In April, immediately following my PhD defense, I attended Biocrust5 in Chihuahua, Mexico with ~50 biocrust nerds from around the world. This was an incredible experience which I would not have had without the financial support of the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Program at CU Boulder and the CU Boulder Graduate School. We had 4 days of presentations, all about biocrust. Each evening, we visited museums and art galleries. At the end of the week, we took a field trip to Peguis Canyon and observed the biocrust (and the canyon too). The field trip was the best part of the week - faces pinned to the ground, excited squeals at the site of a familiar lichen or plant friend.
It was remarkable that Matt Bowker and Anita Antoninka were able to bring so many students to this international conference. Some of their students presented scientific posters or talks for the first time. I was also amazed at the effort by the conference organizers (Elisabeth and Victor) to include art in the program. Not only did we experience local ceramics and art, but we had an art competition. Entries included poetry, 3D art, dance, radio play, and videos. This conference had gone many years without convening due to COVID, and it felt like everyone had done incredible work within biocrust research and biocrust outreach. This was one of my most favorite conferences I have ever been to. I loved traveling abroad (I haven't been abroad in quite some time), I loved viewing the solar eclipse with other scientists, I loved meeting biocrust researchers from all over the world. Most importantly, I loved the friendliness and camaraderie of this community. It felt like a family that I am just starting to get to know. One that could last a lifetime.
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AuthorSierra is a graduate student in the Barger Lab at CU Boulder studying microbial ecology for dryland restoration. Archives
August 2023
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