Opportunities & Events

PI3 is committed to providing educational, training, and outreach opportunities for students, teachers, and the public.

Upcoming

  • Polyploidy is inherently interdisciplinary, with processes and consequences that span genomes to cells to tissues to whole organisms and ecosystems. Yet, because of its complexity, researchers focus on one or a few adjacent levels of organization and only rarely cross organismal systems. Our standardized experimental approach across organismal systems and biological scales establishes a new paradigm for the study of polyploidy. PI3 graduate students and post-docs will receive (i) interdisciplinary training to foster understanding of polyploidy at scales that differ from their own projects; (ii) technical training in experimental and analytical methods from genetics to landscape ecology; and (iii) skills training in data science, statistics, team science, and scientific communication. Analyses that span scales and organisms will be led by students and post-docs, ensuring their roles in promoting integration. Interested in joining the project? Let us know via the Contact Us link.

  • We will provide diverse cohorts of undergraduates with opportunities for (i) broad interdisciplinary research training, (ii) attending a conference and presenting a poster, and (iii) career development, including presentation experiences and access to internships with industry. Students will be recruited nationwide to participate in a virtual week-long workshop, with additional opportunities for mentored research in a PI3 lab.  Graduate students and post-docs will contribute to development and presentation of the workshop and to mentoring undergraduates. Past virtual workshop summaries can be found below in the Past section.

  • PI3 will strengthen the 21st century STEM workforce by providing: technical skills for employment in industry; basic research skills for the professoriate and research institutions; applied research skills for industry, government agencies, and NGOs; skills in data management and communication; and education skills for K-12, 2-year colleges, 4-year colleges, and museums. Our career development training will expose undergraduate and graduate students to the diversity of STEM careers through collaborations with non-academic partners, who will provide internships with nearly 50 companies. Interested in participating? Let us know via the Contact Us link.

For Students

For Educators

  • We will make polyploidy a ‘household word’, once we demystify it and open students’ and teachers’ eyes to its ubiquitous presence. We expect that students will be excited to learn that: they are the result of an ancient polyploidy event (origin of vertebrates), they have organs that are polyploid (liver), most of the foods they eat are polyploid, and some human ailments involve polyploidy (cancer). These examples illustrate the consequences – the good and the bad – of the basic cellular processes of mitosis and meiosis. Poor comprehension of these processes remains a barrier to students studying biology. Given societal workforce needs in meeting biology-based problems, we will this knowledge gap, and also generate enthusiasm for these topics, by targeting high school STEM courses. We will create, test, deploy, and assess inquiry-based learning about mitosis, meiosis, and polyploidy through programs at UPitt and UF. Local teachers in PA and FL will learn more about these topics, develop curricula to meet their needs, and form supportive cohorts of collaborative teachers. Curricula will be shared nationally. Information on past workshops can be found here. Interested in participating? Let us know via the Contact Us link.

For the Community

  • Public outreach for all audiences will blend basic science on genetics and polyploidy with topics of public interest. Key topics will include the role of polyploidy in the biology of cancer, the impact of polyploidy on plant size and its relationship to crop domestication, and the relationship between polyploidy and weediness. A small, inexpensive, modular exhibit on polyploidy and its roles in biology will be designed at UF and shared with the other PI3 institutions, and we will enable similar exhibits to be constructed and installed at other institutions. Pop-up exhibits that focus on specific topics and offer opportunities for engagement between scientists and the public will also be developed at FLMNH and deployed at community events across PI3 venues, such as the FLMNH’s annual Butterfly Fest and Earth Day celebrations, Science on Tap events at local breweries, farmers’ markets, Market Science at UPitt and UMN, and Carnegie Science Center and Phipps Bioblitz in Pittsburgh. Virtual programming will complement our in-person activities to extend discussions of polyploidy and communicate the importance of science to audiences that would be unable to participate in person. SciComm experts from UF will provide training in effective public communication skills for students and post-docs at all PI3 institutions and will offer further training more broadly for the community via webinars and other virtual platforms. Interested in learning more? Let us know via the Contact Us link.

‍ ‍Past‍ ‍

  • June 9-13, 2025 • The Biodiversity Institute at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

    Polyploidy (genome doubling) is common in many living things, including plants and animals. Understanding polyploidy helps with the creation of sustainable products like biofuels, food, and fiber. Polyploidy even plays an important role in human health!

    Workshop Benefits:  Undergraduates learned about polyploidy and its impact on everything from cells to cancer to whole ecosystems. Workshop topics spanned genetics, evolution, and ecology and will include lectures, discussions, and hands-on training in lab techniques, such as colchicine formation of polyploidy, chromosome squashes, and flow cytometry. Discussions also focused on career development and team science.  

    Mon, June 9—Overview: mini-lectures & discussions in the mornings; hands-on activities in the afternoons 
    Morning:
    •Introduction to Polyploidy—Doug and Pam Soltis
    •Background and History
    •Types of Polyploids
    •Organism-level Polyploidy
    Afternoon:
    •Generating Autopolyploids in Arabidopsis—Jon Spoelhof

    Tues, June 10 
    Morning:
    •Cells: Impact on Cell Size—Soltis
    •Tissue-level Polyploidy: Animals—Don Fox
    •Tissue-level Polyploidy: Plants—Adrienne Roeder
    •Landscape-scale Impacts of Polyploidy—Pam and Doug Soltis
    Afternoon:
    •Chromosome Squashes—Soltis Lab

    Wed, June 11 
    Morning:
    •Hike at Sweetwater Branch Wetlands Park 
    Afternoon:
    •Flow Cytometry & Measuring Guard Cells—Soltis Lab

    Thur, June 12 
    Morning:
    •Cancer—Dietmar Siemann (UF Cancer Center)
    •Agriculture: Blueberries—Patricio Munoz or Anisa Khalid (UF)
    •2x/4x Game: Concepts—Yves Van de Peer et al. (Ghent Univ.)
    Afternoon:
    •Digital Organisms Game: 2x vs 4x—Van de Peer lab

    Fri, June 13 
    Morning:
    •Team Science—UF Team
    •Careers—UF Team
    •Assessment—UF Team 
    Afternoon:
    •ICBR Tour – Core Facilities
    •Departures Friday Evening or Saturday