Page 41 - Plant Canada 2024 Proceeding

PLANT CANADA 2024

CSPB-SCBV Report for 2023

Our 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held at Laval University, Quebec City, from June
st
18 to 21 , organized by Dominque Michaud, Edel Pérez Lopez and Marie-Claire Goulet. Laval
th
University was certainly a great venue for the conference. The conference was well attended as
it was the first Canadian CSPB-SCBV conference after the COVID interruption. The organizing
committee chose a diverse and excellent group of inspiring plenary speakers. Our 2023 Carl
Douglas Post-doctoral award winner, Dr. Devang Mehta, delivered an engaging seminar that
included an EDI section in addition to his research highlights. The banquet at the Musée
National des Beaux-Arts du Québec was delightful and entertaining.

During the AGM at Laval University, the 2023 CSPB-SCBV awards were given to several
exceptional people. Dr. Guanqun Gavin Chen was awarded the C.D. Nelson award for
outstanding research contributions to plant biology. Dr. Peter Moffet was awarded the Mary
Spencer award for outstanding research in plant biology and active public service to the plant
biology community by a mid-career researcher. The Carl Douglas post-doctoral award for
outstanding contributions to plant biology based on originality of research, productivity and
leadership was awarded to Dr. Devang Mehta. The Ragai Ibrahim Award for excellence in
publication by a graduate student was awarded to Mendel Perkins for his paper, “Monolignol
export by diffusion down a polymerization-induced concentration gradient,” in Plant Cell (2022).
The Student Presentation Competition included over 90 student presentations for which several
awards were given for oral and poster presentations.

The Western Regional Meeting was held at the University of Victoria on May 1-2, 2023,
in conjunction with the UVic Centre for Forest Biology Research Symposium. Our Western
Regional Director, Dr. Barabara Hawkins, organized the event along with other volunteers. Over
100 people attended from BC and Alberta universities, provincial ministries, and federal forestry
and agriculture research institutions. With 31 talks and a score of posters, many interesting
findings were presented and discussed; several awards were given out for oral and poster
presentations.

The 2023 Eastern Regional Meeting was held at Concordia University on December 1-2. The
organizing committee chaired by Dr. Jin Suk Lee, with colleagues Drs. Patrick Gulick, Selvadu-
rai Dayanandan, and William Zerges, who put together an exciting meeting agenda under the
guidance of our Eastern Regional Director Dr. Sophia Stone. Highlights included plenary
sessions by Dr. Mehran Dastmalchi (McGill University), Dr. Thomas DeFalco (University of
Western Ontario), and Dr. Shelley Hepworth (Carleton University). Over 140 attendees
participated in six concurrent sessions on various topics including abiotic stress, agriculture and
biotechnology, and plant-pathogen interactions. Student trainees delivered exceptional oral and
poster presentations. The 2024 Eastern Regional Meeting will be held later this year virtually, it
is being organized by Dr. Yang Qu at the University of New Brunswick.

We have re-vitalized our education and communication committees under the leadership of Dr.
Miranda Meents and Dr. Lauren Erland. Several new initiatives have been implemented and we
are in the process of constantly coming up with new ideas to be a resourceful organization to all
the students and ECRs. Our presence on social media platforms has significantly improved. In
April, an online workshop was organized for grad students, post docs, and other ECRs exploring
Teaching Careers in Higher Education. Dr. Meents and Dr. Solmaz Irani organized and
moderated this event. The group explored the diversity of teaching and teaching-related careers
available, tips for building teaching experience, and tools and resources to help get the job.

40