Many members of the Blackman Lab attended the Evolution 2017 meeting in Portland, OR this year. Jack, Melis, Ray, Nic, and I all gave talks on topics ranging from solar tracking to sunflower domestication to local adaptation of annual monkeyflowers. It was a really fun meeting in part because Portland is just a really great venue. Plus, the day before the meeting, there was a separate meeting by the Mimulus community about all things monkeyflowers at which I gave an update on the progress folks have been making in genetic transformation across the group. Plus, sharing the Evolution conference venue with a superhero and walking dead convention was a hoot too (bottom right). So great to see everyone and hear about lots of exciting science!

On the way there, I did some collecting in northern Northern California and southern Oregon between I-5 and the coast (center right). Cathy Rushworth, Emily Josephs, and Jenn Coughlan were great sports about joining in the collections on the way (top right), and we passed some amazing roadside attractions too like the Paul Bunyan and Babe carvings outside the Trees of Mystery (top left).