The Plant Biology Graduate Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has presented annual Plant Biology symposiums since October 2003. Each symposium has been designed to highlight an exciting area of plant biology and has featured a daylong program of speakers, along with a poster sessions featuring contributions from attendees.

Here is a brief listing of past symposiums:

2008 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 18th,UMass Amherst
ECOLOGICAL GENOMICS: The Genetic Basis of Plant Adaptation
Faculty symposium coordinators - Lynn Adler and Ana Caicedo

PRESENTERS:
EDWARD BUCKLER
USDA-ARS Research Geneticist and Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University
"Complex Trait Genetics in Diverse Maize"
SCOTT HODGES
Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Speciation and adaptation in Aquilegia: from field to genomic studies."
THOMAS MITCHELL-OLDS
Department of Biology, Duke University
"Nucleotide polymorphisms and their ecological consequences in natural plant populations"
ROBERT THORNBURG
Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University
"Molecules of nectar: The food of the gods and the pilfering pollinators"
CYNTHIA WEINIG
Department of Botany & Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming
"Quantitative variation in circadian rhythms and plant adaptation to heterogeneous environments"
STEPHEN WRIGHT
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
"Population genomics of plant adaptation in Arabidopsis and Capsella"

2007 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 13th,UMass Amherst
PLANT BIOLOGY AND BIOENERGY
Faculty symposium coordinators - Danny Schnell and Jennifer Normanly

PRESENTERS:
FREDERICK AUSUBEL- Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
"Pseudomonas aeruginosa - Arabidopsis interactions as a model to study plant cell wall degradation"
DANIEL J. COSGROVE - Pennsylvania State University
"Wall loosening by expansins"
STEPHEN J. LONG - National Center for Supercomputing Applications,
and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Achieving environmentally and economically viable biofuel feedstock crops. Why improvement of photosynthetic efficiency is critical and attainable."
CHRIS SOMERVILLE - Carnegie Institution and Stanford University
"Cellulose synthesis"
KENNETH P. VOGEL- USDA-ARS and University of Nebraska, Lincoln
"Switchgrass: Ecology, Biology, Genetics, and Agronomics of an Emerging Energy Crop"
SUSAN LESCHINE - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"A novel microbial catalyst for converting biomass to ethanol "

2006 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 14th,UMass Amherst
PHYTOEXTRACTION OF NUTRIENTS AND POLLUTANTS
Faculty symposium coordinators - Om Parkash and Elsbeth Walker

PRESENTERS:
NEIL BRUCE - University of York, UK
"Engineering plants for the phytoremediation of explosives"
NIGEL CRAWFORD - University of California, San Diego
"Genomic Studies of Nitrate, a Potent Signal, Phytonutrient and Pollutant"
RICHARD MEAGHER - University of Georgia, Athens
"Engineering plants to clean up mercury and arsenic pollution"
ELIZABETH PILON-SMITS - Colorado State University, Fort Collins
"Plant Selenium Metabolism and Phytoremediation"
PHILIP REA - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
"Phytochelatin synthase and its cousin papain - a question of catalytic bias"
ELSBETH WALKER - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"Moving metals from soil to seed"

2005 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 13th, UMass Amherst
CHEMICAL PLANTS: MANIPULATING PLANT METABOLISM TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Faculty symposium coordinators -Elsbeth Walker, Jennifer Normanly and Susan Roberts.

PRESENTERS:
DEAN DELLAPENNA, Michigan State University
"Vitamin E Synthesis in Photosynthetic Organisms or Is it possible to do well and good in your research at the same time?"
HARRY KLEE, University of Florida
"Molecular approaches to understanding complex traits: tomato flavor and nutritional quality"
SUSAN ROBERTS, UMass Amherst
"Targeted Metabolic Engineering for Enhancement of Paclitaxel Accumulation in Plant Cell Culture"
DAVID SALT, Purdue University
"Genetic Manipulation of Selenium Speciation in Plants"
YAIR SHACHAR-HILL, Michigan State University
"Mapping fluxes through plant metabolic networks"
BRENDA WINKEL, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
"How do they do that?  Evidence for assembly of flavonoid enzyme complexes at the endoplasmic reticulum AND in the nucleus."

2004 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 2nd, Smith College
FUNCTION AND FATE IN PLANTS: PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS AND ECOLOGICAL SUCCESS
Faculty symposium coordinators - Peter Alpert and Tobias Baskin

PRESENTERS:
BILL DAVIES, Lancaster University, UK
"Long distance chemical signalling from soil to roots to shoots and the regulation of water use"
PETER ALPERT, UMass Amherst
"Signaling and sharing between connected plants within clones"
JOHANNA SCHMITT, Brown University
"Ecological genomics of seasonal timing and adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana"
FRANK BERENDSE, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
"Soil fertility, plant species, and long-term community dynamics"
PETER REICH, University of Minnesota
"Causes and consequences of plant functional diversity: from dappled understory to global change"
PHIL GRIME, Sheffield University, UK
"Plant strategy theory:1974 and 2004"

2003 PB SYMPOSIUM: October 4th, Smith College
CELLULAR SIGNALING IN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Faculty symposium coordinators -Danny Schnell and Alice Cheung

JOANNE CHORY, Salk Institute
"Light, brassinosteroids, and Arabidopsis development"
JUNE NASRALLAH, Cornell University
"Receptor-ligand interactions in the self-incompatibility response of crucifers"
PETER QUAIL, University of California, Berkeley
"Phytochrome photosensory signaling networks"
SALLY ASSMANN, Penn State University
"Abscisic acid signal transduction in guard cells"
NAM-HAI CHUA, Rockefeller University
"Roles of ubiquitination and sumoylation in plant signaling networks"
PETER HEPLER, University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Actin/ion interactions in the control of pollen tube growth"

For more information or questions, send an email to: pb@bio.umass.edu