Conference travel report submitted by Dr. Deena Errampalli, President, Canadian Phytopathological Society. E-mail:Deena.errampalli@agr.gc.ca
Over 1,500 delegates from 45 countries attended the symposia, workshops, 4 plenary lectures and 35 technical sessions on the management and control of diseases of crops at the American Phytopathological Society (APS) and Canadian Phytopathological Society (CPS) joint meeting in Minneapolis, MN, USA from August 10-13, 2014. Seventy delegates from Canada attended the meeting. Rick Bennett, the APS President–Elect and the APS Annual Meetings Program Chair, and Deena Errampalli, CPS President-Elect and the CPS Programs Chair were members of the APS-CPS joint meeting program planning committee. The theme of the meeting was “Plant Health Connections.”
Errampalli was invited to the 2014 APS Presidential Meeting of Plant Pathology Organizations and APS International Society Relations Committee (ISRC), where she met with presidents or representatives of plant pathology societies from Australasia, China, International society, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Mexico, South Africa and USA. They discussed the issues that are important each of the societies and how to develop ways to foster collaborations among the sister societies of plant pathology. Errampalli believes that it is an important initiative.
Representatives from plant pathology societies from Australasia, Canada,
Japan, Latin America, Mexico, Brazil and USA.
One of the plenary lectures was the Glenn Anderson Lectureship Award on security of world food supply (http://phytopath.ca/glenn_anderson.shtml). Dr. Jennifer Thomson (http://web.uct.ac.za/org/sawise/RoleModels/rolethomson.htm) of the University of Cape Town in South Africa presented the lecture and her lecture entitled “Genetically Modified Crops for Africa: Healthy Plants and Healthy Bodies” was well received. The CPS and APS jointly sponsored the lecture.
Errampalli organized the lecture and gave an introduction to GA lecture at the plenary session on August 11, 2014. APS and CPS members participated as co-moderators of technical sessions, organizers of workshops, and contributed to technical sessions by presenting talks and posters. One of the advantages of joint meetings is opportunities for networking with colleagues from both societies to develop new collaboration, and hope many did just that. It was a busy meeting for Errampalli as the Incoming President; in addition to attending meetings of the CPS Financial Advisory Committee, Outgoing Board, Incoming Board, Special Members and Annual members meetings, she was invited to participate in some of APS committee meetings. Also, Errampalli presented two posters and moderated a session. Deena was honoured to present a talk on ‘how to be a successful professional’ to more than 50 graduate students at the First Timers Session (by invitation only). Interestingly, this was her 30th anniversary of home coming to APS, as she joined the society as a graduate student (Oklahoma State University) and attended the APS meeting as a first timer in 1984. Deena said, “it was my turn to give back and I was happy to do so”.
The CPS honoured scientists who have made important contributions to plant pathology in Canada: Dr. Denis Gaudet of Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge was the recipient of the award of CPS Fellow and his award will be presented at the 2015 awards ceremony. The award for Outstanding Research was received by Dr. Richard Belanger, Université Laval, Québec. Dr. Zie Feng, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Edmonton received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award. The award of Achievements in Plant Disease Management award was received by the Club Root Mitigation Team, comprised of Stephen Strelkov, Gary Peng, Sheau-Fang Hwang, Bruce Gossen, Mary Ruth McDonald, Ron Howard, and Clint Jurke. Graduate student travel awards, scholarships to several graduate students of plant pathology were presented. Congratulations to all!
The conference concluded with the final night celebration of good food, fellowship, networking and dancing with the APS, CPS and international plant pathologists. A group of CPS and APS members have literally organized a CPS-APS joint lecture initiative for 2015 at this party, which shows net-working and face to face meetings work beautifully!
Dr. Deena Errampalli took office of the President of the Canadian Phytopathological Society (CPS) on August 10, 2014 at the APS-CPS joint meeting in Minneapolis, MN, USA. Deena has served as Vice President (2012-13) and President Elect (2013-14) and she will serve as President for one year (2014-15). Deena has been a member of APS since 1984 and CPS since 1992 and has served as the Secretary of the CPS Executive Board from 2003-2007. Since 2007, she has been the Section Editor of Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, a journal of CPS.
The Canadian Phytopathological Society Inc. (CPS), founded in 1929, is a professional organization dedicated to creating and sharing knowledge of plant pathology in Canada and throughout the world. The objective of CPS is to encourage and support research and education in plant pathology, to promote public awareness of the importance of plant diseases and of the socio-economic benefits of controlling them, and to act as a forum for discussion of policies and strategies affecting all aspects of research and education in plant pathology in Canada. The current membership of CPS is 300 and the society publishes peer- reviewed journal, Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology. In addition, CPS publishes books, Diseases of field crops and Diseases of pests of vegetable crops in Canada. CPS holds annual scientific meetings in Canada and meets with APS once in every 5-8 years and with Plant Canada once in every 4 years. More information can be found at http://phytopath.ca/
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