“Flocking” Volvox in the Regeneron Science Talent Search

Balasubramanian Fig 3 A&B

Figure 3 A&B from Balasubramanian 2018. (a) V. barberi flock where 56 colonies gathered over several minutes and rotated coherently and rapidly in the culture well. (b) Schematic of flock in panel a.

In 2017, Ravi Balasubramanian, a student from Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, presented a talk and a poster on “flocking” behavior in Volvox barberi at the Fourth International Volvox Meeting in St. Louis. In 2018, Balasubramanian posted a preprint of his work to bioRxiv. Now his work has earned him a place among the top 300 scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2020, “the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.”

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Undergraduate summer internships at the Danforth Center

This is an unbelievable opportunity: an NSF-funded, paid summer internship at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. Ru Zhang is at the Danforth Center. Jim Umen is at the Danforth Center. The Fourth International Volvox Conference was at the Danforth Center. If you’re an undergraduate and you think you might want to study Volvox or Chlamydomonas (or plants), this would be a great way to get started.

Danforth Internship

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Volvox meeting posters

I thought I had already done this, but if so I can’t find it. Here are the full-resolution versions of all four Volvox meeting posters:

  • First International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2011, Tucson, Arizona) pdf jpg
  • Second International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2013, Fredericton, New Brunswick) pdf jpg
  • Third International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2015, Cambridge, U.K.) pdf jpg
  • Fourth International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2017, St. Louis, Missouri) pdf jpg (there wasn’t really a poster for this one; this is the cover of the abstract booklet)

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Volvox 2017 pictures

The Fourth International Volvox Meeting in St. Louis was everything I hoped. It was well organized, small enough to talk to everyone, and full of great talks. David Kirk was indeed there, briefly, though I failed to get a photo, and so was David Queller.

I thought I was pretty connected in the (relatively small) Volvox world, but there were several people there I’d never met and lots of research that was news to me. I’ll be blogging more about some of that research, but for now I’ll just share a few photos from the meeting.

Danforth Center

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is the perfect setting for a movie with scientist working on super high-tech stuff.

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Volvox 2017: David Kirk will be there

David Kirk

Dr. David Kirk, Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis.

I just found out from Jim Umen, who’s organizing the Fourth International Volvox Conference, that David Kirk is planning to attend. This is great news; we’ve been wanting Dr. Kirk to come since the first meeting in 2011, but it hasn’t previously worked out.

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Volvox 2017: early registration extended

Volvox 2017

Discounted registration for the Volvox 2017 meeting has been extended to June 16th. This is a pretty good deal as scientific meetings go: $550 for faculty includes registration, most meals, and a shared room. Registration for postdocs and students is $100 less, and there are travel grants available. If you’ve been debating whether or not to go, it’s decision time: prices will go up $100 after the 16th.