Monday, August 07, 2006

Snapshots from Botany 2006 meeting

About 12 hours after I returned from Nova Scotia I was off on another plane for a trip to Chico, California. The occasion was the Botany 2006 meeting - the 100th anniversary of the Botanical Society of America. I've been the American Society of Plant Taxonomists Program Director for the past 5 years, and this was my last meeting as an official. Whew! I'm glad to be done with service for awhile.

I didn't stay for the whole meeting because the Dublin Irish Festival was last weekend, so I came home at 12:30 am on Thursday and had rehearsals on Thursday and Friday and then did my workshop on Saturday and stage time on Sunday. I'll post pics from the festival next.

I met my current and some of my former grad students for dinner on Monday. We went to a restaurant near the Cal State Chico campus - Madison Bear Garden. The interior was done with decorative junk.



Here's a few examples from near the order/pick-up window.

This chandelier is strung from some weird sculpture.












The walls are lined with all sorts of junk that is supposed to be some statement in art. It looks like junk. . .














This is Diana - one of my current grad students. She's working on the Pyrola picta complex and is doing some interesting studies.














Shannon Datwyler (left) was my first PhD student. She's now at Cal State Sacramento. That's her student, Lauray (not sure if I spelled her name correctly). Lauray introduced herself as my "granddaughter" - academic, that is.









Jenny Archibald was my second PhD student to finish. She's now at University of Kansas with her partner, Mark Mort (left). Mark was a postdoc at OSU when Jen was my student there.










Another of my current PhD students Jeff Morawetz and recent PhD graduate Shawn Krosnick (from John Freudenstein's lab).











L to R: One of Theresa Culley's grad students and Erik Rothacker (from John Freudensteins lab group).












Former Freudenstein postdoc Mark Simmons making a face for the camera. Mark is on the faculty at Colorado State University.











My current lab group in front of Diana's poster.

















L to R: Rob Wallace and Jim Smith conducting the ASPT auction - a fundraiser for student research grants. Rob is my academic brother - a fellow ham (amateur radio) and woodturner.











Some of the bidders at the auction. The funds raised were very modest (less than 2K) compared to what AAW raises at their auction (about 80K this past symposium).

No comments: