Archive - January 2013

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NSF Supported Cycad Biology Workshop for School Teachers

Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 10:33:50 AM

On Saturday January 26 we had our second Cycad Biology Workshop for teachers. This workshop was supported by the National Science Foundation (award number 1050340) and the logistics were jointly organized by the Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) and the Department of Education of FTBG. Both classroom and field lectures took place at MBC and we had instructors from MBC (Patrick Griffith and Michael Calonje), New York Botanical Garden (Dennis Stevenson), and FIU-FTBG (Javier Francisco-Ortega). Ten teachers from Aventura City Excellent School, Coral Reef Senio High School, Coral Terrace Elementary, Design Archirecture Senior High, George Washington Carver Elementary, and Management Resource Institute joined the workshop. Also FIU undergaduate student and NSF summer cycad research intern Nicolas Espinosa attended this workshop. Our special gratitude to Kiki Mutis from FTBG-Education for her help with all the logistics of this workshop.

Workshop participants

Patrick Griffith delivering his classroom lecture

Michael Calonje delivering his classroom lecture

Dennis Stevenson delivering his field lecture

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Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Supports Sixth Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society

Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 05:49:08 AM

Between January 9th - 12th the International Biogeography Society had its Sixth Biennial Conference in Miami. The event took place in the Kovens Conference Center of The Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden was one of the event sponsors with a significant gift to provide Travel Awards to talented graduate students who wanted to present their results in this conference. Both foreign and national students were eligible to this award. Our congratulations to FIU-FTBG faculty Dr. Ken Feeley. As Meeting Host (ex officio), Dr. Feeley organized the logistics of this conference. Research performed in the Garden had a relevant presence in this conference. FIU-FTBG faculty Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega delivered the Introductory Plenary Lecture. His talk was entitled: "Brief Introduction to the Biogeography of the Caribbean Islands". FIU-FTBG Graduate students Brian Machovina, Evan M. Rehm, and Klara Scharnagl delivered presentations that were co-authored with their respective advisors Dr. Ken Feeley, Dr. Eric Von Wettberg, and Dr. Krish Jayachandran. Immediately after the conference the Network for Neotropical Biogeography had its second meeting at the Montgomery Botanical Center on January 14th, 2013.

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