Conference: "2011 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages"; to be held August 2-7, 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Scientific Impact. This NSF grant will fund travel awards for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and some starting investigators who lack funding, to attend the 2011 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Conference to be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from August 2-7, 2011. Applicants will be recruited by advertisements in scientific journals and direct emails to past and probable conference attendees. The advertisement directs the recipient to the conference web site (http://www.union.wisc.edu/phages/index.html), which contains instructions for applying for a travel grant. All applicants for the travel awards are required to submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation and a letter outlining financial need. The applications and abstracts are reviewed by the conference organizers, who award travel grants based on scientific merit and financial need. The Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages conference is the direct descendent of the original ?phage meetings? organized by Delbruck, Luria, Hershey, and colleagues in the 1940s, and thus is the oldest scientific gathering focused on prokaryotic molecular biology. The conference site now alternates between its historical home at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. While the focus of the meeting has expanded over the years, it still remains dedicated to the problem-oriented philosophy of the physicists, chemists, and microbiologists who founded the meeting. The conference provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of the latest research findings and technical advances in modern prokaryotic molecular biology. It is the primary scientific meeting for many laboratories working with prokaryotes, and when held in Madison, the average attendance is over 325. A central aspect and major attraction of the meeting is the breadth of the research presented, ranging from basic phage genetics to organismal genomics/proteomics, from atomic level structure-function analyses to microbial cell biology, from single-molecule biochemistry to viral self-assembly, and from host interactions to ecology and evolution. The diversity of research areas is mirrored by the diversity of organisms investigated, including model organisms as well as environmentally and medically relevant bacteria and phages. Broader Educational Impact. A key objective of the meeting is to provide a broad educational experience for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other young scientists who constitute over half of the attendees of the meeting. Nearly all the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows attending this meeting give a poster or oral presentation. It is one of the few remaining open-program meetings, where the majority of the oral presentations are selected from submitted abstracts and all of the vibrant poster sessions run for the entire meeting. Consequently, most of the presentations are given by the people actually performing the research. In addition, leading scientists are invited to present comprehensive introductions to the 10 scientific sessions and short talks on their own works. The session chairs represent a mixture of established senior investigators and prominent emerging investigators at earlier stages of their careers. Two keynote lectures will also given by world-renowned scientists, Dr. Carol Gross and Dr. John Roth. The session leaders and keynote speakers remain on site for the entire meeting. As such, scientific experts are always in the audience, which ensures high scientific standards and critical yet supportive questioning and commentary at the conclusion of talks. The close proximity of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior and senior faculty generates a unique atmosphere for scientific interactions. The organizers take into account gender balance and try to include as many minority scientists as possible as session chairs and presenters. Some of the most important findings in the field of bacterial and phage molecular genetics are presented and discussed yearly at this meeting.