MSU Hosts 62nd Annual Meeting of Phytochemical Society of North America
From July 16th-20th, the 62nd annual meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA) was held for its first time at Michigan State University. At this year's event, over 120 researchers from Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada, Mexico, and the US gathered to discuss a broad spectrum of topics related to plant chemical diversity.
Offering five days of exciting symposia and expert speakers, the meeting was also geared toward students and young researchers—more than half of the conference talks were delivered by students and DEI candidates alongside special sessions dedicated to non-academic career development, CV reviews, and mock interviews.
This year further featured the debut of a new PSNA symposium highlighting Indigenous Connections in the realm of photochemistry, generating innovative conversations on science and culture.
MSU faculty and students made their mark at 2023's gathering, receiving numerous awards and honors for their research insights. These included Professor Peter Lundquist, who received the Arthur Neish Young Investigator Award, as well as many graduate students who were recognized:
- Jaynee Hart (poster award, postdoc, Last lab)
- Lina Gomez-Cano (poster award, graduate student, Grotewold lab)
- Nicholas Schlecht (poster award, graduate student, Hamberger lab)
- Joshua Kaste (oral presentation award, Shachar-Hill lab)
Support for the first ever symposium on Indigenous Connections as well DEI travel awards for 18 students and two postdocs was generously provided by the meeting’s many sponsors, including MSU Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, MSU College of Natural Science, MSU Office of Research and Innovation , MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Metware Biotechnology, and the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
Organizational expertise was provided by many MSU faculty and staff, among them Björn Hamberger, Jessica Lawrence, Carolyn Adams, Britta Hamberger, Angel McKay Whiteman, Joshua Kaste, and Lucas Reist, with additional planning and abstract review from Sue Rhee, Peter Lundquist, Nick Schlecht, and Bailey Kleven.
The next PSNA meeting in 2024 will be held in Mexico.
