Dear lab heads,
Please notify the organizers of the FASEB Ciliate Molecular Biology Meeting
if an undergraduate from your lab will be attending the meeting. The last
meeting included an undergraduate research mini-symposium, which we would
like to continue.   These students could present a poster during the formal
poster sessions AND give a talk during the undergraduate research
mini-symposium.

Contact Jeff Kapler at [log in to unmask] with the names of
undergraduates that will be attending.   We can provide partial support for
their attendance at the meeting.

Excerpted from funded NSF proposal:

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH MINI-SYMPOSIUM
(Student chair, to be chosen; Faculty advisor, Emily Wiley, Claremont
McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges)
 To highlight the achievements of undergraduate research within the ciliate
community, an undergraduate research mini-symposium will follow the Ciliates
in the Classroom workshop.  This platform session will serve the dual role
of demonstrating the quality science that can result from implementing the
teaching tools and programs discussed in the workshop, and provide
undergraduate conference participants with the unusual opportunity to give
an oral presentation of their work.  Offered for the first time in 2009,
this meeting event will provide valuable experience to budding scientists.
Speakers will be selected based on their submitted abstracts, fields of
study, and demonstrated commitment to research.  We expect broad
representation from different disciplines, such as cell biology, evolution,
and molecular biology.  The session will be organized and chaired by two
students (pre-selected) under consult from their faculty mentors.  We will
also make every effort to include students who are women and/or members of
under-represented minorities.  Undergraduates typically account for 5-7% of
conference participants.  The addition of this symposium should further
increase that number, enhance future student interest in using ciliates as a
model system, and establish the ciliate community as inclusive and
supportive of this group of young scientists.