Welcome to the 96th Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science!  Considering the overwhelming impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all of our lives, along with other significant challenges to society’s health and welfare, there has never been a more vital time to celebrate, communicate, and discuss scientific research!  Thus, we are so grateful and excited to provide a platform for your research presentations at our virtual Annual Meeting hosted by York College of Pennsylvania (YCP).

After working so hard on research projects and presentations, I know how disappointing it was to hear our 2020 Annual Meeting was cancelled.  We empathize with all of the 2020 presenters, and hopefully some of you were able to submit your abstracts this year.

Due to the virtual format of our meeting, the program has been reduced to a single day of oral and poster presentations.  Nevertheless, the breadth of scientific topics in the presentations is sensational, including a session on COVID-19 research.   Some items of note for this meeting:

  • I am happy to announce that we will have 10 high school student presentations representing the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science.
  • Please plan to attend our noon business meeting to learn more about the Academy and the Board of Directors. We encourage our members to take on leadership roles in the Academy!
  • We are excited to carry on the tradition of our Saturday evening Keynote speaker. Dr. Julie Dunning Hotopp from the University of Maryland Baltimore will give the talk: “Spiderman Syndrome: Bacterial DNA in Animal Genomes.”
  • The Keynote address will be immediately followed by our Spychala Student Award Ceremony. Good luck to all students that entered the competition!

I want to thank all of the student presenters and their faculty sponsors for your hard work and continued perseverance to conduct your research projects in these “virtual” times.  We are especially thankful to the YCP Library & Medial Technology Services Departments for helping us make this virtual meeting a reality!

Enjoy the meeting!

Matthew S. Wallace, President of PAS