| 英文摘要: | Algae are a promising future platform for the sustainable production of liquid biofuels from sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide. There is rapidly growing research activity and investment by academia, government and the private sector to establish an algal biofuels industry in the United States. To move the scientific principles underlying this emerging area forward, there is a strong need for phycologists with expertise in the biodiversity and ecological significance of algae and seagrasses in aquatic environments to come together with scientists and engineers that conduct research on using algae to make biofuels. Towards, this end, the 2016 Northwest Algal and Seagrass Symposium (NWASS) will be held from May 6-8, 2016 at the Casey Conference Center, Whidbey Island, Washington. This conference award will sponsor 50 students from a diversity of academic institutions ranging from community colleges to research universities in the Pacific Northwest to attend the symposium as participants, poster presenters, and speakers.
Phycology is the scientific study of algae and aquatic plants. Since 1984, the Northwest Algal Symposium has been a unique forum to bring together phycologists from many bioscience disciplines, including marine biology, microbiology, ecology, from both academic and government institutions in Pacific Northwest, a geographic area spanning northern California to Alaska. The three-day symposium will have two keynote presentations, oral presentations, and poster presentations. The first set of presentations will overview the current state of algae and seagrass diversity in the Pacific Northwest, and the second set will highlight current efforts in algal biofuel research at institutions in the Pacific Northwest. The presentations will be delivered principally by students and post-doctoral research associates. The symposium will not have parallel sessions, but each presentation will be limited in time to maximize participation and engagement in an informal, supportive environment. The Pacific Northwest is home to many of the highest zones of biodiversity for algae and marine plants in North America. A unique aspect of NWASS is that the conference is situated several marine science stations and parks along the Pacific coast. As part of the symposium activities, phycologists and algal biofuel scientists will participate in field trips with hands-on sample collection activities to see algae in their natural environment. These relationship-building interactions will facilitate future collaborations, leading to a closer connection of the phycological research community with the algal biofuels research community. |