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ASPT Newsletter
Electronic Issues of the ASPT Newsletter
Most Recent Issue: Volume 23(2), December 2009 — pdf
CURRENT NEWS
The Most Recent News from ASPT
Two New Volumes of Systematic Botany Monographs [21 October 2009]
Distinguished Service Award - Ken Roberson [27 August 2009]
Cooley Award - Stephen C. Meyers [27 August 2009]
2008 Grady L. Webster Plant Systematics Publication Award [8 July 2009]
2009 Asa Gray and Peter Raven awards [8 June 2009]
2009 Election Results
Collections Web
New Volume of Systematic Botany Monographs
Results of the 2009 Student Travel Grants Program
In Memoriam [10 August 2010]
People [14 October 2009]
Job Opportunities [13 August 2010]
Fellowships, Internships, Post-Docs [16 December 2009]
Special Exhibits [No Entries]
News from Herbaria and Collections [28 August 2008]
Organizations [No entries]
Institutions [No entries]
News from other Societies [14 October 2009]
Funding and Award Opportunities [19 October 2009]
Symposia and Meetings [11 May 2010]
New Serials and News about Serials [No entries]
Special Courses [20 January 2010]
New Books Received by ASPT [9 July 2008]
Electronically Distributed Products [No entries]
New Web Sites [10 September 2009]
Services Available and Commercial Products [No entries]
ASPT NEWS
A New Volume of Systematic Botany Monographs
Volume 90. Monograph of Mitrephora (Annonaceae), Aruna D. Weerasooriya and Richard M. K. Saunders, 167 pp + 4 color plates, 22 February 2010. ISBN 978-0-912861-90-6. US orders: $25.00; non-US orders: $33.00.
Postage and handling included. Send orders to Systematic Botany Monographs, University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2228, USA, with checks payable to “ASPT”; VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover accepted. Fax: 734-998-0038; e-mail chra@umich.edu
Two New Volumes of Systematic Botany Monographs
Volume 88. Systematics of Glossoloma (Gesneriaceae), John Littner Clark, 128 pp, color frontispiece, 19 October 2009. ISBN 978-0-912861-88-3. US orders: $20.00; non-US-orders: $25.00.Volume 89. Monograph of Artemisia Subgenus Tridentatae (Asteraceae–Anthemideae), Leila M. Shultz, 131 pp, color frontispiece, 19 October 2009. ISBN 978-0-912861-89-0. US orders: $20.00; non-US-orders: $25.00.
Postage and handling included. Send orders to Systematic Botany Monographs, University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2228, USA, with checks payable to “ASPT”; VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover accepted. Fax: 734-998-0038; e-mail chra@umich.edu
Distinguished Service Award
On behalf of the council, I am pleased to announce that Dr. Kenneth R. Robertson is the recipient of the ASPT Distinguished Service Award. This award is given only occasionally and is reserved for those individuals who have made exceptional efforts for ASPT or the plant-systematics community in general.
Ken was the sole editor of the ASPT Newsletter for more than a dozen years (1996-2008) and completed his long and notable tenure in that role in December of last year. As the online archive amply demonstrates, the ASPT Newsletter under Ken’s editorship was a treasure-trove of information on such subjects as society news, people, job opportunities, fellowships, internships, postdocs, herbaria news, funding prospects, meetings, symposia, courses, web sites, and publications (see http://www.aspt.net/publications/newsletter/archives.php).
Ken’s faithful service led to many positive outcomes for ASPT and its members, and I congratulate and thank him for such dedicated work to further the goals of our society.
-- Bruce Baldwin, President
Cooley Award
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists recognizes Stephen C. Meyers as the 2009 recipient of the George R. Cooley Award for the outstanding contributed-paper presentation among those judged eligible at the annual meeting held in Snowbird, Utah (25-29 July). The award-winning presentation was entitled “Potential sympatric speciation within Limnanthes (Limnanthaceae)” and was co-authored by Stephen and his major professor, Aaron Liston. Stephen’s presentation was based on his dissertation research in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University, Corvallis.
On behalf of the society, I congratulate Stephen for this fine achievement and thank Larry Hufford (Awards Committee Chair) and the others who performed such dedicated service as this year’s Cooley Award judges: Travis Columbus, Carolyn Ferguson, Mark Fishbein, Kathy Kron, Rachel Levin, Aaron Liston, Molly Nepokroeff, and Steve Weller.
-- Bruce Baldwin, President
Grady L. Webster Plant Systematics Publication Award
In 2006, the Grady L. Webster Awards were established by Drs. Barbara D. Webster and Susan V. Webster to honor the work of their husband and father. The rotating awards consist of two components presented in alternating years. BSA presented the first Grady L. Webster Structural Botany Publication Award in 2007. Last summer at the Botany 2008 meeting, ASPT bestowed the first Grady L. Webster Plant Systematics Publication Award to Walter S. Judd for his paper in Systematic Botany Monographs, volume 81.
The ASPT Council is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Asa Gray and Peter Raven awards.
