FORMATIVE YEARS

Dr. Gleb Krotkov (Queen's), Dr. David Siminovitch (Science Service Laboratories, Ottawa) and Gorham undertook the planning of the Third Annual Research conference on Plant Physiology, since no Conference Committee had been elected. It was held at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, November 3-4, 1952, and approximately 60 scientists attended from 12 universities and 13 government laboratories.

A schedule of travel subsidies was circulated to universities and travel grants were paid to 20 delegates from five provinces from the Special Activities Award. Twenty-three papers were presented on a variety of topics. Professor F.C. Steward, one of three guests from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., presented an especially interesting resumé of the work that he and his collaborators had done on the assay, isolated and structural determination of the family of plant growth factors present in coconut milk and the liquid endosperm of other seeds which, he speculated, might be of even greater significance than auxin.

The business meeting decided that future Conference Committees would consist of an elected Conference Chairman (representing the host institution for the next conference) a Vice-Chairman (to be appointed by the Chairman), and the Secretary (representing NRC) who would provide continuity. Questions of program were to be decided by the Conference Committee. The fact that funds available were not adequate to provide a regular travel grant to the Atlantic provinces and only two to the four western provinces on an alternating basis was deplored. The possibility of approaching other sources for additional funds was discussed. The following motion was passed for submission to NRC: "As the annual conference on Plant Physiology would greatly benefit from a more complete representation from the Universities of the western and eastern provinces, it is requested that consideration be given to providing a larger grant in order to accomplish this objective."

The request for a larger grant received a sympathetic but not fully adequate response from NRC. The award for each of the next five years was increased to $1,500. A travel grant policy was adopted at the next Conference which allocated approximately $500 to each of three sectors: (1) two Western delegates, alternated as to provinces, (2) an annually adjusted number of about 15 delegates from Ontario and Quebec, and (3) one Atlantic delegate, with residual funds to be used for guest speaker(s) or delegate(s)-at-large.

The next five Conferences were hosted, in turn, by universities and government laboratories in London, Montreal, Ottawa, Guelph and Hamilton (Table 1). During this period attendance grew from 55 to 100 and, at one Conference, as many as seven provinces and three states were represented. The numbers of contributed papers increased steadily from 20 to 36, making concurrent sessions necessary. Invitational lectures and a symposium or a colloquium became regular highlights.

The 5^th Conference, jointly sponsored by McGill University and the Université de Montréal, took place in the immediate aftermath of a very unusual, damaging hurricane that struck the Lake Ontario and upper St. Lawrence River region. In Montreal, high winds and rain during the night caused only minor damage, so the Conference proceeded as planned. After an excellent symosium on "The Physiological Approach to Host Parasite Relationships," the Rector of the Université de Montréal, Mgr. Olivier Maurault, served a vin d'honneur. A group photograph was taken on the steps of the main pavilion of the Université de Montréal (Fig. 1 - key to photograph is in appendix IV). This picture shows the symposium speakers, the Conference organizers, and many of those who were actively involved in the advancement of plant physiology and plant biochemistry in Canada during the 1950's and 60's.

The 5^th Conference was memorable for other reasons. McGill's Dean of Science, D.L. Thompson, a distinguished biochemist, made a very witty speech after dinner at the Faculty Club in which he described (in botanical terms) an unusual creature, Homo incipiens, found only on university campuses. The question of forming a society was discussed again. This time the matter got as far as examining the constitutions of one or two existing societies, and of considering the idea of widening the scope to make it a society for experimental botany. It was decided, however, to wait until 1958, since it had just been announced that the IX^th International Botanic Congress would be held in Montreal in the summer of 1959. An Executive Committee consisting of Duff (chairman), Krotkov, Siminovitch, Towers, Cailloux and Gorham (Secretary), was elected to speak for Canadian plant physiologists. The Committee was instructed to establish contact with the congress organizers and to consult appropriate Canadian, American and foreign societies about desirable physiological sessions for the 1959 Congress.

The 6^th Conference featured a one-day colloquium on "Tree Physiology" organized by Siminovitch. Topics ranged from water relations and maple sap flow to mycorrhizal symbiosis and frost hardiness. The abstracts and a lecture by Dr. Paul J. Kramer of Duke University on "The Role of Physiology in Forestry" were published in the June and August issues, respectively, of Forestry Chronicle, 1956.

At the 8^th Conference at McMaster University there was a well-attended symposium on "The Chloroplast and Photosynthesis" organized by Dr. A.S. Holt with Drs. Ruth Sager, Martin Gibbs and Allan H. Brown as authoritative participants. After lengthy debate, approval in principle was given to adopting a draft constitution for the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists as proposed by the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee was instructed to "ascertain the wishes of the membership with respect to the particulars of said constitution," while a nominating committee was asked to bring in a slate of candidates for 1958 in accordance with the draft constitution.