratulations! On the blog /  View more… Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email sarah@globalplantcouncil.org The State of the World’s Plants 2017 by Bursary Winner Harison Andriambelo Harison Andriambelo from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, was the lucky recipient of our State of the World’s Plants Symposium travel bursary, generously sponsored by the Society for Experimental Biology. Here’s Harison’s report on the meeting! Rise in groundwater overuse could hit food prices Neena Bhandari discusses a recent Nature paper, which found that the amount of non-renewable groundwater used for irrigation increased by a quarter between 2000 and 2010.  Genetics to boost sugarcane production Scientists in Brazil are taking steps towards genetically modifying sugar cane so it produces more sucrose naturally, looking to eventually boost the productivity and economic benefits of the tropical grass. Broadcasting plant science live to the world Dr Ian Street reports on ‘Botany.Live!’, an innovative live-streaming initiative launched to celebrate Fascination of Plants Day 2017.  Members /  Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and Affiliates and their representatives.  Please contact us (info@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.  The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies and affiliates from across the globe. The GPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC. Copyright © 2017 Global Plant Council, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from the Global Plant Council. If you no longer wish to receive the monthly GPC E-Bulletin, or think you have received this email in error, please unsubscribe using the link provided. The Global Plant Council is a not-for-profit entity registered in Switzerland. Our registered mailing address is:  Global Plant Council 3rd Floor, Bow House 1a Bow Lane London, EC4M 9EE United Kingdom Add us to your address book

ComBio2017:  2 – 5 October 2017

Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia

Abstract and Early Registration Deadline, Friday, 30 June 2017

ComBio2017 incorporates the annual meetings of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Australian Society of Plant Scientists and the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology.

This is a reminder that the early registration and abstract deadline is next Friday, 30 June.

The program timetable and symposium schedule can be downloaded from:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/program.html

and the plenary speakers, together with their photographs and biosketches, can be downloaded from:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/plenary.html

As recently advised, as a first, ComBio has been reduced to a three day meeting running from 3 – 5 October, with the popular Career Development Forum being held on 2 October and registration also opening for those who want to beat the morning rush when the conference opens early on 3 October.  Due to the shorter meeting, the early member registration fees have been reduced substantially, with the student member early registration fee being $250 and the full member early registration fee being $680.  The conference secretariat has also held blocks of very reasonably priced accommodation that are very close to the venue.  One bedroom apartments start at $169/night where two people can share and have their own space with a sofa bed in the living room.  Two bedroom apartments are only $239/night and this costing is for up to four persons (so would cost $60/night per person with 4 sharing an apartment.  There are also limited three bedroom apartments available. The other two hotel blocks held range from $114/night (for up to 2 persons sharing) to 5 star InterContinental accommodation at a modest $205/night (for up to 2 persons sharing).  Both of the hotels are a one minute walk to the Adelaide Convention Centre (so next door or directly across the road) and the apartments are only a 7 minute walk.  Photographs of hotels and rooms can be seen at: http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/accommodation.html

All bookings must be made through the conference secretariat when registering or you can phone bookings through to Sally Jay on 08 8362 0009.

The ComBio2017 online registration and abstract submission pages can be accessed at:

http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/registration.html

and

http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/abstracts.html

The ASBMB, ASPS and ANZSCDB offer either student bursaries or travel grants, and details are available from:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/student.html

Further information: Sally Jay: combio@asbmb.org.au

Dear ASPS members,

As you will likely be aware, the Sydney 2018 COMBIO will be last annual COMBIO meeting. It will now run as a combined meeting every 2-3 years instead.
ASPS therefore is seeking expressions of interest to hold a 2019 ASPS meeting. This could either be in a city that has traditionally held COMBIO or one that has not. The only criteria is that it is well organised and has costs that are far reduced from COMBIO meetings.

We would like to decide the venue at the next AGM to be held on Thursday 5th October at 2pm at the COMBIO meeting in Adelaide.

We are seeking a venue for approximately 150 people and hoping that costs can be kept to a minimum by using University facilities or similar.

We will leave the timing up to those wishing to host the meeting but out of term time would be good to maximise academic involvement. We envisage that it would be a two day meeting, and we would aim that ASPS and the meeting receipts would subsidize costs for two plenaries from overseas.

As we have a broad membership, in terms of subject content, it would be wise to have at least 2 concurrent streams.

If you are wanting to host the meeting please contact myself (matthew.gilliham@adelaide.edu.au) or our President, Sergey (sergey.shabala@utas.edu.au) to discuss further.

Thanks,

Matt