Plants, People, Science

The ASHS Annual Conference: Gathering the Horticultural Science Community for Learning and Collaboration

• American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) • Season 3 • Episode 6

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We sit down with our podcast teammate Lena Wilson—fresh off a first-place PhD Graduate Student Poster Competition win—to unpack what it takes to thrive at a major scientific conference, from crafting a clear two-minute story to turning a poster row into a collaboration engine. 

Lena takes us inside a week in New Orleans at her first ASHS Annual Conference. We trade practical tactics for session planning, using the conference app without becoming a prisoner to it, and scheduling specific meetups before everyone’s calendar fills up. You’ll also hear quick voice clips from students, postdocs, faculty, and industry partners sharing what they do while listening to podcasts—tissue grinding, figure polishing, micropropagation - plus why they keep returning to ASHS: community, mentorship, and science that feeds people.

We also look ahead to ASHS 2026 in Dallas, August 3-7, 2026. If you’re a graduate student aiming for your first big presentation, an early-career scientist ready to widen your circle, or a faculty member scouting new collaborations, you’ll leave with a clearer plan and renewed energy.

Subscribe for more conversations with researchers, educators, and industry leaders across horticultural science. Share this episode with a colleague who needs a nudge to submit that abstract, and leave a review to help others discover the show.

Find more information about the ASHS Annual Conference at https://ashs.org/page/ASHSAnnualConference.

Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.

Consider becoming an ASHS member at https://ashs.org/page/Becomeamember!

You can also find the official webpage for Plants, People, Science at ashs.org/plantspeoplesciencepodcast, and we encourage you to send us feedback or suggestions at https://ashs.org/webinarpodcastsuggestion.

Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.

On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.

Thank you for listening!


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Curt Rom:

Welcome to Plants People Science, a podcast of the American Society for Horticulture Science, where we like to talk about all things horticulture. I'm your co-host, Kurt Rome, a university professor of horticulture from the University of Arkansas, along with my friend and co-host, Samson Humphrey, a PhD student from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Welcome, Sam.

Sam Humphrey:

Welcome, Curt. Thanks for that introduction. How are you doing?

Curt Rom:

I'm doing really well. It's always good when we get to talk to each other and and do another podcast.

Sam Humphrey:

That's true. Man, this beginning of the school year. I guess we're on week three. It's it's gone real real fast for me, Curt. What about you?

Curt Rom:

It's going really fast. I'm teaching uh uh two new courses, and so that's always really engaging for me when I get to to prepare new courses because it is a as an instructor and a scientist, you know, it makes me learn new things. And it was once said the best way to understand something is to teach it. And I'm I'm living proof that that's true.

Sam Humphrey:

Yeah, well, I'm a little bit envious of you, Curt. I'm not teaching this semester. I did teach last spring, and it was fantastic. Um so what I'm getting my joy out of nowadays is planning extension events. I have a couple like Ag Day, I have a couple things like that in the next few weeks that I'm like preparing materials for and figuring out what to hand out to people. And so that's what I've been enjoying.

Curt Rom:

Well, that's a wonderful professional development opportunity. I'm glad that your major professor and your department are engaging you in that. So good for you. Thank you, Curt. Sam, I missed seeing you at the ASHS meeting this year.

Sam Humphrey:

Oh, I know. All my friends were texting me, telling me things that were going on. I heard that you gave amazing talks.

Curt Rom:

Well, thanks. You know, it was a really good conference. I saw, you know, lots of old friends and colleagues made some new friends, but uh it was a really good conference.

Sam Humphrey:

I bet. Have you ever been to New Orleans before?

Curt Rom:

I've been to New Orleans uh a number of times. I think this was the second or third time we've had the uh ASHS annual conference there. So it's always always fun to go, and I want to tell you it was plenty warm, so it was good to be in the conference and go to the meetings.

