Early Career Members

Sean Ritter

PhD Candidate, UBC

CSPB Student Representative

This past academic year was the inaugural year for the student representative position on the CSPB/SCBV executive committee. This position was created to amplify the voice of students in proceedings of the society, and to provide additional opportunities for student members. One such example of this is the inclusion of a student member on the Ragai Ibrahim Award committee, which recognizes excellence in graduate student publication. Reviewing application was an inspiring process and representative of the high quality of research being done by graduate students across the country. Congratulations to Song Siyu of the University of British Columbia, the 2024 winner of the award, as well as Deka Mohamed of University of Toronto (Scarborough) who received an honorable mention. If you have a recent primary author publication and are either currently a student or within 12 months of graduation, please consider applying for the 2025 award.

The recent Plant Canada 2024 meeting, held in Winnipeg this past July, was a great success in bringing together student members from across Canada. The scientific programming of the meeting highlighted the talented grad students across Canada, congratulations to all winners of both poster and oral presentation awards. Additionally, career development opportunities for CSPB/CSBV members were provided through the organization of a workshop hosted by Botany Co-Editors-in-Chief Dr. Liette Vasseur and Dr. Shelley Hepworth and Journal Development Specialist Rachel Pietersma on building authorship and peer review skills ,and a society social. Special thanks to the outgoing Post-Doctoral Representative Dr. Mark Minnow, for both his work in organizing both the workshop and the society social in conjunction with Dr. Eliana Gonzales-Vigil and Dr. Mark Belmonte. The social provided an informal environment to meet both student and faculty members of the society from across Canada while competing in a plant and CSPB/CSBV history trivia competition. Attendees will attest that the event featured both healthy competition and a jovial atmosphere. Plans are currently underway for western and eastern regional meetings, as well as the CSPB annual meeting in 2025, so keep an eye out for upcoming calls for abstracts.

Ongoing initiatives include facilitating the Budding Ideas Column of the bulletin, which serves to provide a platform for early career members of the society to discuss issues of importance to them, continued service on the Ragai Ibrahim Award Committee and facilitation of workshops and social events at upcoming CSPV/CSBV meetings. As this remains a relatively new position, any input on how the student representative can best serve the graduate student population is welcome. If you have any suggestions, please to do not hesitate to contact me at studentrep@cspb-scbv.ca.