By Dr. Juliana Medeiros, Scientist, The Holden Arboretum
The Holden Arboretum Research department made a strong showing at the 2015 Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) Annual Meeting, which was held in Baltimore, MD August 9-14th.
Eight members of the research team attended, including (L to R) Holden staff members Charlotte Hewins, David Burke and Juliana Medeiros, and 2015 Holden Interns Rahne McIntire, Emily Titus, Jaynell Nicholson and Callie Dowrey. Behind the scene taking our photo was the eight member of our team, recent Holden PhD graduate from Case Western Reserve University, Kathy Krynak.
The theme of this year’s meeting was “Ecological Science at the Frontier: Celebrating ESA’s Centennial”. The long history of ESA speaks to its reputation as the premier professional organization for ecologists, and the annual conference is attended by thousands of ecologists from around the world. This makes it a great conference experience for aspiring scientists, and a great place for established scientists to reinvigorate their excitement and commitment to science. Thanks to the generosity of The Holden Arboretum our summer interns had the chance to dive head first into the world of scientific communication and networking during the last week of their 12 week internship. I think most of us remember our first experience of feeling like a “professional” in our chosen career, be it a promotion, a conference or an internship. ESA was such an opportunity for our interns, and it gave me the opportunity to enjoy one of the most rewarding parts of my job: seeing the excitement on a student’s face when they realize that they have a talent and a passion for research that can translate into a rewarding career in science. All of them agreed it was a week they will never forget, and they offered to share some of their inspirational moments with us.
In addition to attending talks, Rahne V. McIntire had fun chatting with the vendors about new advances in scientific equipment. She was especially excited to meet the folks at the LiCor Biosciences booth, because her intern project over the summer involved measuring photosynthesis using their most famous piece of equipment, the LI-6400 Portable Photosynthesis System. She was delighted that one of their conference giveaways included this handy dandy field notebook with a start-up checklist for the LI-6400. When asked what she will remember about her conference experience Rahne replied: “I think it was an amazing experience and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. I learned about extra floral nectaries and how they are used in herbivore defense. I also learned that bumble bees are possibly self-medicating by visiting flowers that produce specific chemicals that combat parasite infection.”
Emily Titus came to the conference not knowing what to expect, and so branched out to explore a huge diversity of talks and poster presentations. I began to look forward to hearing her report about some odd topic as we passed each other in the halls on breaks. I asked Emily to describe her favorite thing about the conference and she said: “My favorite thing was how excited everybody was about science. All the presentations were really interesting and then people were asking questions and even in down time, breaks between talks or over lunch, everybody was still talking science! It was the ultimate nerd experience! The coolest thing I learned was probably that no matter what you’re interested in, you can study it, just based on the enormous range of topics of talks I went to, from soil to trees to pollinators to baboons. It felt almost like being a little kid at Christmas again, except with science!”
Jaynell Nicholson had the opportunity to make her first presentation at a major scientific conference, which was pretty exciting. Her poster was about her research examining root morphological diversity among Rhododendron species growing in the Layer Garden at the Holden Arboretum. But the surprise of the week was that Jaynell is a networking genius, she attended informational sessions, mixers and workshops late into the evening every night. When I asked Jaynell what she came away with from the meeting she had this to say: “My experience at this year’s ESA meeting has provided me with so many opportunities. I have met potential advisers for graduate school, people to discuss dual master’s programs with in Conservation and Public policy, people to help me get involved in the SEEDS program and other undergraduates and recent graduates to keep in contact with. Many of the people I have met have offered to read any applications and essays for pretty much anything I apply to in the future at their respective institutions and some have even told be about summer programs that I should apply to.“
Sitting in the cool dark of the conference room, Callie Dowrey waited excitedly to hear one of her scientific heroes give their talk. By the end of the week she was overflowing with new ideas, new questions, and new avenues of investigation. Callie said: “It was a little overwhelming at first, and sometimes I wished I could be at 2 or 5 places at one time, but overall I had an amazing experience and hope to attend again, maybe even go to some other conferences. I loved getting to see how casual ecologists are; it makes them easy to approach and have a conversation with! (Attending the conference) gave me some new ideas for my own research as well as presenting different tools to do so. I also learned about an exciting opportunity to possibly do some research in Japan, which I’ve been wanting to be able to do for a long time!”
On top of all of the science fun, one of the best parts of the conference is always sitting down with your lab mates after a long day and sharing stories over dinner. The last day of the conference the students were exhausted and happily enjoyed their last meal together with Kathy and Charlotte at Phillips Seafood, a local Baltimore favorite on the Inner Harbor.
All in all it was a wonderful experience, the students had fun and we were proud to see them represent Holden Research with such talent and enthusiasm. We really do hate to see the interns go home at the end of the summer, but this year the end was made a little sweeter because we were able to provide them with their first conference experience, which will always hold a special memory.
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