The Schedule (tentative)

Traveling to Madison

Registration 2:00 - 6:00

Tour to the Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center (WCIC)

You are invited to join the optional tour of UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center (WCIC). Please sign up for the tour at the online registration or before the meeting. WCIC is the largest public plant transformation facility in the United States and continues to build new technologies onto the pioneering legacy of its former existence as the Agracetus/Monsanto plant transformation facility. See: https://cropinnovation.cals.wisc.edu/about-us/history/.  Buses will leave at 2 pm from the Memorial Union conference site, take you 20 min to WCIC, for a ~75 min tour of this impressive facility and a discussion about transformation of various species.  Buses will return you to the conference site prior to 4:30 pm.

Natural product chemistry and artificial intelligence (AI)

Discussion leader: Lucus Busta (University of Minnesota-Duluth)

• Gaurav Moghe (Cornell University)

• Hannah Wayment-Steele (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

• Lucus Busta (University of Minnesota-Duluth) - 2026 Arthur Neish Award presentation

Talks selected from submitted abstracts

[Tripp Commons, Memorial Union]

Workshop 1 (with lunch)

Join us a series of 60–80 minute interactive workshops during the PSNA lunch break on June 16, 17, and 18. Please sign up for individual workshops at the online registration or before the meeting. These sessions focus on active engagement and small group discussion rather than lectures. Lunch is included for workshop attendees. There will still be 30-60 min after these workshops before the afternoon session, leaving you plenty of time to relax and connect with peers.

“Forest from the Trees” Integration of A.I. into phytochemical research

This workshop aims to catalyze interdisciplinary research and collaboration, especially to integrate artificial intelligence (A.I.) into phytochemical research. After brief presentations by two to three scientists integrating computational analyses in their research, participants will engage in group discussion by choosing one of few topics related to integrating A.I. into our phytochemical research: i) Reimagining research pipelines with A.I., ii) Routes and resources to learn about A.I. models and how to use them, iii) Ethics and responsible integration of A.I. into phytochemical research.

Facilitator: Lucus Busta (University of Minnesota-Duluth) 

[Individual meeting rooms, TBD, Memorial Union]

Chemical ecology and phytochemical functions

Discussion leader: Dorothea Tholl (Virginia Tech)

• Kathy Darragh (Indiana University)

• Amy Trowbridge (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

• Xu Yuan (Michigan State University) - 2026 TPJ-PSNA Award presentation

Talks selected from submitted abstracts

[Tripp Commons, Memorial Union]

Workshop 2 (with lunch)

“Work in Progress” Career workshops for both academic and non-academic jobs

Students and early career attendees can directly interact with panelists from industry, governmental agencies, academia, publishers, intellectual property firms etc. to broaden career perspectives. Students at this workshop will receive specific, actionable feedback on how best to prepare for their future career. This workshop will be separated into three concurrent sessions based on career stage: 1) students and postdocs before having an independent position, who are still exploring and deciding the direction of their career, 2) undergraduate students or new graduate students, who are exploring a possibility of or navigating the beginning of graduate school, and 3) new, pre-tenured principal investigators, who are establishing their own new research programs.

Facilitator: William Hay (USDA ARS, Peoria, IL) 

[Individual meeting rooms, TBD, Memorial Union]

Evolution of plant natural product pathways 

Discussion leader: TBD

• Stacey Smith (University of Colorado)

• Craig Schenck (University of Missouri) - 2026 Arthur Neish Award presentation

Talks selected from submitted abstracts

[Tripp Commons, Memorial Union]

Workshop 3 (with lunch)

“Seeds to Harvest” Discovery to commercialization

The third workshop aims to explore ways to move phytochemical discoveries into commercialization for the production and/or use of economically important phytochemicals. This workshop will start with a short talk describing a success story of phytochemistry-related commercialization. Following, small groups of five to seven people will be formed to outline step-by-step routes toward commercialization of a certain compound or pathway of interest that each participant picked. At the end of the workshop, each group will be invited to share their commercialization plan to the entire group.

Facilitator: Charlay Wood (University of Wisconsin-Madison) 

• Dave Hallahan (Entomol) 

[Individual meeting rooms, TBD, Memorial Union]

Take down posters in the Great Hall by 2pm for preparation of banquet.

Traveling back home or exploring Madison!

The Farmers Market on every Saturday at the capitol square.