With the COVID-19 pandemic raging on, scientific conferences across the world were canceled, delayed, and overall faced with chaos, leading to much disappointment throughout the community. Dissemination of research and discussing new ideas are essential elements of the scientific process, and conferences are important environments for these activities. The CAP Network was looking forward to sharing about the new undergraduate research course they developed in spring 2020, as well as continue to bring our data to the attention of potential collaborators, at Botany 2020, the annual, international conference of plant scientists. The pandemic seemed to stymie these plans.
Fortunately, the Botany conference pressed on. With a heroic effort, the organizers pivoted to an all-digital conference that, perhaps unsurprisingly, resulted in a massive uptick in registrations. Over a thousand plant scientists across the globe participated in the conference, despite juggling the innumerable challenges of COVID-19 life, from child care to online teaching to navigating different time zones.
Another benefit of the digital Botany 2020 conference is that nearly all the presentations were pre-recorded or recorded during the session, resulting in hundreds of high-quality scientific presentations digitally preserved and available for further dissemination. The CAP Network has uploaded our presentations to our YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy learning about recent developments in the CAP Network. Look out for more Botany 2020 presentations coming online in the next few weeks as scientists eagerly share their work.
Presentation by Katie Pearson on July 28, 2020.
Presentation by Dr. Jenn Yost on July 30, 2020.
