NZSPB Annual Awards and Conference

NZSPB was part of COMBIO 2018 held at the International Convention Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney during 23-26 September 2018.

The New Zealand Society of Plant Biologists met at darling harbour in September to join in the Combio 2018 conference.  It was an enjoyable and well-organised occasion.  We had our society dinner, AGM, and several annual awards were presented during the conference.  We also acknowledged our outgoing president Marian McKenzie, for her dedicated service as society president over the past two years.

The Roger Slack Award in Plant Biology is made annually by the Society to one of its members in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the study of plant biology. The awardee in 2018 was Professor Paula Jameson from the University of Canterbury. Here is Paula receiving the Roger Slack Award from Outgoing President Dr Marian McKenzie after she gave a Plenary lecture on “Cytokinins: A Hormone with Many Roles”.

The Michael McManus Award for Best Student Paper is made on the merit of original research from a student research project, the findings of which have been published, or accepted for publication, in a peer-reviewed journal in the four years since the submission of the candidate’s thesis. This year’s awardee was Ms Liya Mathew of Plant and Food Research and University of Otago for her publication on “Cold, antioxidant and osmotic pre-treatments maintain the structural integrity of meristematic cells and improve plant regeneration in cryopreserved kiwifruit shoot tips” in Protoplasma. Here Liya is receiving her certificate after she gave an oral presentation on the findings at the COMBIO 2018.

The Society awards its students with best presentation awards at the Annual Conference, selected by a panel of independent assessors appointed by the Council. This year’s best poster award was won by Samarth of University of Canterbury (above) and the runner-up was Chelsea Kerr from Otago University (below).

We had a great time at the conference, and look forward to seeing you all there again next year!