Sam Humphrey:

I bet, Curt, I'm excited to hear what your experience was, but we have a special guest today. Uh this guest also went to the conference, you saw her there, and I'm especially excited about this episode because this is Lena Wilson, who is a member of our podcast team. So for our listeners, if you didn't already know this, there's Curt and I on the team. But it takes several people in the background to come up with the ideas and do the editing. And our head researcher for new podcast episode ideas is Lena Wilson. She is a PhD candidate, and she actually won the PhD poster presentation at this year's ASHS conference. So we have lots of questions for her. Lena, thank you so much for being here.

Lena Wilson:

I'm so excited to be here today, Sam and Kirk.

Curt Rom:

Lena, it was great to see you at the conference, and congratulations on how well you did. Uh, look forward to you know reliving the conference with you uh and and sharing w with Sam the kind of fun things that we did and and what all we learned. Let's tell everyone how it went.

Sam Humphrey:

So, okay, Lena, to paint a picture for the audience. Um, did you end up going to the conference with your lab or with a PI? Like what was your group like?

Lena Wilson:

You know, I was the only one from my lab going this year, which is kind of fun because that really pushes you outside of your comfort zone and makes you talk to everyone around you.

Curt Rom:

You know, being the only one there, yeah, and having to make new friends, make meet some new colleagues, built your network. Uh how many other conferences have you been to? And you know what what kind of surprised you about this conference?

Lena Wilson:

I've been to a handful of other academic conferences in the past, but this one was probably the largest conference I've ever been to. And so that surprised me how many people there were and how broad it was, because I was able to learn about research from all sorts of different fields in horticulture.

Sam Humphrey:

That's amazing. Yeah, I want to mention we do have the numbers on this. There were about 950 attendees, about 60 of those were undergrads, and 315 were graduate students. Or, you know, there's 314 and Lena, uh the standout graduate student. What was it like presenting at your at your poster presentation?

Lena Wilson:

Well, it was a bit nerve-wracking, I'll admit. They had a standby our poster, and then the groups of judges would come around, and you didn't know exactly when they would come because they weren't exactly coming in a certain order. You might see them approaching, but then they'd divert to another row. Um, but ultimately it was a great experience to really make sure that my research was able to be keep communicated in a concise way and to a more broad audience because you didn't know who was going to be your judge, if they would be somebody exactly in your field or a little bit outside of your field. So you had to make sure that you had those communication skills to bridge um a gap to a scientist who might be used to something a little different.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, I know your poster was a big deal. And by the way, it was a really beautiful poster. You did a fantastic job. I enjoyed reading it. And that kind of give us a rundown. What was your the day today? So it started on Monday. What was your Monday like? Did you do what kind of activities? What kind of meetings did you go to? And maybe run through some of the highlights of the week for us.

Lena Wilson:

Right. So it was a pretty long conference. We were there for a whole week. Uh, but the first day, you know, you start with registration, and then there were some introductory activities, some of them run by Kurt here himself, to get people acquainted with the conference and kind of the norms and uh get people comfortable with conferences in general and how ASHA's conferences are run. And then Tuesday, I feel like, was when the science kicked off real hard, and we were doing all sorts of sessions uh all day long. And you can pick and choose which ones you want to go to because oftentimes there's multiple sessions running at the same time. I'm not sure exactly what the max number of sessions running at a time, but I feel like on the schedule I saw at least some time slots that maybe had five activities or sessions that you could attend. Does that sound about right, Kurt?

Curt Rom:

Yeah, I think five to eight simultaneous kinds of uh various discipline or science-oriented sessions.

Sam Humphrey:

Wow. So choosing between all those must have been hard.

Lena Wilson:

Definitely, yeah. So you guys mentioned in your previous episode where you talk about kind of techniques for navigating the conference that you can look up on the app the things going on and you can kind of select which things you might be interested in. But ultimately, you know, sometimes you think you're gonna go to one session and then you're sitting in a different session, and the thing that's coming up next is so interesting that you can't get up and leave. So you kind of gotta uh play it by ear as well.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, flexibility is the name of the game. You gotta you gotta be flexible and resilient, ready to move when you need to move. But if you get sometimes you just get sucked into the science, you know, it's like this vortex, you know. I've gotta hear this.

