Message from the DOB Officers

Chris Martine, Chair, chair.dob@sicb.org; Ulrike Muller, Chair-Elect, chairelect.dob@sicb.org; Karolina Heyduk, Secretary, secretary.dob@sicb.org; Morgan Furze, Program Officer; dpo.dob@sicb.org

Hello, DoB members – hope your 2022 is off to a good start! We’re still excited from SICB and SICB+ meetings, where we had a number of plant talks and posters from our members! There was a fabulous social at the Desert Botanical Garden at the in-person meeting, and we’re already planning some fun botanical-focused socials for 2023.

DOB Student Awards

We had some really excellent entries for best student talk and poster competitions! We’re pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Rising Star of Botany Awards:

Best student talk winner: Kendra Maclaine, University of Texas, Austin.

Best student poster winner is Trinity Depatie, University of South Carolina.

Welcoming New Division Officers

We’re sad to say farewell to Chris Muir and Janet Steven, who are stepping off as Secretary and Program Officer, respectively. Karolina Heyduk joins us as the new Secretary, Morgan Furze is stepping up as Program Officer, and Bryan MacNeill is taking over the Student and Post Doc Rep!

We’re now holding elections for the position of Secretary-Elect – see the candidate statement below! And later this year, we will hold an election for the position of Chair-Elect. If you are interested in serving our division in this position, please contact any of our division officers.

Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @SICB_DOB.

Candidate for Secretary-Elect 

David Sleboda

Current Position: HFSP Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California Irvine

Education: B.S. Michigan State University (2012); Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University (2019)

Professional Experience: Secretary, Brown University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Association (2018); President, Brown University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Association (2017).

SICB Activities: Division of Botany Member (2021-Present); Division of Vertebrate Morphology Member (2013-Present); Division of Comparative Biomechanics Member (2020); Recipient: Honorable Mention in the Division of Comparative Biomechanics Best Student Talk Presentation Competition (2020).

Other Memberships: Botanical Society of America

Research Interests: I study motor organ biomechanics in animals and plants. I use theory and techniques developed for the study of hydrostatic skeletons to understand the mechanics of soft multicellular organs more generally.

Statement of Goals : Botany talks at SICB opened my mind to the wonderful world of plant biomechanics. I want to help get other animal biologists interested in plant biology by exposing them to the many theoretical and technical parallels that bridge animal- and plant-centric research projects.