Saturday, March 31, 2012

SFS 2012 Louisville, KY

Today was the last day for early registration to the 2012 Society for Freshwater Science (formerly NABS) annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, and I squeezed in mine just in time. Since I was forced to state an "University/Organization", and I no longer have any affiliations, I just put down "freelance taxonomist". Hope that works.

This year's focus is on freshwater stewardship on a global scale. If you are familiar with the former incarnation of SFS, the North American Benthological Association, you'll know this international focus is recent. And NABS was the creation of the older Midwestern Benthological Society, founded in 1953. Back then, the focus was mostly on provincial aquatic invertebrate biology and ecology, with a large taxonomic component. Over the past 20 years the focus has become more inclusive, with an unfortunate decline in taxonomic contributions.

Still, I am looking forward to attending. Some of my thesis work is being published in a key to the mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies (EPT) of the Southeastern United States, and my mentor is giving a talk about it. There's also the taxonomy fair, which I hope will be well attended, and hopefully some taxonomy related sessions and posters. And of course I'll attend the sessions on biomonitoring and behavior. There is no information on individual talks at the moment, so I will update on my "must see events" when I get more information.

Will any of my readers be attending? If so, I look forward to seeing you there!

2 comments:

dave said...

Zach - I am going as gentleman trichopterist. I attend to see friends and hopefully it will be well attended by the caddis folks in that part of the world. Maybe I will bring some stuff for stump the chumps this time. Bring your odd stuff so we can all look at it.

Kai said...

I don't really have any 'weird' stuff right now. All of the Savannah River Project specimens are at Clemson. But I will be attending, to see what everyone else has. :)