Judge to speak at BFSO luncheon
Steven C. Jones, a superior court judge in Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit, will deliver the keynote address at the Black Faculty and Staff Organization’s Founders Award Luncheon. The sixth annual event will be held from noon–1:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.

Former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller appointed Jones, an Athens-Clarke County native who earned bachelor of business administration and juris doctor degrees from UGA, to his post in 1995.

“I’ll be talking about using the resources and the talents that are available from people at the university and from community involvement to enable a lot of young people to see all the opportunities and things that can be done by allowing them to see what’s been already accomplished,” Jones said. “It’s very important that young people have good examples, and there are no better examples than those people who will be sitting in that room when I talk to the Black Faculty and Staff Organization.”

Proceeds from the luncheon directly benefit the scholarship program which honors students who show outstanding leadership and scholarship at the university. Tickets for the luncheon are $30 per seat or $240 per table of eight. No tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets can be purchased by contacting Deborah Strong at dstrong@rx.uga.edu.

Conference to focus on weeds
UGA will host an international conference Sept. 11-13 called “Agricultural Weeds: Bridging the Gap between Evolutionary Ecology and Crop Science.” The event will bring together scientists and ecologists to discuss how weeds become problematic to farmers, and how researchers from a range of disciplines can begin to address a common ground for tackling the problems that weeds pose to the nation’s food supply.

The conference will be held in the Georgia Center. Keynote speakers will be Jonathan Gressel, emeritus professor of plant sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and Jodie Holt, botany and plant sciences professor at the University of California, Riverside.

Topics to be addressed at the conference will include evolutionary ecology of weed species, weed adaptation to the agricultural system, transgene movement from crops to wild species, parasitic weeds, weed shifts and weedy species of special interest. Some 17 speakers, including representatives from other universities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry, will be present for the event.

More information on the conference is available online (www.plantbio.uga.edu/weeds). The conference is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the departments of plant biology and crop and soil sciences at UGA.

Ecology hosts science symposium
The Odum School of Ecology will host “Aquatic Conservation Science: Merging Theory and Application” Oct. 3-4. The symposium will honor the careers of emeritus faculty members Judith L. Meyer and Gene Helfman.

The symposium will feature individual talks and a panel discussion by internationally renowned speakers on aquatic conservation science. Speakers will represent areas of expertise including ecosystem and fisheries science, aquatic conservation policy and water resource management.

The formal sessions will begin Oct.4 at 8 a.m. in the Odum School auditorium. Speaker presentations will occur throughout the day, and the event will culminate with a banquet.

There is a registration fee of $100 for non-students and $55 for students. Registration forms are due by Sept. 8. More information is available online (www.rivercenter.uga.edu/helfmeyer.htm).