The 2012 conference will continue its tradition of improving the scientific knowledge and technical capability of scientists who are studying stress responses of isolated microbes and microbial communities. More specifically, the 2012 conference emphasizes two new direction that are consistent with the Networks and Regulation cluster priorities. First, the conference focuses on an integrated perspective of stress response biology across scales of complexity from single to multicellular to microbe-host interaction systems. Second, the organizers make a concerted effort to include computational and systems-levelapproaches to study stress biology in microbes.
Broader Impacts The meeting offers numerous informal opportunities for young investigators to interact with senior researchers. Students and junior scientists will be selected for presentations based on their submitted abstracts. A particular effort will be made to recruit underrepresented minorities and participants from diverse geographical regions. Diverse participation is reflected also in the organizing committee with one of the two chairs being a female. Eleven of 32 invited and confirmed speakers/discussion leaders are females and two are members of an under-represented minority group.
The Gordon Research Conference on MICROBIAL STRESS RESPONSE was held at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, July 15-20, 2012. The Conference was well-attended with 180 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 180 attendees, 79 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 79 respondents, 15% were Minorities – 1% Hispanic, 10% Asian and 4% African American. Approximately 47% of the participants at the 2012 meeting were women. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field. Thank you for your support of this Conference. As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontier-breaking research, Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings.
