ASM 2012 Graduate Student Day
We continued the success of past graduate student symposiums at ASM 2012. Past symposiums included career panel discussions, graduate student presentations on cross-site work, and student-led and -organized working groups which led to productive interactions between graduate students. The working groups in particular provided the opportunity to network with other graduate students who are interested in similar topics but may be affiliated with different LTER sites. A number of past working groups have produced manuscripts and resulted in important publications.
The theme of the 2012 Graduate Student Symposium was “Cross-discipline ecology: Integrating additional sciences into ecological research within the LTER network.” We addressed this theme in four ways:
- A plenary talk by a distinguished LTER scientist who incorporated a social element into his or her long term research
- A panel of ecologists involved in cross-discipline collaborations within the LTER network
- Presentations by graduate students who successfully incorporated other sciences into their own research within the LTER network
- A graduate student-led working group examining how graduate students can incorporate additional sciences into their own research within the LTER network
Agenda:
Saturday, September 8th
Graduate student travel day
Evening – graduate student mixer - Assembly hall foyer
Sunday, September 9th
Morning Plenary - Ruesch Auditorium
8:30-8:40 Welcome (Kim La Pierre and Sally Koerner)
8:40-9:00 Brief introduction to the LTER/LNO (Dr. Bob Waide)
9:00-10:00 Plenary talk on integrating social sciences into ecological research within the LTER network (Dr. Nancy Grimm)
10:00-10:30 Coffee break - Assembly Hall
10:30-11:30 Three 20-minute talks by graduate students who conduct cross-discipline ecological research within the LTER network - (Sakura Evans, Sarah Frey Hadley)
11:30-12:30 Panel of LTER investigators who incorporate additional disciplines into LTER research - (Dr. Sandra Henderson, Dr. Dave Gutzler, Dr. Trina McMahon, Dr. Nancy Grimm)
12:30-1:30 Lunch - Aspen Dining Room
1:30-3:30 Graduate student led working group session A (concurrent sessions)
3:30-5:30 Graduate student led working group session B (concurrent sessions)
Graduate student working groups was either 2 hours in length (fitting within one of the two sessions) or four hours in length (extending over both sessions A and B).
Working group lengths were determined by the working group organizers and stated in their proposals. Working groups which are based on discussing methods/techniques or general ecological patterns across sites/disciplines may be 2 hours in length, while those which will come to ASM with a dataset to be analyzed may be 4 hours in length.
Breakout Rooms for the Afternoon Session were in the rooms behind the Auditorium - Bilheimer, Hobbs, Dodge and Sweet, as well as one in the Auditorium, and in Wind River Lodge Room B
By splitting the working groups into two sessions, graduate students were able to attend several sessions which interested them, rather than having to choose one or the other.