The 2023 Translational Plant Sciences Symposium was held Friday, January 27th at the University Club of Virginia Tech. The symposium is open to Translational Plant Sciences Center members, alumni, and the local plant science community. Three distinguished guest speakers attended to give presentations, engage in a one-hour facilitated workshop panel, and participate in judging five TPSC graduate student talks. The speakers hailed from Cornell, NC State, and Saint Louis University, and are all principal investigators of established NSF centers, institutes, or research traineeships. 

The days leading up to the event were dedicated to facilitating networking opportunities between the guest speakers and TPSC members. Notably, top applicants to the Translational Plant Science Graduate Program were invited to explore the program and Blacksburg, VA. The organizing committee curated personalized itineraries for each potential student, full of opportunities to meet with faculty, post-docs, and current students. The potential students enjoyed lab tours where they experienced TPSC research first hand, small group meetings, a campus tour, outings, and participation in the Friday symposium. 

Symposium attendees are provided with opportunities to exchange innovative concepts and experiences during the presentation and discussion group portion of the event, and enjoy mingling and further discussing research at an evening poster session and awards ceremony. The symposium and accompanying 3-day recruitment event serves as a connecting hub for current TPSC members, external researchers and incoming students.

2023 Symposium Awards

Speaker Award 

Tran Chau (Nina)

Lab: Li

"Discovery of conserved marker genes for cross-species cell type assignment by machine learning"

First Place Poster Award 

Brian Ruether

Lab: Tholl

Assessing the effects of volatile repellents on the spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (White), through vineyard studies

Second Place Poster Award

Kelsey Reed

Lab: Bargmann

Cell-Raiser: Regeneration

Third Place Poster Award

Deisiany Neres

Lab: Wright

Phylogenetic and expression analysis of auxin regulatory genes in soybean (Glycine max)

Postdoctoral Poster Award

Catherine Freed

A Multidisciplinary Solution to Advance the Circular Economy of Phosphorus

Undergraduate Poster Award

Elyse Shoppel

Lab: Bargmann

Small Protein, Big TARGET: Transient Assay Reporting Genome-wide Effects of Transcription Factors

Students at Symposium poster session