We are happy to announce the PLANTS undergraduate travel awards to the BOTANY 2017 meetings June 24-28, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. The PLANTS program (funded by the NSF and Botanical Society of America) encourages the participation of undergraduates from underrepresented groups at the annual meetings of the BSA and affiliated organizations. The goal of the program is to increase the diversity of future professionals interested in the plant sciences. These meetings focus on all aspects of the botanical sciences and include areas such as genomics, evolution, climate change, ecology, conservation, systematics, paleobotany, physiology, and ethnobotany. The PLANTS program will fund up to 12 undergraduates annually to participate in the meetings. Students attend career oriented events and receive mentoring from both a junior (advanced undergrad and graduate students) and a senior mentor (postdocs, faculty, and other professionals) as they attend scientific sessions and networking events together. The program covers the normal costs of travel, registration, food and accommodation at the meeting. Applications are accepted through MARCH 1, 2017 at http://www.botany.org/Awards/F_PLANTS.php Applicants will be asked to provide a one page statement of academic interests and career goals and relevance of the BSA meetings to these goals, and one letter of recommendation. The letter of reference should indicate the student’s level of interest in the plant sciences and how inclusion of the student will increase the diversity of the PLANTS participants. Applicants must be undergraduates who are registered or recently graduated (i.e., within the last 12 months) from U.S. institutions, including Puerto Rico, and traveling to the meeting from within the U.S. Students demonstrating a need for funds to attend BSA will be given preference, and will be selected so that the group as a whole will maximize diversity among undergraduates at the meetings. For questions, please contact Heather Cacanindin (hcacanin...@botany.org), Anna Monfils (monfi...@cmich.edu), or Ann Sakai (aksa...@uci.edu).
