Cyanobacteria Research/BIOCRUST4 Meeting

Global Initiatives Program | Faculty Reports

9 Aug – 30 Aug 2019 Queensland, Australia

During August 2019 Dr. Nicole Pietrasiak, Plant and Environmental Sciences Department, traveled to Australia to attend and present at two international meetings held at North Stradbroke Island (Minjerrabah), Queensland, Australia: the 21st Symposium of the International Association of Cyanophyte/Cyanobacteria Research (IAC2019) and the BIOCRUST4 meeting. Both meetings are held only every three years and are the largest international gatherings in the fields of cyanobacterial research, biological soil crusts, and dryland ecology. Pietrasiak presented three oral presentations and one poster presentation showcasing research on New Mexico terrestrial microbial flora. She also was co-author on additional seven presentations.

Three were from graduate students at collaborating institutions that she co-mentors. The topics of the presentations led to conversations with many meeting participants that expressed interest in potential new collaborations including Czech Republic (Katerina Capkova), Germany (Vincent Van Felde), Poland (Iwona Jasser), United Kingdom (David Elliott), Finland (Heli Juottonen), Mexico (Itzel Becerra-Absalon), and Australia (Wendy Williams). Last month, Pietrasiak already was asked to provide a letter of invitation to support a grant proposal application to the Finish Science Foundation requesting travel and research funds for a collaborative research project on microbial communities from dune environments.

Pietrasiak also met with multiple faculty and governmental researchers exchanging information about the academic programs available at ACES as well as shared informational brochures about the ACES’ Aggies Go Global program during both events. Faculty and researcher that expressed interest in exchange of students and faculty were Susanne Schmidt and Wendy Williams, University of Queensland, Australia; Baelhadj Hami Aissa, Quargla University, Algeria; and Itzel Itzel Becerra-Absalon, UNAM, Mexico. Pietrasiak encouraged interested faculty to contact Dr. Manoj Shukla to initiate the new networking opportunities with our college.