COMMUNITY OUTREACH
ASB's mission is to promote biology in our communities and to affect positive change in the world. Below, you can see how the Association, as well as our Members and Affiliates, have been benefiting the community. If you know of ways that ASB and its members can affect change, please CONTACT US.
Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage (SWFP) is a 70+ year-old annual nonprofit event in which members of the public (AKA Pilgrims) can register for professionally-guided walks, exhibits, and other learning opportunities to explore the region's rich natural and cultural resources. Pilgrims from more than 40 states and several countries make the pilgrimage each year to learn more about fungi, ferns, wildflowers, trees and shrubs, medicinal plants, insects (terrestrial and aquatic), salamanders and snakes, birds, mammals (bats to bears), journaling, art and photography, and park history.
The SWFP is managed by the ASB Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage Committee. ASB members regularly serve as leaders. |
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NOVEL FUNDING SOURCE FOR SMALL PROJECTS IN PLANT GENETICS AND PLANT-ASSOCIATED MICROBIOLOGY

The Bennetzen lab at the University of Georgia in Athens has a small (5 digit) amount of funding remaining from its endowment each year, and is interested in using these funds to support collaborations with medium-scale research projects from small colleges and universities in the ASB region. These projects can be in any area of plant genetics (including systematics, population genetics, and conservation genetics) or plant-related microbiology (e.g., soil microbiomics or pathogen variation) that involve DNA or RNA sequence analysis at a medium OMICs scale (dozens to hundreds, but not thousands, of samples). The goal will be to publish this work, with the proposal submitter(s) as the senior author(s).
See http://bennetzenlab.genetics.uga.edu/funding.html to access this opportunity. In brief, any interested faculty member from a small college or university in the Southeast (Texas to Florida, and as far north as Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Virginia) would need to submit a two-page proposal with the general details of a one-year project (goals, background, sample types/numbers/availability, and analyses requested) plus a two page cv. It is not a disqualifier if the proposal submitter is not certain which analyses would be most appropriate, in that this would be determined in conversations between the successful proposal submitter and the Bennetzen lab. The key points are the project’s importance, feasibility, timeframe and scale. Details are at http://bennetzenlab.genetics.uga.edu/funding.html The deadline for these proposals is 19 May 2025 and submitters will be informed of the funding decision by 29 May. We expect that 1 to 3 proposals will be funded in this first year. The selected participants will be given the opportunity, but not the obligation, to be mentored/trained in a short visit to the Bennetzen lab at UGA at a mutually convenient time in the fall of 2025, but any collaboration will involve a good deal of online cross-mentoring regardless.
We encourage you to investigate this possibility. So much excellent science is being overlooked at small research institutions in the US, because federal and other agencies tend to emphasize mega projects, so this novel funding idea is a step toward decreasing this problem. Dr. Bennetzen will be at the annual ASB meeting this year in Myrtle Beach, so be sure to talk with him if you have any questions.
photo credit: https://www.genetics.uga.edu/node/1575
See http://bennetzenlab.genetics.uga.edu/funding.html to access this opportunity. In brief, any interested faculty member from a small college or university in the Southeast (Texas to Florida, and as far north as Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Virginia) would need to submit a two-page proposal with the general details of a one-year project (goals, background, sample types/numbers/availability, and analyses requested) plus a two page cv. It is not a disqualifier if the proposal submitter is not certain which analyses would be most appropriate, in that this would be determined in conversations between the successful proposal submitter and the Bennetzen lab. The key points are the project’s importance, feasibility, timeframe and scale. Details are at http://bennetzenlab.genetics.uga.edu/funding.html The deadline for these proposals is 19 May 2025 and submitters will be informed of the funding decision by 29 May. We expect that 1 to 3 proposals will be funded in this first year. The selected participants will be given the opportunity, but not the obligation, to be mentored/trained in a short visit to the Bennetzen lab at UGA at a mutually convenient time in the fall of 2025, but any collaboration will involve a good deal of online cross-mentoring regardless.
We encourage you to investigate this possibility. So much excellent science is being overlooked at small research institutions in the US, because federal and other agencies tend to emphasize mega projects, so this novel funding idea is a step toward decreasing this problem. Dr. Bennetzen will be at the annual ASB meeting this year in Myrtle Beach, so be sure to talk with him if you have any questions.
photo credit: https://www.genetics.uga.edu/node/1575
BIOSCIENCE TALKS Podcast
#ASB2024 was featured in the Bioscience Talks Podcast with James Verdier. Listen to learn about the great things our members are doing!
Field Inclusive
Check out the amazing work of Field Inclusive, Inc.
Field Inclusive strives to provide tangible and actionable improvements in natural resources by addressing social field safety issues related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). We seek to support all field biologists in the natural sciences through identifying and addressing field safety issues, developing field safety resources, and supporting marginalized researchers through financial aid and experiential learning opportunities. |