Sam Humphrey:

All right. So you went to all these all these cool different workshops and different talks. Did you talk to anyone?

Lena Wilson:

Oh yes. Actually, one of my favorite things about the conference this year, which I was told was um not something that had happened um in the previous year or the year before that, which was that ASHS brought back paper posters. And I love going to visit other people's posters because I think they're an excellent conversation starter. You get just a flash viewing of what they are wanting to talk to you about. So if you go and see someone standing by their poster, you skim over it, and then the conversation just flows from there. So I feel like some of the best conversations I had were from people standing in front of their posters.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, there's several hundred posters, and that is a really dynamic way to interact with with the colleagues and and scientists and students, because instead of the normal 12-minute presentation, two or three minutes of of questions, where most people run 14 and a half minutes and you have 30 seconds for a question, you can't engage in the conversation, but you really can around posters. It's it's really wonderful. Lena, the first time I saw you was on Monday night at an activity that just had a real cool vibe around it. It was the uh graduate school and career fair. Uh you had a table for our podcast there. How did that go for you?

Lena Wilson:

Well, that was great. So it was we had a table for the podcast, and I was meeting people who were listeners, which was great. I was handing out stickers to listeners. I hope a few of you put them in excellent locations. Um, and then I also met people who had never heard of our podcast before and got to chat with them, hear what they were interested in, recommended a few episodes that I thought they might be particularly enjoy listening to. Um, and then we also solicited some suggestions from people at the conference, things that they wanted to hear more about, or even things that they might want to talk about.

Sam Humphrey:

Yeah, that was awesome. We, for the record, we have always had like a link on the ASHS website. So if you look up our podcast name on any browser, um, you can pretty easily find a link to submit ideas. But Lena, thanks to you and Kurt, that was the first time that in person we've solicited these these ideas. So that was really exciting.

Lena Wilson:

Absolutely. And that was the only chance for us to give candy directly to our listeners.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, it's good to give our listeners a reward for listening. You know, I appreciate that. It's fun to interact with uh the people that listen to us and get that kind of feedback. You know, one of the difficulties about a podcast is it is kind of a one-way street. I mean, we do solicit comments, but it was right really nice to engage in those conversations.

Sam Humphrey:

Absolutely. Lena, you also recorded some discussions with people. Do you want to tell us a little about that?

Lena Wilson:

Yeah, so I had fun not just listening to science around ASHS conference, but I also took the opportunity to run around with a recorder and get some snippets about what people uh were thinking at the conference. So we'll hear those, I believe, later in this episode. And I'm really excited for you all to kind of feel like you were at the conference, whether you were there in person or not.

Curt Rom:

Lena, I appreciate you getting those. It'll be interesting to hear what others had to say about the conference. So let maybe we should listen to a few of them.

Amanda Lee Walters:

Hello, my name is Amanda Lee Walters. I'm a PhD candidate at the University of Arkansas in the horticulture department, with my advisor being Dr. Amanda McWort. Uh generally, when I'm listening to podcasts, I'm either doing data entry, data analysis, or I'm in the lab for my N15 project.

Christopher Vincent:

Uh my name is Christopher Vincent. I am an environmental physiologist working on citrus at the University of Florida. So, what scientific things do I do related while I listen to podcasts? My favorite thing to do is to is to work on figures. So that's something that doesn't quite acquire require quite so much mental energy so I can still listen to what's being said uh while get getting some stuff done so I can refine my figures and stuff while I'm listening to a podcast. My name is Nathan Marn.

Nathan Maren:

I'm a woody plant reader and genomics specialist at the Morton R Readham. And uh when I'm listening to podcasts, I'm usually uh doing tissue culture, uh usually micropropagation, uh, and uh been doing a fair amount of paronia propagation lately.

Nicole:

My name is Nicole. I am a graduate research assistant at Iowa State University. I like to listen to podcasts while grinding my tissue samples for tissue nutrient analysis.

