Conference Grant: Plant Virology Satellite Symposium at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Virology

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Climate changes leading to new migrations of hosts that viruses require for transmission is causing serious new outbreaks of viruses that threaten agriculture throughout the world. How viruses naturally cross species barriers and evolve to populate new hosts is a key theme of the Plant Virology Satellite Saturday Symposium. This grant is to help support travel for 10 graduate students/postdoctoral fellows to attend the Plant Virology Satellite Saturday Symposium at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Virology (ASV), which will take place from June 21-25, 2014 at Colorado State University. Attending top meetings in their fields, such as the annual meeting of ASV, is critical for students as they learn new research, expand their scientific thinking, network with peers and meet top researchers in the field of virology. The Satellite Symposium, entitled: Viruses in a Transitioning World: Species Jumping and Emerging Plant and Animal Viruses is sponsored by the Plant Virology Club, an organization within the American Society of Virology that was initiated to support research and speakers at the annual meeting who focus on plant viruses. Because of the world class reputations of both the animal and plant virologists who will be presenting at the Symposium, a large audience of students and researchers in both animal and plant virology is expected. This should result in a broadening of the appreciation of research fields regardless of the host and hopefully foster new areas of communication within the broad field of virology. This request is for funds to help provide for travel fellowships for graduate students/post-doctoral fellows who are currently conducting research in plant/insect/fungal viruses that will support their attendance at the conference. Attention will be paid to distribution of the travel awards to labs in all regions of the US, and preference will be given to students/postdocs who are underrepresented minorities, women and persons with disabilities. Providing support to allow these young investigators to attend the satellite meeting and the larger ASV meeting should encourage them to have excellent interactions with the larger viral scientific community and make connections that will be useful for their future work.