Dear colleagues and other researchers:
Hope you are all doing well and keeping healthy both physically and mentally. While we are beginning to see the light, it is obvious that we still have a lengthy journey ahead and the future will certainly be different from what we were used to both in our personal and professional lives. This certainly applies to prospects of any future academic meetings where we, along with our trainees, will be able to attend and present recent scientific research and engage with colleagues and other researchers.
With this in mind, and as a result of the many cancelled or postponed scientific meetings (including IBC2020), we are planning to host a free full-day Insect Biotech Conference Virtual Research Symposium (IBC VRS) on Thursday June 11, 2020 (9am-4pm EST; morning session 9am-12pm and afternoon session 1pm-4pm).
In keeping with the format of our annual IBC meeting, the aim is to provide trainees (i.e. undergrads, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers) an opportunity to present their research (15 min + 3 min questions), get input and feedback from the scientific community and to learn about progress being made by other trainees whose research aligns with the scope of the Insect Biotech Conference. In addition, we hope that all attendees of the IBC VRS, including principal investigators and trainees presenting or simply attending the symposium, will find this a good platform to network and connect with other researchers as the COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to greatly hinder in-person academic networking and communication.
Our intentions are to provide opportunities to deliver a wide range of topics related to insect biology and hopefully a broad scope of models with research involving physiology, neuroscience, biochemistry, genomics, molecular biology, ecology and evolution. Depending on the amount of interest and taking into account our goals to follow and promote EDI guidelines, we as the organizers may need to limit the number of talks selected from individual laboratories. This will also help to maintain good breadth in the research talks to ensure the symposium is as broadly informative as possible for all attendees. Please find the IBC VRS abstract submission form and note the key dates below. The registration link for all attendees (including presenters) can be found here: IBC VRS registration.
Key dates and deadlines at a glance:
Abstract submission deadline (no extensions): Fri May 29th, 2020 (5 pm EST)
Notification of selection for oral presentation: Wed June 3rd, 2020 (by end of day)
Schedule communicated to all early registrants: Fri June 5th, 2020 (5pm EST)
Registration deadline for all attendees (PI’s, presenters and other trainees): Mon June 8th, 2020 (5pm EST)
IBC VRS Zoom meeting link emailed with password along with reminder and final schedule: Wed June 10th, 2020 (5pm EST)
Please help get the word out by sharing with your trainees! We look forward to seeing you virtually at the IBC VRS!
Best wishes,
Jean-Paul and Andrew
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Jean-Paul Paluzzi and Andrew Donini
Co-Directors, Insect Biotech Conference
Website: https://paluzzi.lab.yorku.ca/ibc/
