This is funny

When I first met with our conference organizers, I warned them that the MSA crowd was likely to favor inexpensive and rustic over costly and posh.

I am looking over the registration for the dorms, and you're preferring North Halls over Eastview Terrace by a factor of nearly 5:1!

I understand that the North Halls were just renovated, and they now have air conditioning, so it might be a really good bargain.  Of course, in Eastview Terrace you get the private bath and single room.  They are about the same distance from Thomas Building, the main venue.

Next time we should just set up a tent city.

Karling Lecture

This year's Karling Lecture will be given by Dr. Nick Talbot, Head of the School of Biosciences and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Exter, United Kingdom.  The Talbot lab has been at the forefront of genomic studies looking a the molecular and cellular basis of plant disease, and has utilized a wide variety of tools in dissecting the infection process.

You can read more about research in the Talbot lab here.

This promises to be a great lecture.

The Karling Lecture is an annual invited lecture presented at the MSA meeting, named in honor of John S. Karling, a co-founder of the MSA and renowned expert on chytrids.

Poster Dimensions and Mounting

I just got word from our intrepid conference coordinator, Nancy Eckard, regarding poster dimensions and mounting:

Poster boards are 4' X 4' (121 cm X 121 cm) and are double sided (useable area 46" X 46", or 116 cm X 116 cm).  It is strongly recommended that posters be 36" X 46" (91 X 116 cm) in either landscape or portrait mode.  The 46" dimension is not an error -- 46" will ensure that the entire poster fits within the metal frame of the poster board.

Velcro tape needs to be used to hang posters (we will have a supply of this on hand).  Pins of any type are not permitted on the poster boards.

Note that ' means feet and " means inches.  We don't want any miniature stonehenge posters!