A scientist in the kitchen

Of travelling and science…

February 27, 2008 By: User Image Gay Category: Blogging

One of the perks of working in science is the opportunity to travel in different places to present one’s work. It is a time to meet other scientists with the same interests as you, meet up with former teachers and classmates, find contacts for collaboration but more importantly a time to update oneself with the latest in the field. Like me for instance, most of my travels out of the country have been through attending workshops, presenting papers or giving lectures in the field of plant pathology and in molecular biology. The conference that I am looking forward to this year is the Centennial Meeting of the American Phytopatholigical Society (APS), the largest gathering of plant pathologists in the world. This year it will be held in Minneapolis, MN. This event is very special because it is our 100^th year anniversary and a lot of activities, interesting talks, and symposiums will be held. It would be a chance for me to go job hunting as well J

The problem with travel to attend this kind of events is getting hotel reservations with the best price possible. Mind you, travel to the US can be very expensive so I need to get as much hotel discount as I can. Hotels near the venue usually get filled up easily and usually out of my budget range. But looks like I may do better this year! I found this website that offers as much as 70% discount in hotel reservations. Now isn’t that great? I am new to online booking and HotelReservations.com does a great job of helping find potential places to stay in Minneapolis.

With the conference of course is the opportunity to visit around Minneapolis, find restaurants to eat, must-visit places as well as cultural events happening. I really look forward to this side trip. So weeks ahead of the trip, I will surely look up destination guides to Minneapolis so I can make best of my stay.

Now, I’ve got to get back to my research so I can have something to present!