Source: GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES, INC submitted to NRP
2007 FLORAL AND VEGETATIVE VOLATILES GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
NRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0210531
Grant No.
2007-35305-18151
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2007-02027
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2007
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2008
Grant Year
2007
Program Code
[56.0C]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES, INC
512 LIBERTY LN
WEST KINGSTON,RI 02892-1502
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This application requests partial funding to support the Gordon Conference on Floral and Vegetative Volatiles to be held October 7 to 12, 2007, at Les Diablerets, Switzerland. The primary goal of this conference is to bring together researchers investigating the emergent field of plant volatiles from diverse disciplines and thereby foster new interdisciplinary exchanges and collaborations that will increase our understanding of the mechanisms of plant volatile biosynthesis and emission, and the roles that plant volatiles play in plant defense and the attraction of pollinators. The conference will consist of 5 formal sessions with 7-11 oral presentations per session, given by both leading scientists in the area and young investigators, and 4 afternoon poster sessions. The sessions focus on the principal areas that are at the forefront of plant scent research and include the diverse fields of: 1) The roles of plant volatiles in human affairs. 2) Physiological and ecological roles of plant volatiles produced in vegetative tissues, including plant-herbivore interactions. 3) Physiological and ecological roles of floral volatiles in reproduction, including plant-pollinator interactions. 4) Chemistry and biochemistry of plant volatiles. 5) Techniques and methodologies for studying plant volatiles. We have selected invited speakers on the basis of their current activity in the field while also striving for a program that has a balance of gender, includes peoples from different ethnicities and countries, and involves young promising investigators.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
70%
Applied
30%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2062499100030%
2062499101015%
2062499104030%
2062499200025%
Knowledge Area
206 - Basic Plant Biology;

Subject Of Investigation
2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism; 1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics; 2000 - Chemistry;
Goals / Objectives
The main goal of the Gordon Conference on Floral and Vegetative Volatiles, to be held 7-12 October 2007, is to bring together researchers from diverse areas to this rapidly emerging field. The previous meeting in this series (in 2002) was devoted to floral volatiles, and since then developments in the area of instrumentation have led to an explosion of research on vegetative volatiles, which are typically emitted at much lower levels than from flowers. With new instruments that can detect and identify low amounts of volatiles, it has become clear than plants emit an amazing array of such compounds under various ecological situations from their vegetative parts. These results have led to the development of several new paradigms and the refinement of some old paradigms, including positive and negative plant-insect interactions, tritrophic interactions, and plant-plant interactions. Therefore, the aims of the next conference are to bring together chemists, molecular biologists, and plant and animal physiologists and ecologists involved in work on various aspects of all plant volatiles. The program devised for this conference presents a coherent set of concepts and paradigms, and the discussion and exchange of ideas among the diverse participants will help in furthering interdisciplinary research in the emerging field of plant volatiles.
Project Methods
The Gordon Conference on Floral and Vegetative Volatiles will bring together about 120 scientists for 5 days in an informal and small setting that will foster interchange among the participants. The program will address new research areas within the multidisciplinary field of plant volatiles, with emphasis placed on the ecological, chemical, physiological, and molecular approaches. The program will have 5 sessions with 7-11 speakers per session. Talks by invited speakers will be 25 min long and will be given by leading scientists, with special emphasis on young up-and-coming investigators. In each session, 3 of the talks will be short (10 min) and given by speakers chosen from among the poster presenters. For these short talks, we are striving to encourage the presentation of only novel cutting-edge research, to obtain a representation of scientists involved in academic, industry, and governmental research, and to engage a greater number of new scientists entering the field. Each day, speakers will give talks during the morning and evening, with the late afternoon devoted to poster presentations; the early afternoon will be free for informal discussions and leisure time. In the late afternoon, 1.5 hours will be devoted for the poster sessions. The speakers are drawn from a diversity of geographic areas, including N. and S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and we have planned the program to provide balance in gender and in senior/junior investigators. We are encouraging all participants, especially non-speakers, to present posters. As the field of plant volatiles is young and expanding, we have opened the conference to all interested individuals, and would provide up to five fellowships for young investigators to participate.

Progress 07/01/07 to 06/30/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The Gordon Research Conferences' conference format provides an excellent training opportunity for younger scientists. The traditional small size and informality of the GRC format provides a unique opportunity for researchers, at all career stages, to interact closely with the more senior researchers in our field, share information, and develop long-lasting ties that often reach across disciplines. Young scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and young faculty can interact closely with the more senior researchers in our field, and are invited to present their latest work during several poster sessions at the conference. PARTICIPANTS: Statistical deomographic data based on information provided by conference attendees:1. Previous GRC'S attended - None: 59%, 1 to 5: 32%, 6 to 10: 8%, Over 10: 1%; 2. Typical Annual Conferences attended - 1 to 2: 54%, 3 to 5: 34%, 6 to 8: 8%, Over 9: 4%; 3. Gender - Male: 66%, Female: 34%; 4. Role in Conference Attendees - Chair / V. Chair: 2%, Speaker: 32%, Discusion Leader: 5%, Poster Presenter: 48%, Conferee: 14%; 5. Affiliation - Academic: 73%, Industry: 8%, Government: 3%, Research: 16%; 6. Age Group - 20's: 17%, 30's: 37%, 40's: 28%, 50's: 15%, 60+: 3%; 7. Number of People attending conference - Was Too Small: 1%, Just Right: 99%, Too Large: 0%; 8. Region of Residence - N. America: 21%, S. America: 2%, Europe: 61%, Africa: 0%, Asia: 13%, Australia/Oceania: 3%; 9. Position - Grad Student: 23%, Post Doc: 16%, Professor: 30%, Research Scientist: 21%, Research Director: 6%, Program Mgr: 1%, Other: 3% TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on FLORAL & VEGETATIVE VOLATILES was held at Les Diablerets Conference Center, Les Diablerets, Switzerland, October 7-12, 2007. The Conference was well-attended with 112 participants. The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. The formal conference schedule and speaker program may be accessed via our website at www.grc.org. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field. I want to personally thank you for your support of this Conference. As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontier-breaking research, Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings. If you wish any further details, please feel free to contact me. Eran Pichersky, Ph.D., Conference Chairperson

Publications

  • No publications reported this period