2009 -AAIC Association News

Conference News

I think everyone had an excellent time at the 2009 AAIC Meeting in Chile, though some of us may still be stiff from the long plane rides.  Our meeting started November 14 with a walking tour of Santiago.  We explored the area including the local transportation.  The group visited the Cerro San Cristobal, which is a hill in northern Santiago.  We rode the incline up the hill and walked back down.  On the hill we saw some amazing sights such the Andes in the distance, local vegetation (the native forest and botanical garden), wildlife (including a Chilean Tarantula for our spider lovers) and the panoramic views of Santiago. 

Sunday began with a long bus trip south where the attendees saw a wide range of agricultural districts.  After a stop for a late lunch at the Miguel Torres Winery followed by a tour of their wine operations.  We finally ended at our destination Termas de Chillan, Chillan, about 9:30pm Sunday night which sits at the base of a volcano and the sights were amazing.  Though tired, we had our Welcome and Reception Dinner followed by the opening speaker (Wayne Seames, The Next Generation of Biofuels).  The first night of our meeting went into the wee hours of the morning.  I must admit that this must be the first time the opening of our meeting has spanned into the next day.

                Monday morning, our exciting program began which included a Plenary Session, Bioenergy Symposium, full day sessions of Oilseeds and Medicinal and Nutraceuticals, half day sessions of General Crops, Natural Rubber and Resins, and Fiber and Cellulosics as well as poster sessions.  We had very interesting presentations which lead to group discussions throughout the meeting.  In total the program had 51 oral presentations and 39 poster presentations.  Abstracts of all presentations and the program are posted on our website (www.aaic.org).

          As usual we did not all sit in dark rooms all day during the meeting.  On Tuesday we had our field trip to Universidad de Concepcion, Experimental Station, Chillan, and explored Chilean medicinal and aromatics plants, oilseeds, and others crops, but our visit to a Chile Paper Mill was canceled due to a recent strike.  We used the extra time to investigate the Experimental Station and to visit with Marisol's students and staff in Chile.  The weather that day called for rain but Marisol had things planned so the rain did not start until we were boarding the bus to return to the hotel for the day.

The meeting officially ended with our annual awards banquet.  Once again Marisol and her staff did a tremendous job organizing our annual banquet.  I believe that it will be remembered as one our best awards banquets of all times or at least for us who were there!  We had some new awards presented by various divisions for Outstanding Oral and Poster Presentations as well as the Best Paper of the Year by Division.  Please visit the awards section of our website to see the list of this year's award recipients.  Congratulations to all our award recipients!

AAIC Meetings come and go, but if not for long hours of planning by our organizers our annual meeting would not happen.  Thus, I would like to thank all our session chairs and board members for reviewing the abstracts for the meeting as well as getting presenters to fill all our sessions.  Special thanks go to Candy Gardner for her efforts in organizing our awards/recognition program and to Rachael Beyer for her efforts in keeping presenters/attendees informed and her help in the organization of the abstract book.  I cannot thank Marisol Berti and her staff enough for all the time and effort that went into organizing our 21^st Annual Meeting in Chile.  I have heard nothing but great comments about our program, the amount of company participation and the general organization of the meeting as well as how excited everyone is about next year's meeting.  Finally I would like to thank everyone for attending or who tried to attend but were unable.

I encourage you to mark next year's meeting on your calendar.  The 22^nd Annual AAIC Meeting will be held in Fort Collins, Colorado, September 19-22, 2010.  I'm sure Terry Isbell and his organizing staff will host a great meeting and an outstanding program.  Be sure to watch our website for travel and annual awards deadlines.

 Steven Cermak, AAIC Past President

Award Winners

Congratulations to all the winners!

AAIC 2009 Best Presentation Awards (by Division)

 Best General Crops & Products Division presentation:

Jan J. Slaski, A.O. Anyia, and Paul Kolodziejczyk.  2009. Development of Helianthus tuberosus L. as a novel crop platform for production of functional food and biopolymers.  In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  Pg. 50. 

Best Oilseeds Division presentation:

M.J. Pascual-Villalobos, and H.L. Córcoles 2009.The Performance of Euphorbia lagascae in Southern Spain (Albacete).   In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  pg. 9 

Best Fiber and Cellulosics Division presentation:

Denise V. Duclos, D.T. Ray, A.G. Taylor.  2009. Understanding the physiology and mechanisms of seed dormancy in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) 2009.  In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  Pg. 30. 

Best Medicinals and Nutraceuticals Division presentation:

Gaston Muñoz, B. Soto, M. Marianchuk, P. Arriagada, P. Kolodziejczyk, 2009. Flaxseed (Linum usisatissimum) Cultivated in Chile: Potential to Produce New Raw Material for Human Nutrition. In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  pg. 36. 

AAIC 2009 Best Poster Awards (by Division) 

Best Oilseeds Division Poster:

Guillermo Belmar, N. Zapata, M. Vargas, J.F. Reyes, L. Paulino.  2009.  Biodisel from caper spruge, castor oil plant and rapeseed.  2009. In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  Pg. 52.

Best Medicinals and Nutraceuticals Division Poster:

M.I. Rozas, L. Vicentela, C.G. Narváez, F. Salgado, C. Soto, Reinaldo Muñoz, A. Burgos. 2009. Obtaining a mouthwash with anti-inflammatory properties and antibacterial from Matricaria recutita L., type chamomile puelche spring with dental clinic use potential.  In:  Cermak, S.C. and M. Berti, Eds. (2009), 21^st Annual AAIC Meeting – The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products: Program and Abstracts.  Gran Hotel Termás de Chillán, Chillán, Chile.  Pg. 34.  

2009 AAIC Student Travel Award

 Congratulations to Tyler Sandlin, Mississippi State University.  Tyler presented his work entitled, "A COMPARISON OF HARVEST REGIMES FOR MISCANTHUS AND SWITCHGRASS."

Conference Photos

A few highlights from the annual conference in Termas de Chillán, Chillán, Chile 2009 Conference Attendees
Gran Hotel Termas de Chillan		AAIC President  - Steven Cermak opens the 2009 Conference
Winery tour luncheon		Poster session
Attendees enjoy a quick coffee break		Field tour of alternative crops at Universidad de Concepcion, Experimental Station, Chillan
Attendees examine potential new crops in Chile		A day in the mountains