Meeting: Plant Vascular Biology 2019 - Promoting Collaborative Research Across Disciplinary Boundaries, June 17-20, 2019, Monterey, California

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Plants are essential of our ecosystem and environment. They deliver the oxygen and the food that humans and animals need to survive and provide many materials for the everyday life including medicine, furniture, building supplies and clothing. Crop plants as well as trees produce most of these resources, but the future increase in human population, reduction of usable land and environmental stresses impose a major challenge to agriculture and forestry. For example, prolonged drought periods reduce crop yield and increase the risk of forest mortality and wildfires. Plants have a vascular system that serves as the main path for transport of water, mineral nutrients, and many other compounds throughout the plant body. The vasculature is also essential for the communication between shoot and root, and its structure and function directly influences plant growth and productivity. The Plant Vascular Biology Conference will address how plants respond to water deficient and drought, how nutrients are taken up and transported from the soil to aerial portions of the plant, how cell walls that are the bulk of biomass for bioenergy applications and forestry are produced, and how plants survive environmental stresses such as nutrient limitations and pathogen attacks. The meeting will facilitate an open forum for sharing exciting innovations and foster new collaborative research. Participants will learn about novel conceptual advances, latest techniques and technologies, and major breakthroughs essential to produce food and other biological materials. The 5th International Conference on Plant Vascular Biology will be held June 17-20 of 2019 at the Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey, California. The triennial meeting has emerged as a highly relevant and impactful event for the plant vascular biology community. It encompasses multiple disciplines and addresses topics that are fundamental to plant biology, ecological physiology, agriculture and forestry. Basic and applied problems surrounding plant vascular biology will be addressed, and technological and conceptual breakthroughs will be discussed in an encouraging environment. The meeting will bring together about 150 scientists from around the world, including the top research experts in the field. This meeting is a primary conduit for introducing junior researchers to the diverse fields of plant vascular biology. It fosters exchange of scientific knowledge and supports collaborations between scientists of different career stages, gender, ethnicity and nationality. The NSF funds will primary be used to support students, postdocs and early-career scientists from underrepresented groups who might otherwise not be able to attend the meeting. This award was co-funded by the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program and the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.