The Dept. of Tropical Plants and Soil Sciences’ presence was well represented by Drs. Kent Kobayashi, Ted Radovich, Orville Baldos, and Kauahi Perez, along with graduate student Todd Anderson.
The August 10-13 international event featured all the typical elements of past annual ASHS conferences (oral, poster, and workshop presentations), with the exception that oral and poster presentations were pre-recorded and live Q&A sessions were held via Zoom. Workshops also took on an interesting flavor this year as they consisted of presentations and breakout rooms on the Zoom virtual platform!
“This virtual conference rocked!,” said Kent. “Looking forward so much to next year that when I woke up this morning, Denver was on my mind!“
Dr. Kauahi Perez also voiced her excitement regarding this virtual conference experience, stating, “This year's conference format was very different due to the pandemic, but was also one of the best ones I've attended thus far, and I look forward to next year's conference in Colorado!”
Aside from moderating sessions or discussing their research presentations, the TPSS representatives hosted a virtual recruitment session, where they shared their experiences to students who are interested in the TPSS graduate program. TPSS alumni Dr. Scott Lukas at Oregon State University (top-right) and Tiare Silvasy at the University of Florida (bottom-right) also dropped into the TPSS virtual recruitment session to contribute.
Great job to TPSS for a successful conference in these strange times!