The 11th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research will be held in Madison, Wisconsin June 24 through June 28, 2000. Arabidopsis thaliana has been the subject of genetic study for many years. However, during the last decade, the number of research laboratories using Arabidopsis as a model system has increased tremendously, and Arabidopsis is currently being used to study all aspects of plant biology. The rapid rate of progress in Arabidopsis research, including the near completion of the genomic sequence, underscores the usefulness of holding a meeting every year. These conferences provide an important opportunity for the Arabidopsis community to interact and exchange information. The meeting will provide opportunities for both formal and informal exchanges of recent information through platform and poster presentations. The meeting will open with an evening keynote address on the global impact of plant biology to be delivered by Richard Jefferson, the Executive Director of CAMBIA (Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture). This will be followed by short updates from each of the NSF-funded Plant Genome groups. Many of these groups are carrying out projects that impact the Arabidopsis community. Each of the 17 platform sessions will consist of talks from two invited speakers followed by two short talks that have been chosen from the submitted poster abstracts. A concerted effort has been made to invite junior investigators, including graduate students and postdocs, to give these talks. Posters will be available for viewing during three formal sessions, and because the poster session will be adjacent to the lecture hall, it will be easy for participants to go back and forth between posters and lectures.