Jacob Frederick:

I'm Jacob Frederick. Uh I'm a graduate research assistant at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. And I like to listen to podcasts while I do my phytonutrient extractions.

Oksana:

Hi, my name is Oksana. Um I am a graduate student at Cornell University doing uh apple cider research. And my favorite thing to do while listening to a podcast is processing, weighing, and measuring all my apples.

Anne Gahagan:

This is Anne-Marika Hagen. I'm a master student at the University of Georgia, studying under Dr. Patrick Connor, and I came to AHHS because I wanted to see what new things is going on in horticulture and how people are working together to find research to help feed the world.

Reece Brock:

My name is Reese Brock. I'm a master student under Dr. Margaret Worthington, working in the fruit breeding and genetics at the University of Arkansas. And I came to this conference to see what everyone else is working on around the country.

Patrick Friesen:

All right, my name is Patrick Friesen. I'm the plant scientist of Biochambers. Uh what brought us to this conference? Well, we've been attending this conference year after year for a long time now. Uh it's great for a number of reasons. So catching up with old customers, uh, hearing their concerns firsthand, um, keeping abreast of the latest science, especially for me as a plant scientist. Uh for example, this year I attended an awesome session on uh tree grafting from my own personal yard, um and uh you know found some cool stuff about uh kale and and white sage, which I'm also into um personally and professionally. It's a great conference.

Pedro Rojas Barros:

My name is Pedro Rojas Barros. I'm a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University. And what brought me here to this conference is the people, it's a huge community of scientists and peers that uh I always have such a great time and learn a lot of things from different researchers.

Stephanie Wigman:

I'm Stephanie Wigman from Utah State University. I'm an undergraduate. And for this conference, it was really cool to present my poster and also learn more about horticulture in general. I'm a biology student, so I don't get to hear as much about plants, which was super exciting to connect with this whole community that was interested.

Christina Harms:

I'm Christina Harms with South Dakota State University as a master's student under Dr. Christine Lang. I'm at the ASHS conference for networking, but also to understand a bit more about the horticultural world and influence that it has across the nation throughout the USA as a student with a design degree for my undergrad. Getting into the horticultural world has been a bit of an adventure, especially into the plant science, which my master's degree is currently under. So being here has brought more of a light to the opportunities from both a research perspective and scientific perspective, but also what horticulture is doing both within Louisiana but throughout the United States as a whole.

Randy Beaudry:

My name is Randy Baudry. I'm a post-harvest physiologist at Michigan State University. I decided to become an ASHS member because my major professor expected it. And that's something like 40 years ago. And it was just part of what everybody did as a graduate student. Your major professor was a horticulturist, the major professor was an ASHS member, and you were expected to be an ASH member. And I remember before I even published my first paper, I was invited to join an ASHS meeting down in McCallan, Texas. You can look it up, and it's a long while back. But I'm still an ASHS member because I believe in the ethos of a community, if that makes sense, a scientific community, and especially one like horticulture, which is dedicated towards uh developing new techniques, I guess, so that people continue to be fed in the future, that farmers are profitable, and that we continue to move science forward because the biology that happens in horticulture is the same as biology that happens in molecular biology, etc., and all these other fields that are associated with production of food. And I believe in it, and I think that the next generation should too, and so I'd like to support it.

Chris Gunter:

So my name is Chris Gunter. I'm the chair of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida. I became an ASHS member to learn more about research, meet new people working in horticulture, and present my research data to a wide audience.

Jimmy Larson:

And the reason that I'm an ASHS member is for the discounts on conferences and publishing.

John Ertle:

So I'm John Ertle. I'm the plant physiologist at PP Systems. So I became an ASH member probably about five years ago when I was a grad student. Um after my first time at the conference, actually the first one was the virtual conference, and then Chicago is the next time I was in person. Um but it was such a great community. Uh a lot of these people I've gotten to know really well over the last few years, and so I like to maintain my membership and keep coming back year after year. Um it's really just such a great collection of scientists, and I've made a lot of friends that now I keep up with outside of just the conference uh from all over uh the world now, which is amazing. And so it's been uh really, really cool uh to get involved with these folks, stay up to date on research, uh, learn about what people are working on, find new ways to do science, and uh explore a lot of different uh facets of plant science that I never really knew about before. And so it's been just a fantastic experience, and uh I look forward to coming back every year.

