Presidential Symposium: Plants and People
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
10:00 am Eastern / 7:00 am Pacific / 10:00 pm China Standard Time / 7:30 pm India Standard Time

Members of our society are immersed in many aspects of plant sciences, and we tend to have a plant-centric focus. However, our science does not happen in isolation, and the work that we do impacts many other levels, eventually affecting our lives and the wellbeing of people around the world. We need to be more conscious of what it means to be a plant scientist, where the study of plants takes place, and how different sources of knowledge are incorporated to build a better understanding of how plants work, and how they are intertwined with our own lives. This symposium will bring together four speakers with largely diverse backgrounds, personal experiences, and expertise to provide an overview of different layers of this interaction among plants and people.
Learn more about the speakers below.




A descendant of the Freshwater Gullah Geechee of Coastal Georgia, Matthew Raiford grew up on land that has sustained his family for seven generations. Gilliard Farms, purchased by his great-great-great-grandfather, Jupiter Gilliard, in 1874, is now in the hands of this sixth-generation farmer in Brunswick, GA. He, alongside his wife Tia (nee McDonald, AOS ’98) are also owners of Strong Roots 9, a lifestyle brand which is dedicated to creating products and experiences for Americans to reconnect with the nation’s natural heritage, from the perspective of the people whose ancestors helped build it. Matthew is the author of the celebrated cookbook Bress ‘n’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer.
Barbara Schaal is Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, and a nationally recognized plant evolutionary biologist who uses DNA sequences to understand evolutionary processes such as gene flow, geographical differentiation, and the domestication of crop species.
Barbara was among the first plant scientists to use molecular biology-based approaches to understand evolutionary processes in plants, and she has worked to advance understanding of plant molecular systematics and population genetics. Most recently, her work has focused on the evolutionary genomics of rice.
Barbara has been president of the Botanical Society of America, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, where she served as Vice President for 8 years. She was appointed as a U.S. science envoy by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Schaal has served as chair of the Division on Earth and Life Studies at the National Research Council and was a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology from 2009–17. In 2019, she received the National Science Board’s Public Service Medal and joined the board of directors of the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation.
Matteo Dell’Acqua is an Associate Professor in Crop Genetics at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy. A plant geneticist by training, his current research is focused on developing data-driven methods to foster the sustainable intensification of farming systems. Matteo leads an international and diverse research group developing transdisciplinary approaches connecting genomics, socioeconomics, and climate sciences with a specific focus on smallholder farming systems. Their research methods include DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, climate modelling, quantitative genetics, and participatory methods for crop improvement. Matteo has an interest in genetic and cultural agrobiodiversity, and his research explores the connection between plants and people using crops including maize, wheat, teff, barley, sorghum, and cowpea. His projects involve several PhD students, researchers, and collaborators from emerging countries, together committed to research for impact. The data-driven approaches that they develop are aimed at supporting pre-breeding practices that are aware of local adaptation and local needs, and foster an enduring impact of research and training. At SSSA, he is also coordinator of the Center or Plant Sciences, a research center connecting plant physiology, genetics, and agroecology to develop more resilient and sustainable primary production systems.
Bonus Content: EDIC Award Talk: Racial reckoning in the plant sciences
Thelma F. Madzima
University of Washington Bothell
The devastating events that occurred in 2020 emphasized the systemic inequities that disproportionately affect individuals from specific demographic groups in society. These events triggered a new wave of racial reckoning and awareness in academia and professional societies. The initial reactions to these events did not adequately address the core issues that created the existing inequitable and exclusive practices and climates. I will discuss the need for (1) reflective assessment of the causes of marginalization/exclusion and (2) how we can be more intentional about sustained inclusion.
Highlights of New and Emerging Research on Biomolecular Condensates in Plants
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
9:00 am Eastern / 6:00 am Pacific / 9:00 pm China Standard Time / 6:30 pm India Standard Time
Plant biology has been flooded with numerous examples of proteins and pathways that localize to membraneless sub-cellular compartments. These compartments have recently been grouped together under the umbrella term biomolecular condensates, and describes any sub-cellular condensate, regardless of how they form. Examples of bimolecular condensates include stress granules, processing bodies, photo-bodies, nuclear speckles, and metabolons. Biomolecular condensates in plants have been identified as crucial for regulating aspects of plant development, abiotic and biotic stress response, hormone signaling, metabolism, and RNA processing. This plenary discusses some examples of these biomolecular condensates, and highlights a few examples of the important roles and functions of biomolecular condensates in plants.




