Workshop and CMC Progess

Hi guys,

Last week I got the privilege of attending a workshop sponsored by iDigBio on Digitization and Databasing Natural Collection. Before I tell you more about the meeting, let me first tell you a little bit about iDigBio.

iDigBio stands for Integrated Digitized Biocollections and it is a program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It's purpose is to serve as a resource for advancing digitization of biological collections. If you want to learn more about their workshops or the program itself, here is the link to their website - https://www.idigbio.org/

Now, a lot of people don't understand the importance of initiatives like this, so let me try to give you some insight. The digitization effort makes data and images for millions of biological specimens available electronically for everyone. Basically, it takes the wealth of data that can be found in museums or herbaria and puts it out on the internet so that it can be used for anything from simple curiosity to answering pivotal research questions.

So at this workshop, I got to hear stories from several important people and organizations in the realm of natural collections. Some organizations that had representatives at the meeting include the New York Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institue, Specify, iPlant, MorphBank, and a wide variety of smaller herbaria and collections across the United States. These representatives shared stories of their personal digitization efforts as well as some useful workflow tips and software to make the digitization process quicker and more efficient.

One thing I learned was that there is a program available for easing the burden of verifying specimen names (verifying that the name on the specimen is the most current and legitimate name for the species). This program comes from the iPlant collaborative and it is called Taxonomic Name Recognition Service. It allows you to upload a list of names that you want to verify and it runs all of the names through reputable sources and gives you the accepted name and a score for the name accuracy. This allowed us here at CMC to complete a task that used to take several hours, if not days, to about half an hour. Here's the link http://tnrs.iplantcollaborative.org/.

Next I want to show you the progress of organization here at CMC.

We got all the tables set up

File cabinets set up and dissecting microscopes out and available for use

Cabinets organized and appropriately labelled

 And we are making some progress in the cabinets as well.

Example Specimen

Example Annotation

Example Species Folder Label

Example Genus Cover label

 Well, that is all I have for you this time. Thanks for reading.

-Taylor

Botany 2012 - Columbus, Ohio.

This week Rachel, Derek, Lisi, Hillary (students that work at Anna's lab) and I went to the Botany 2012 conference in Columbus, OH!

Botany 2012 Logo. Source:http://www.botanyconference.org/

We arrived in Columbus on Sunday and I rushed to the workshop: " Successful Manuscript Preparation and Publication." The workshop explained, in details, the process of getting an article published from its submission to its denial/acceptance. I found this workshop VERY helpful as I intend to publish an article out of my undergraduate research this year. I was also very happy to find that many international students attended the workshop! Luckily, I had the chance to meet a Brazilian lady and it felt really great to finally speak Portuguese after months without doing so(I don't know if I mentioned before, but I am an international student from Brazil at CMU)!

That night we went to the key note speech "Respecting the Past and Embracing the Future: Envisioning Botany in the Next Generation" by Sir Pete Crane from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University! It was quite an inspiring speech in a great atmosphere.

On Monday, I attended student presentations in the morning and the "Student Involvement in Botany Luncheon and Interactive Career Panel" in the afternoon. Lunch was served while their main speaker gave a talk on choosing a career path.  After this, we briefly talked with a professional that was sitting in our table and to all the other that were sitting in different tables. There were professionals there from various backgrounds: research institution, academia, liberal arts institution, government, NGO, industry and private sector/consulting. The luncheon was, without a doubt, one of the most important events I attended at this conference! I was able to talk to people about research, graduate school and learn more about the employment possibilities for internationals at the U.S.

I also presented my poster on Monday night! I have been doing research with the Biology faculty Dr. Dannenhoffer since 2010. I research the growth patterns of aspen trees in a rare environment of the Great Lakes called "Alvar." Basically the aspen trees that grow on the alvar look very weird and stunted and we are looking for the diferences in between then and the "regular" aspens that grow on the forests nearby! That's what my poster is about!

My poster at the BOTANY 2012 Conference

On Tuesday, I went to more speeches and I started volunteering at the venders stands so I could cover my registration costs! The Botanical Society of America (BSA) was quite awesome and offered volunteering opportunities for students so they could cover the costs of the registration. Also, they offered scholarships for field trips!

I volunteered selling books at the vendors stands

I also went to the student social at night at the Barley's Brewing Company! It was very fun getting to know botanists from all around the world! I personally love talking about plants and let's say people don't talk about it too frequently hahaha. So, it felt every refreshing and encouraging to be in an environment where I could discuss my ideas and talk about what I do and actually be understood!

Usually when I am back at Central Michigan University, people ask where I work and the conversation never gets too far because not many people heard about Herbaria before in their lives! So, I am usually the one that introduce them to the subject, heheh!

Wednesday morning, I attended the Michigan Consortium of Botanists breakfast! It was great to see some familiar faces (most people there were at the Michigan Consortium of Botanists meeting previously that summer) and make some more connections!

I took the afternoon to walk around the Short North District which was just a 15 min walk away from the conference! There, I could see lots of street art (which I love!!) and visit art galleries, patisseries,eat at yummy restaurants and buy some gifts!

The Cliff Dwellers Mural

The American Gothic Mural

The Monalisa Mural

The City of Archs!

On Wednesday night, Anna, Anna's students  and I went to the all Society's banquet! It was a huge event with great food and talks! I got to stand up when they congratulated the students that got a BSA award this year!



I didn't mention it before, but I got the "Young Botanist Award" this year due to my work in the Botanical area! Also, it was only possible thanks to my research, Dr. Dannenhofer, that nominated me!

BSA Young Botanist Award

On Thursday, the girls, Derek and I participated in the Prairie Fens of Ohio field trip! We went to 3 different sites and had a day full of "botanizing"! Lots of beautiful plants and interested conversations, the things I like the most!

Botanists at the Field Trip

Rachel (on the back) and I hanging around the Fen!

After nearly 5 hours of botanizing we drove back to Mt. Pleasant and our Botany adventure came to an end!

Overall, I had an AMAZING time at the conference and I thank everyone that made this trip a reality for me!

Thanks for reading this giant post :D

Emilie

Week 1: Arrival and Exploration

Hey guys,
My name is Taylor. I am the newest graduate student to start in the Monfils Lab. I have been given the pleasure of helping Emilee and Dr. Monfils digitize and re-organize the Central Michigan Herbarium.

The first task I was given was to address workflow issues by re-organizing the herbarium for digitization. The following pictures will serve as our "before" shots.

 While we were cleaning out one of the cabinets near the front of the herbarium, we found some very incredible books!
  

A collection of hand drawn and hand painted floral drawings

Book 1 of a 5 book set of North American Wild Flowers
 issued by the Smithsonian Institute

A book of hand drawn and hand painted flowers found in Hawaii

A book of pressed plant specimens from the late 1800s

A book of pressed New Zealand ferns arranged in artistic combinations. The cover is made of real wood!

A book of prepared algae specimens, most colored artistically

Some impressive specimens from "Algae"

> >I look forward to sharing the continued progress of the Central Michigan Herbarium, as well as the continued progress of the digitization progress with Emilee and Dr. Monfils.

Thanks for reading
-Taylor
CMU Research Assistant