Swiss Society of Plant Biology
In 2024, we had our annual SwissPLANT meeting in January. The meeting started with the General Assembly of the Society and was followed by 2 days of science talks. The 2024 SwissPLANT was further preceded by a one-day Early Career Meeting. Our young colleagues had lively and exciting scientific discussions together. Thanks to the generous support of SCNAT we could cover the cost of this Early Career Meeting for all participants. Most of them also participated to the SwissPLANT meeting to which they brought an excellent spirit, contributed to a great poster session, and gave two selected talks (chosen by the participants of the Early Career Meeting). For the early career scientists, this was a very important networking event.
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The Swiss Society of Plant Biology held its 32nd annual symposium «SwissPLANT» from January 17-19 in Les Diablerets. The Early Career Meeting took place from early afternoon January 16 to lunchtime on January 17 at the same place. The SwissPLANT scientific committee consisted of Zurich University members: Cyril Zipfel, Simon Aeschbacher, Florian P. Schiestl, Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi, Sara Simonini, Sofia van Moorsel, and Tobis Züst. 57 scientists met to present and discuss current research advances in plant sciences in Switzerland. The meeting offered excellent opportunities to interact and network with peer plant scientists.
A subset of the SSPB members have joined the Swiss Plant Microbe Interaction (SPMI) network, initiated by Joelle Sasse Schlaepfer (UZH) and Klaus Schlaeppi (UniBasel). The SPMI network shares their seminars and invited guest lectures on plant-microbe interaction topics with their members in an online seminar series. There were 9 and 7 events in the Spring and Fall semesters of 2024. This functions simply by the hosts streaming their local seminars to the network over Zoom. The SPMI network members always receive the Zoom by email a few days before each event. To become part of the network, interested people send an email to support‐pmi@unibas.ch with name, research group, and affiliation. Klaus Schlaeppi manage this mailing list only for the purpose of the SPMI network.
We contributed to the 2024 Rigi Workshop “Exploring Epiogenetics” by sponsoring the participant of our SSPB member Luis Lopez-Molina (UNIGE).
The Swiss Society for Plant Biology is a member of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (https://fespb.org/).
SwissPLANT2024 was preceded by a one-day Early Career meeting. All attendees presented a talk and a poster. They selected 2 talks for presentation at the SwissPLANT meeting. The meeting was greatly appreciated, and it made SwissPLANT2024 particularly lively. We are looking forward to organize such an event again combined with SwissPLANT2025.
In order to cope with the difficulty associated with running the society without administrative support, the SSPB board proposed to raise the yearly membership fee from 40.- to 60.- starting in 2025. This proposal was accepted at the general assembly.
In 2024, the society operated without an administrative coordinator, which is a challenge. This will be discussed during the General Assembly of 2025 to find a new solution. The board hopes that we can get 10% administrative support.
- Mailings to all members of the Society (primarily done by the President of the SSPB)
- Maintenance of our website (https://swissplantscienceweb.unibas.ch/en/) that posts research portfolios, news, events, and job openings in plant biology research is now done by Klaus Schlaeppi. Website hosts portfolios of ~120 researchers focusing on plant science in Switzerland.
- These SSPB members currently participate as Board members in the SCNAT Forum on Genetic Research: Didier Reinhardt (U Fribourg), Bruno Studer (ETH Zurich), Sebastian Soyk (U Lausanne).
- SSPB member Roman Ulm (U Geneva) is a board member of the SCNAT Biology Platform.
- Members of the SSPB including Nina Buchmann (ETH Zurich), Jake Alexander (ETH Zurich), Klaus Schlaeppi (U Basel), Marcus Schaub (WSL) and Achim Walter (ETH Zurich) have updated the white paper text for the SwissBioSites. This was included in the newly published Biology Roadmap for Large Research Infrastructures. This initiative lobbies for enhancing the plant phenotyping network and infrastructure in Switzerland.
- In order to raise awareness for plant biology, the Society maintains a website that regularly features news and events that are also aimed at the interested public.
> https://swissplantscienceweb.ch
- Various outreach activities are organized by Plant Biologists from our Universities. We currently can’t offer additional support from the society itself.