Curt Rom:

Well, that was interesting to hear those experiences. You know, uh that's part of the good thing about a professional society like the ASHS. We get to interact with each other, talk to each other, we build our professional network and our professional colleagues. So, Lena, thanks for for getting all of those. You know, it's about time for us to be thinking about the next conference. I know that the last one was just two months ago, but it's already time. We'll be calling for uh program proposals and abstract submissions, you know, within the next few months. That's true. Kurt, when where is the next one going to be? The next conference is gonna be in downtown Dallas, Texas. So we get to go to DFW. It'll be fun. It's gonna be located right in downtown and real close to the tram track, so you can be able to go to some of the other locations that are fun entertainment districts around town. Uh it's a wonderful conference hotel. Uh and you know, it's a great location horticulturally because there is uh great horticulture in the area. There are two botanic gardens. There's the Dallas Botanic Garden, which is just a short drive away. And then if you take a little longer drive, about 15 or 20 miles, you can go over to Fort Worth and go to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. So there'll be a lot of activities. Not to mention, not to forget to mention, Texas barbecue. We'll be able to have Texas barbecue right downtown in Dallas.

Sam Humphrey:

That sounds awesome. Yeah, just to reiterate, okay, so the dates are August 3rd, 3 to 7 in Dallas, Texas, and registration opens in January. There is a very useful page, ashs.org slash page slash deadlines, and all the deadlines are there. So we'll keep reminding you in future episodes. Um, but now is the time. There's plenty of time, and that's that's how I like it. I like writing these things in advance and getting all excited about future conferences.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, on our ASHS website, there is a button that says conferences, so just hit that conference button. You'll be able to find out about the our previous conferences as well as all the information as it starts to develop about the future conference. So ashs.org slash conferences.

Sam Humphrey:

Lena, do you plan to go to future ASHS conferences?

Lena Wilson:

I sure hope I can. You know, this was my first ASHS conference, but I have a feeling it might not be my last.

Sam Humphrey:

Goodness, I hope not. That'd be awesome to see you in person. Lena, if you ever go to future ASHS conferences, is there anything that you think you would do differently?

Lena Wilson:

You know, one thing that was a little tricky about the ASHS conference was that it was so long and there were certain people who stay for the whole thing, but sometimes people don't quite stay for the whole thing. So I would get a little organized before the conference. And if there are people that I wanted to catch, I would organize in advance to uh maybe grab lunch or dinner with them. Um because that week passes by so fast, and uh you might just might miss that person.

Sam Humphrey:

That's a great point. I'm gonna have to reach out to you, Lena. I'll have to reach out extra early so I can catch you before you schedule with everyone else.

Lena Wilson:

Sounds good, Sam.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, and Sam, maybe we ought to have Lena as our researcher. She could do research on the best place for us to meet and eat. Meet, greet, neat. Lena, that sounds like a good that's a research question for our team.

Lena Wilson:

Well, that sounds great. You know, I love to research about science, but I also love to research about new restaurants. So that sounds pretty fun.

Sam Humphrey:

Lena, thank you so much for coming on today. You have been behind the scenes on this podcast team for like three years now, uh, maybe even more than that. And we're just so lucky to have you, and I'm I'm really happy that our listeners get to hear your voice today. Thank you for coming.

Lena Wilson:

Yeah, it's been fun to be on here. Thanks, Kurt, and thank you, Sam.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, and Lena, thanks for sharing your observations and experiences. You know, Sam wasn't there, but but now he's got a taste for what it was like, and I'm glad you could share those experiences. Thanks a lot.

