Welcome to the 25th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR)!
ICAR 2014 will be held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from Monday July 28th to Friday August 1st. The two opening keynote speakers are Jeff Dangl (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA) and Xuemei Chen (University of California- Riverside, USA) and the two closing keynote speakers are Peter McCourt (University of Toronto, Canada) and Brenda Andrews (University of Toronto, Canada).
In recognition of the significance of this meeting being the 25th Conference, we have asked the three Arabidopsis keynote speakers to include these four points: (1) How Arabidopsis research has impacted their field; (2) The history of how that happened; (3) How continued focus on a deeply developed model will contribute to answering remaining key problems in biology; and (4) how that will impact food security and crop production in a changing climate.
This annual, international main meeting for Arabidopsis research is scheduled conveniently with several other conferences to allow attendees to efficiently manage travel budgets for a West Coast plant biology tour including: ASPB’s annual meeting, jointly with the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists (July 12-16, Portland, Oregon), the New Phytologist Symposium on CAM plants (July 15-18, Lake Tahoe, California), and the International Poplar Symposium (July 20-23, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.) Visitors from North America and abroad are invited to visit the Pacific Northwest for an extended stay to take part in these exciting meetings while enjoying the beautiful natural settings.
New for ICAR 2014:
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Additional emphasis on presentations from submitted abstracts: 90 slots in concurrent sessions.
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There are 157 scheduled presentations, with additional slots in the 9 community workshops (to be proposed and organized by attendees.)
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Synthetic Biology Plenary session
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Light and Plant Growth Concurrent session
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Conference banquet to be held Thursday July 31 at the UBC Museum of Anthropology (MOA)
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Two minute ‘oral poster’ talks (2 per concurrent session, 30 total)
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Two career development workshops (Monday, July 28): Early Career scientists (Track 1: students, early postdocs; Track 2: late postdocs, early faculty) and US Underrepresented Minorities
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Free afternoon and evening on Wednesday for sightseeing and networking
The dimensions for posters are as follows:
Each poster presenter will have a maximimm of allotted space of 4ft. (1.22m) tall by 3.5ft (1.05m) wide with actual poster board being double sided (4 posters/board). Push pins will be provided with each poster board.
On behalf of the organizing committees, we invite you to join us in Vancouver, Canada for the 25th Arabidopsis Conference and look forward to a fun, interactive, and scientifically engaging conference!
Conference Co-chairs
Jose Alonso and Nick Provart
Conference Organizer
Joanna Friesner
ICAR Background:
Arabidopsis thaliana has been the subject of genetic study for more than seventy years with intense focus as a research tool beginning in the 1980s. The ICAR is an important community-organizing venue rooted in the small Arabidopsis meetings convened in Germany in 1965 and 1976. The 1990 ICAR in Vienna was especially notable because it launched the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC) and the multinational coordinated Arabidopsis genome research project, which produced the first plant genome sequence; made public in the year 2000. ICAR has been convened regularly since 1987, and annually starting in 1995. The North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC), elected by the Arabidopsis community, act as ICAR organizers when the meeting is held in North America, once every three years. A key factor in the synergistic interactions among Arabidopsis research labs around the world has been the opportunity to meet and share research with colleagues at the ICAR, which focuses on new, cutting-edge research, and exposes young scientists to the field while encouraging interactions between younger and more established researchers. These conferences have grown to represent one of the premier venues for international exchange of the latest advances in basic plant biology.
