Thanks to the participants for a successful North American Diatom Symposium! The meeting was marked by informative verbal and poster presentations in the midst of Colorado fall colors. An introductory lecture by Jill Baron set the stage, with Jill presenting the current understanding of processes affecting high elevation watersheds in Colorado. In the first plenary session, Sheri Fritz joined diatom autecology and stratigraphy to create an understanding of freshwater lake histories. In the second plenary session, David Williams discussed the historical development of theory in diatom systematics, pointing out the present dismal state of theory within the field. Physicist Ilse Gebeshuber "wowed" the diatom crowd with images of diatoms from an atomic force microscope, an amazing new technology with the capability to image live cells as well as measure the tensile forces of diatom mucilage. The evenings discussions were lively, as Jan Stevenson sparked controversy in the promotion of environmental metrics. After feeling slighted in the Non-Traditional Scum Non-Run, Roger Sweets and Jackie Huvane felt compelled to plan a "Jackie and Roger Trivia Contest" for the next meeting. Make sure you study! On Saturday, Alex Wolfe led a information-packed field trip Emmaline Lake, a high elevation cirque lake. A second field trip travelled to the headwaters of the Cache La Poudre River, finding Didymosphenia and an abundance of the red algae, Lemanea along the way. Several people did not pick up their copy of the group picture. If anyone would like a picture, and did not already get a copy, contact Sarah at the email address below. There were several teams with an abundance of obscure diatom knowledge and schmooze skills participating in this year's scum event. The team of Bob Edgar, Alex Wolfe and Norman Andresen missed only 6 of the 40 questions. For those who want to play the home version, try the buttons that follow.Many thanks to the generous NADS sponsors! This year's NADS meeting was made possible by generous contributions from our supporters. We were pleased to have German Neal of LEO Electron Microscopy, Charles Lubrecht of Lubrecht & Cramer, and Gary Hanson of E. Licht/ Leica to display their goods in the Fireplace Lounge at Pingree Park. We would like to thank all our sponsors again for making a successful meeting. AATA International, Inc.
Seven travel awards
were given to students who submitted abstracts for verbal or poster presentations
by the abstract deadline. There are many excellent student abstracts, and
the decision to select a few for travel awards was difficult. A special thanks to NADS sponsor, Gary Hanson
of E. Licht, who offered a special student award to encourage excellence
in light microscopy. $250 Leica/E.
Licht Award NADS 2001
The 16th North American Diatom Symposium will be held in 2001 in Ely, Minnesota and will be organized by John Kingston and some as-yet-to-be-named co-conspirators. Check out the Ely area at: John C. Kingston |
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