The Graduate Student Committee of the US LTER Network is pleased to announce that we will be holding a Graduate Student Symposium in April 2005 at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest LTER Facility in Blue River, Oregon. We will have the ability to support the participation of 10 graduate students from the ILTER Network.
This Research Symposium is designed specifically to foster interactions among LTER graduate students that will stimulate their engagement in comparative and collaborative research efforts. The symposium will serve to encourage present and future graduate student participation in the broader LTER community, emphasizing new focuses on innovative and synthetic work. Structured over four days, the symposium will include a short plenary address, synoptic talks focused on graduate student-led research at each of the 26 LTER sites and members of the ILTER Network, individual-based research talks, student-led workshops, and training sessions given by established LTER and affiliated personnel. Each of these activities has been included in order to ensure that the overall objectives of the symposium are achieved. The small size of the symposium will serve to generate a relaxed, informal atmosphere best suited to stimulate interaction and encourage participation by all attendees.
SYMPOSIUM STRUCTURE
The general format of the proposed symposium will follow a framework with morning
sessions followed by lunch and an extended afternoon free period, continuing
with late afternoon sessions and evening social events (Table 1). A brief welcome
by the LTER Graduate Student Committee Co-Chairs will be directly followed by
a short (~30 minute) plenary address given by Whendee Silver to share her experiences
as both a graduate of and faculty member within the LTER community. This evening
will culminate in an “icebreaker” poster session/social that will
include general information posters from each of the participant LTER and ILTER
sites. The second day will consist of talks summarizing all current graduate
student research being conducted at each LTER site. This presentation will require
prior efforts by a participating graduate student from each LTER to query fellow
graduate students at their respective sites and collate the information into
comprehensive and cohesive reviews. In each of the two sessions there will be
16 presentations, each of 7 minutes in length. Of the 16 talks per session,
12 will be designated for LTER sites and 4 reserved for anticipated ILTER participants.