Sam Humphrey:

Thank you. That was an awesome interview.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, I thought that was really fun. I was really happy that we got to bring Lena, part of our production team, on to speak. She's the brains behind the the outfit, but it was really good to hear her voice, and I really enjoyed her perspectives on the conference as a first-time attender and as a young scientist. Absolutely.

Sam Humphrey:

Yeah, and the fact that she has been to other conferences before, but this was her first one that was so big. Um, that was really cool to hear.

Curt Rom:

And she hit it out of the ballpark. She uh placed first place in the graduate student poster competition. So uh real evidence again, rock solid researcher, and boy, I'm glad she's on our podcast team. Absolutely.

Sam Humphrey:

Yeah, I do wonder if she'll end up giving a workshop next year. Sometimes the winners of these uh student awards are asked to uh speak on what they did and you know what they learned at things like the ASHS workshops. So um, or webinars, that's the word I'm looking for. And so I do know there are a few of those um out there in the ether.

Curt Rom:

Actually, they're on the ASHS uh uh webpage. You can access them there for ASHS members. It's a real good benefit of being a member of the ASHS. And just like Lena, another real important benefit of the ASHS is our awards and recognition programs. So we recognize awards for various competitions for undergraduate students, for scientific presentations for graduate students, early career professionals, as well as career professionals. So it really helps uh ASHS members and young horticultural scientists and scholars develop their skills, develop their reputation, and help them advance professionally.

Sam Humphrey:

But it was a great conference. Oh, I bet it was, Curtin. Do you have a favorite part? I heard about you running.

Curt Rom:

Yeah, I ran the 5K and uh, you know, I I was I finished it, which was really good. Uh I I noticed that the winner who was less than half my age was approximately one-third of my was one third of my age, finished in about one-third of my time. So I figured there was some mathematical symmetry in in all of that. But it was a very fun run. I want to tell you, it was warm and humid. It's 6 30 in the morning, running along the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans. It's something I will never forget.

Sam Humphrey:

Oh, goodness. I wonder if they'll do something like that next year. I think this is the first time they've done a run at an ASH conference.

Curt Rom:

No, we've done it off and on for years. I'm one of the proponents of doing it uh because it gets me up and out, you know, in and it's a fun activity for us. Uh the uh youngest person that ran was probably around 20 or 18 or 20, and the oldest person that uh ran or walked was in their 80s. So it's a it's a good activity for all of us that uh want to get outside and move. Uh so lots of fun. But a great conference. So what if if I'm interested in the conference, what do I do?

Sam Humphrey:

Good question, Kurt. If you're interested in the ASHS conference this past year or next year, go to the ASHS.org website and hit the conference tab. It's never too early to start planning. Um, and you can plan way ahead with all the deadlines and everything listed there. We also have student travel grants and all sorts of other opportunities listed on the website. Notably, ASHS also holds an annual Graduate Student and Careers Fair. Uh they also have graduate and undergraduate student interest groups and a series of professional development and social networking opportunities.

Curt Rom:

There are discount registration for ASHS members. So I highly recommend you renewing your membership or joining the ASHS, the American Society for Horticulture Science. You can do that today with just a few clicks on the button on the webpage. When you do that, you can then take part of some interest groups that Lena participated in, like the Phomology Working Group, interest group, the fruit breeding interest group, and the graduate student interest group. If you would like more information, go to the website American Society of Horticulture Science ASHS dot org. Do that today. Okay, I think that wraps us up. This is Kurt Rome and Samson Humphrey. Thank you for joining Plants, People, and Science. The ASHS podcast, Plants, People in Science, is made possible by member dues and volunteerism. Please go to ashs.org to learn more. If you're not already a member of the ASHS, we invite you to join. ASHS is a not-for-profit, and your donations are tax deductible.

Sam Humphrey:

This episode is hosted by Samson Humphrey and Kurt Rome. Special thanks to our audio engineer, Andrew Sheldorf, our research specialists, Lena Wilson and Andrew Sheldorf, our ASHS support team, Sarah Powell and Sally Murphy, and our musician, John Clark. Thanks for listening.