Bryology Outdoors

I have decided to add an additional heading to the left side of this blog entitled "Bryology Outdoors". I realized that I know about a number of outdoor field-trips and workshops that focus on bryophytes. A few of them are local here in Connecticut, which I will be attending. Others are further afield, such as the SO BE FREE 15 in New Mexico, which I may want to attend, but may be a little far for my travel budget this year.

Here is a list of the outdoor events that I have posted thus far. If you know of any others to add to the list please let me know.

What: Mysterious Mosses - Moss Walks
When: May 30, 2009 10am-12noon or 1:30-3:30pm
Where: West Redding, Connecticut, New Pond Farm (non-profit environmental education center)
Who: I am leading this program.
Fees: $20 per NPF member, $30 per non-member
More Details: Contact the staff at New Pond Farm (203-938-2117) for reservations or click here for more information on their website.

What: Connecticut Bioblitz - 24 hour biological survey of a Connecticut park with scientists, students and members of the public.
When: June 12 & 13, 2009
Where: Goodwin College (Hartford, Connecticut) on Riverside Drive with parallel public events at Keney Park. We will be looking for wildlife along the Connecticut River corridor south to Wethersfield Cove and throughout the 693 acres of Keney Park and the Matianuck State Preserve.
Who: Sponsored by the Center for Conservation and Biodiversity and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut. My laboratory, headed up by Dr. Goffinet, will be surveying all of the bryophytes during the blitz.
More Details: Check out the Bioblitz website here. If you are interested in joining the bryophyte team for all or part of the bioblitz feel free to drop me an email (jessica.budke@uconn.edu). We would be happy to have additional help with the collecting and identifying. I also have a PDF of a flyer for this event if you are interested in advertising in your area.

What: 34th Annual A. Leroy Andrews Foray, Exploring valleys and bogs of northeastern Connecticut.
When: September 18 - 20, 2009
Where: Woodstock, Connecticut, YMCA Camp Woodstock
Who: Contact person for the foray is Juan Sanchez (jasdarwin2@charter.net). (I will also be attending, probably with other members of my lab.)
More Details: Additional information can be found here at the Goffinet Lab Website.

What: Spring Outing, Botanical Excursion, Foray, Retreat, and Escape into the Environment (SOBEFREE 15)
When: March 23 - 26, 2010
Where: Sacramento Mountains, southern New Mexico
Who: This event is sponsored annually by the Bryo Lab at the University of California Berkeley.
(I probably will not be in attendance as this event is quite a trek from Connecticut.)
More Details: Additional information about this event can be found by linking here to the BryoLab's website.

Back in the Swing of Things

Busyness has kept me away from the blogging in the past couple of weeks. The semester has wrapped up and I will not be teaching over the summer, which is a relief to my schedule. I took a week off to visit my family in Ohio. No mossy stories to report from there, but it was great to have a vacation!

I also heard back about the grants that I applied for back in March. I am thrilled to report that I received all four of the grants! Let me tell you that this was quite a surprise. Grants to fund research in the biological sciences are highly competitive. (For grant applications to the National Science Foundation ~15% of the grants are funded.) Often researchers apply multiple times before receiving funding for their research. Thus I am excited and honored to be awarded the funding from these national and international competitions. It is great to know that others in my field think that my research ideas are exciting and interesting. I am looking forward to a summer filled with research on my mosses that will entail a lot of electron microscopy.

Here is a list of the awards I received and links to the funding agencies.
Stanley Greene Award: International Association of Bryologists (1 of 3 awarded)
Graduate Student Research Award: Botanical Society of America (1 of 13 awarded)
Graduate Student Research Fellowship: American Microscopical Society (1 of 1 awarded)
Henry N. Andrews Endowment Fund: University of Connecticut Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept.

Also I will be giving a Moss Walk at New Pond Farm in West Redding Connecticut on Saturday May 30th. Check out their webpage here for more details.

Berry Go Round #16

The latest edition of the plant carnival Berry Go Round has been posted at Quiche Moraine. Stop by to check out all of the interesting plant related posts from the past month!

For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.