Next: Bibliography
The quality of my experience at the US-IALE conference significantly exceeded my expectations. Having previously only attended conferences for organisations limited to local membership, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with researchers across the country and around the globe. I am very grateful to the NASA-MSU program for enabling me to attend this conference. The opportunity to meet and relate to the larger community of researchers was a new and exciting experience for me. Some of the friendships and exchanges that began at this conference may eventually grow into exciting new collaborative research programs.
As a result of the contacts I made at the 2007 US-IALE conference, I am now hosting a mediawiki site that is used by an international group of researchers in my field. Moreover, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with several researchers overseas to present an article in the Journal of Mediterranean Ecology[1]. These exciting research opportunities coupled with the new friendships and ideas that I discovered at this conference comprise one of my most memorable experiences thus far as a graduate student.