Hilda Canter-Lund 2020

Thanks to everyone who entered the Hilda Canter-Lund competition this year. We had a strong field, with over 50 entries, many of which we were able to post on Twitter to keep phycological morale alive during lockdown.

We have now chosen a shortlist, which can be seen here. It captures the extraordinary diversity and beauty of the algal world very well, so please encourage friends and colleagues to have a look.

The winner will be announced in a couple of weeks.

PSA 2020 Virtual Meeting – July 29-30

Greetings Phyco-philiacs,

As the old adage goes: even a virus can’t keep a good society down.  Although we may not be having a physical meeting this year, the excellent folks on the virtual PSA Meeting Committee are pleased to announce a two-day, on-line PSA event for 2020!  The meeting will feature some fantastic phycological speakers, including the inaugural, soon-to-be Annual Lang Lecture, the bi-annual Student-Organized Symposium, our inaugural Journal of Phycology Co-editor’s mini-symposium featuring two of our incoming new co-editors, contributed lightning talks, award presentations, break out rooms, and more. 

Due to the vagaries of virtual meetings and exigent circumstances, we will not be having full, contributed talks from our members this year, but will be facilitating a limited number of lightning talks (three, action-packed minutes of phycological information).  If you are interested in giving a 3-minute lightning talk, please send me (Dale Casamatta, email) a short abstract (<200 words) by July 5 (midnight).  Students are especially encouraged to apply! If your abstract is accepted, we will request that you pre-record your talk for logistics purposes, and then will live-stream them at the indicated times (with further details to follow).  If we have more talks than time available, we shall make them available on the PSA website.

The meeting will be gratis for all, and we encourage members to let their colleagues, friends, nemeses, and acquaintances know of the events.  The meeting time has been selected to permit people from many time zones to participate, so please forward widely!  In addition, if you have any meeting ideas or would like to propose a topic for one of the breakout sessions please let one of us know. 

We are looking forward to connecting with everyone if only virtually this year.

On behalf of the Virtual 2020 Organizing Committee, we are looking forward to the phycological festivities next month.

With regards,
Amy Carlile                             Patrick Martone                      Sabrina Heiser
Eric Linton                               Dale Casamatta

 

Tentative Schedule
Day 1 (Wednesday, July 29): 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (EST)
Welcome 
1st Annual Lang Lecture 
Coeditors mini-symposium 
Lightning talks 
Break-out Zoom Session(s)

Day 2 (Thursday, July 30): 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (EST)
Student-organized Symposium (Whether big or small – impacts of photosynthesizers on aquatic ecosystems)
Presentation of awards 
Lightning talks 
Break-out Zoom Session(s)

Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee

Dear PSA members:

The Phycological Society of America strives to be supportive and inclusive of all current and future members and endeavours to address systemic racism in our field and in science. An important step is to establish a standing committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) in our society. The role of the EDI committee will be to examine how to embed the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion into our society and support PSA members who represent diverse cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, sexual identities and disabilities. In addition, the EDI committee will advise the Executive Committee (EC) and Board of Trustees (BOT) on matters that relate to increasing access and support for diverse and racialized members of our society, which may include ways in which endowment funds could foster inclusivity and equity in PSA and phycology in general. We are requesting self-nominations from members who have demonstrable experience working on EDI initiatives to consider serving on the new EDI committee. We encourage all PSA members and especially graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to self-nominate. We recognize that for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and early career researchers, your experience in EDI may not be extensive and we still encourage you to self-nominate. The first goal of the EDI committee will be to draft a description of the committee’s role for the EC, which will eventually be brought to the membership for a vote and added to the PSA bylaws. Initially the terms for committee involvement will vary in order to rotate members off the committee but will eventually consist of a three-year term and a new chair will be determined by the committee each year.

If you are interested, Please send an email to the PSA Secretary, Patrick Martone (email), including a statement that demonstrates your activities, leadership, and/or training in EDI that would contribute to your role on this committee. Please also include a brief description of your reasons for serving in this role and of the qualities that you would contribute to this committee. This statement should be no longer than one page, single-spaced. The deadline for this self-nomination is July 15, 2020 and the members of the committee will be notified by September 1, 2020 followed by an announcement in the fall Phycological Newsletter.

Thank you for considering giving your time to support this important effort.

Sincerely,
The PSA Executive Committee
Dale Casamatta, President
Kirsten Müller, Past President
Eric Linton, VP/President Elect
Jeff Morris, Communications Director
Julie Koester, Treasurer
Amy Carlile, Program Director
Joe Zuccarello, International Vice- President
Maggie Amsler, Membership Director
Patrick Martone, Secretary
Sabrina Heiser, Student Representative
Morgan Vis, Chair, Board of Trustees
Steve Murray, Endowment Manager
Michael Graham, Managing Editor, Journal of Phycology