The Asa Gray Award is given by the ASPT to an individual for outstanding accomplishments pertinent to the goals of the Society. This year’s Asa Gray Award recipient is Dr. Alan Graham, Curator of Paleobotany & Palynology at the Missouri Botanical Garden and Professor Emeritus at Kent State University, where he received university awards for excellence in teaching and research and served as major advisor for 16 graduate students. Alan’s extensive and diverse efforts on late Cretaceous and Cenozoic vegetation and flora of the New World have resulted in 118 scientific articles, two sole-authored books (Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of North American Vegetation, in 1999, and Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of Latin American Vegetation, in 2009), two co-edited and co-authored books (Floristics and Paleofloristics of Eastern Asia and Eastern North America, in 1972, and Vegetation and Vegetational History of Northern Latin America, in 1973), and 120 contributed and invited talks. Alan’s contributions to teaching include a five-week course in Mexico that was taken by over 350 students over 14 years. He has served on the editorial board of Systematic Botany, in addition to other journals, and donated a 25,000 palynological slide reference collection and associated literature collection of nearly 17,000 reprints to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. For these and other contributions, the ASPT is pleased to recognize Alan with this year’s Asa Gray award.
The Peter Raven Award is given by the ASPT to a plant systematist who has made exceptional efforts at outreach to non-scientists. This year’s Peter Raven Award recipient is Dr. Sandra Knapp, Research Botanist at the Natural History Museum in London. Sandra’s accomplishments include authorship of three books that communicate science to the general public: (1) Knapp, S. 1999. Footsteps in the forest: Alfred Russell Wallace in the Amazon. NHM, London, (2) Knapp, S. 2003. Potted histories: an artistic voyage through plant exploration. Scriptum Editions/NHM. [translated and released internationally in French and German], and (3) Knapp, S. & B. Press. 2005. The gilded canopy: botanical ceiling panels of the Natural History Museum. NHM Press, London. She has been a regular contributor to the Natural History Museum’s ‘Nature Live’ program, in which scientists meet the public (see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/naturelive), and has developed exhibitions at the Natural History Museum, especially associated with the Darwin Centre (see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre). Sandra has been a regular invited guest on radio and television (BBC, commercial stations and internationally) to discuss topics of taxonomy and evolution and has led development of public outreach activities and dialogue for EU-SOL (an integrated project funded by the European Commission to improve food quality in Europe – see http://www.eu-sol.net). She also has presented over 20 invited public lectures on taxonomic and evolutionary topics and has been a regular book reviewer for general publications (e.g., Times Literary Supplement). For these and other contributions, the ASPT is pleased to recognize Sandra with this year’s Peter Raven award.
The 2009 Election results are in:
Dick Olmstead was elected President-Elect
Chelsea Specht and Allison Miller were elected Council Members-At-Large
Total ballots returned = 515
Total number of eligible voters = 1422
Percent of ballot return = 36.2%
Collections Web
CollectionsWeb is excited to work with the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) in an effort to increase public understanding of the nature of science and its value to society. A key objective of COPUS is to create new forums for communication and to develop new opportunities for engaging the public with science. Participants in COPUS are leading the celebration of Year of Science 2009 -- a grassroots celebration of how science works, why science matters, and who scientists are.
CollectionsWeb is serving as a thematic hub for natural history collections. This means that we want to help you learn how to get involved in this exciting endeavor. Please visit our web site (http://www.collectionsweb.org/get_involved/getinvolved_yearofscience.htm) to determine how you can involve your natural history collection in the Year of Science 2009. We at CollectionsWeb would love to see a strong showing from the museum community, and we encourage you to be an active member in this exciting initiative.
SYSTEMATIC BOTANY MONOGRAPHS:New Volume
Volume 86. Monograph of Psittacanthus (Loranthaceae), Job Kuijt, 361 pp, color frontispiece, hardbound. 6 April 2009. ISBN 978-0-912861-86-9. US orders: $50.00; non-US-orders: $65.00.
Publication of Volume 86 was partly funded by Walter L. Meagher, whose generous contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
Postage and handling included. Send orders to Systematic Botany Monographs, University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2228, USA, with checks payable to “ASPT”; VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover accepted. Fax: 734-998-0038; e-mail chra@umich.edu
Results of the 2009 Student Travel Grants Program
The following students have been funded for travel to the 2009 Botany Conference in Snowbird, UT:
Presenting Category (14)
1. Stephen Stern (Bohs)
2. Hari Chhetri (Columbus)
3. Andrew Wheeler (Wilson)
4. Charlotte Germain-Aubry (Gitzendanner)
5. Nicholas Tippery (Les)
6. Daisie Huang (Friar)
7. Carl Rothfels (Pryer)
8. Alejandra Vasco (Moran)
9. Craig Barrett (Freudenstein)
10. Amanda Grusz (Pryer)
11. Kristen Hasenstab (M. Simpson)
12. Andrew Gardner (Emshwiller)
13. Janelle Burke (Luckow)
14. Matthew Parks (Liston)
Non-presenting Category (6)
15. Debra Hansen (B. Simpson)
16. Jacquelyn Howell (Morris)
17. James Riser II (Roalson)
18. Jeffrey Sanders (Moore)
19. Kevin Weitemier (Fishbein)
20. Michael Wright (Costea)
Additions and corrections to newsletter materials can be sent to Eric H. Roalson.