Carnegie Institute for Science
King Abdullah University of Science & Technology
Duke University
University of Sevilla
Climate Change and the Future of Agriculture
Thursday, October 5, 2023
9:30 am Eastern / 6:30 am Pacific / 9:30 pm China Standard Time / 7:00 pm India Standard Time
Our rapidly changing climate poses a serious threat to humanity, presenting worldwide challenges to our ability to produce and distribute food. Plant biologists can help address these challenges by developing more climate resilient crops and more sustainable agricultural practices. Success will depend upon coordinated efforts between academics, companies, and governmental agencies as well as across scientific disciplines. In this symposium, scientists with expertise in climate change, photosynthesis, science administration, and industry policy will present their perspectives on the future of agriculture in the face of a changing climate.



University of Essex
U.S. Department of Agriculture
University of Georgia
Bonus Content: Shull Award Talk: The Auxin Response Factor as a model to understand transcription
Lucia Strader
Duke University
The Arabidopsis ARF family provides an ideal model for the study of TF function. Of these 23 members, five are considered transcriptional activators and 18 are considered transcriptional repressors, allowing for study of both activities in a single family. These 23 ARFs can be separated into three deeply conserved clades with ancient functions. In addition to the well-studied repression – derepression mechanism of regulation, our lab has discovered that ARF activity is attenuated by protein condensation and that regulated ARF condensation and degradation can each serve to integrate environmental cues into auxin outputs. Further, these TFs can oligomerize, have a conserved DNA binding element (TGTCTC), and their interactions can be easily manipulated using PB1 domain point mutations. Using ARFs as a model has allowed us to interrogate TF function in an easily manipulated system to yield broad insight into many TFs.
Intercellular Communication in Plants: The Long and Short of It
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
9:00 am Eastern / 6:00 am Pacific / 9:00 pm China Standard Time / 6:30 pm India Standard Time
Intercellular communication was a key innovation in the evolution of multicellularity. As sessile organisms whose cells are restricted to their relative positions by rigid cell walls, plants depend on intercellular communication to coordinate cellular functions during development and growth, and in response to environmental cues. This non cell-autonomous signaling involves trafficking of different classes of molecules through plasmodesmata, small pores that form a continuum between the cytoplasm of neighboring plant cells. The study of plasmodesmata structure and function and long and short-distance molecule trafficking is an intense field of research. Yet there are several open questions regarding the dynamic regulation of plasmodesmata architecture and the specificity of molecule mobility through plasmodesmata. This plenary session aims to bring together experts in plasmodesmata biology to discuss recent advances in this rapidly evolving field, including the role of plasmodesmata structure in specifying signaling pathways as well as their plasticity. The session will also feature experts in long-and-short distance intercellular communication who will discuss the specificity of RNA and small molecule mobility. Lastly, the session will provide insights into the applications of intercellular communication in grafting compatibility and mobile genome editing.



Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
University of Leeds
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Cornell University
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
Thriving in Deep Space: Plant Biology for the Moon, Mars, and Beyond
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
12:00 pm Eastern / 9:00 am Pacific / 12:00 am China Standard Time / 9:30 pm India Standard Time

NASA’s Artemis program in collaboration with European, Canadian, and Japanese space agencies, and various commercial partners, marks the return of humankind to the Moon. Unlike the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago, Artemis will set the stage for the continuous presence of humans on the Moon and pave a path for the journey to Mars and beyond. Plants will be an essential component of habitation systems that will enable humans to thrive on both the lunar and Mars surface, as well as space transit vehicles because of their nutritional and psychological benefits. Furthermore, plants will be valued in environmental control and life support systems because they generate oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, and recycle water and waste. However, an in-depth understanding of how plants and their associated microbial communities adapt to the harsh and confined environment of deep space is essential before they can be effectively used for long-duration space missions. This plenary symposium will address challenges and present potential solutions to growing plants in space. The four speakers will cover a broad range of topics, including mechanistic studies on fern resurgence after asteroid-triggered mass extinction events, artificial photosynthesis for space agriculture, and how the plant microbiome and an understanding of plant-pathogen dynamics in microgravity can guide crop production strategies in space.



NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center
University of Maine (participation tentative)
Purdue University
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Bonus Content: Hales Award Talk: Signal transduction in systemic acquired resistance
Xinnian Dong, PhD
Duke University
In plants, effector-triggered immunity (ETI) in the local tissue can lead to long-lasting, broad-spectrum systemic acquired resistance (SAR) through production of the immune inducer salicylic acid (SA). However, 90 years after report of its observation, the initiating mobile signal and its transduction mechanism leading to systemic SA synthesis and how SA activates broad-spectrum disease resistance in naïve tissue are not completely understood. In my talk, I report recent discoveries made in my lab in addressing these questions.