This award provides funding to help junior U.S. scientists attend the Thirteenth International Conference on Arabidopsis Research to be held in Seville, Spain, June 28 to July 2, 2002. The aim is to provide an opportunity for these young researchers to exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world on all aspects of research concerning the model plant Arabidopsis. The conference will include sessions on genomics, metabolic regulation, responses to the environment (biotic and abiotic), hormones and signal transduction, genetic mechanisms and epigenetics, natural variation and evolution, cell biology, developmental phase transitions, embryogenesis and vegetative development, reproductive development, and light signaling and circadian regulation. Arabidopsis is an excellent model for crop plant development and physiology, and many of the findings made in Arabidopsis are readily applicable to crop plants. An important component of the meeting is that approximately thirty of those who submitted abstracts of their work will be invited to present that work in short talks. The conference will maximize participation of young scientists by inviting graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior P.I.'s to present many of the talks.
Because this is the premier international forum for exchange of the latest results and approaches in Arabidopsis research, it is imperative that young scientists from the US have the opportunity to attend this conference. The funds from this award will provide travel fellowships for approximately thirty junior US scientists. First priority will be given to those junior scientists who have been selected by the meeting organizers to give oral presentations and to junior scientists from underrepresented groups. The fellowships, which will cover approximately half to two thirds of the expected travel and meeting costs, will be administered by the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee, whose members are elected by electronic ballot by North American subscribers to the Arabidopsis electronic bulletin board (arab-gen@net.bio.net, www.bio.net/hypermail/ARABIDOPSIS/).
