Next week, from September 1st to September 5th, the VIB Department for Plant Systems Biology, Technologiepark 927, 9052 Ghent, Belgium, will host a one-week summer school on mathematical and computational modeling for plant systems biology: http://www.psb.ugent.be/plantmodels. The course features a series of general lectures by international experts on computational modeling of plants. The week will start with phenomena occurring at the subcellular and cellular scale, including photosynthesis, cell cycle regulation and the organization of the cytoskeleton. Then it will gradually “scale up” to the tissue, organ, and whole plant levels. It will conclude with pattern formation in tissues, the mechanics of growth, and whole plant development and evolution. The morning lectures are accessible to a general audience of plant biologists and are open to everyone without registration. Unfortunately, afternoon computer lab sessions will be accessible only to registered attendants and registration has closed. Lectures will start at 10:00 in the Jozef Schell seminar room on all days except for Tuesday, when the lectures will start at 9:00. The full program is included below. For more information and abstracts, please visit http://www.psb.ugent.be/plantmodels. Best wishes, Roeland Merks Gerrit Beemster Dirk Inzé Xavier Draye ---- Monday, 1st September 2008 Genetic and metabolic networks 10:00-11:00 Xin-Guang Zhu (Shanghai, China). Dynamic models of photosynthetic metabolism 11:15-12:15 Joe Pomerening (Bloomington, IN, USA). Coupled positive and negative feedback loops drive transitions in embryonic and somatic cell cycles Tuesday, 2nd September 2008 Single cell shape and mechanics 9:00-10:00 François Nédélec (Heidelberg, Germany). Models of microtubule organization in fission yeast 10:15-11:15 Bela Mulder (Amsterdam/Wageningen, Netherlands). Modelling cellulose biosynthesis and plant cell wall architecture 11:15-12:15 Verônica Grieneisen (Utrecht, Netherlands). Auxin gradients in root development Wednesday, 3rd September 2008 Multicellular pattern formation 10:00-11:00 Hans Meinhardt (Tübingen, Germany). Models of biological pattern formation applied to plant development 11:15-12:15 Richard Smith (Bern, Switzerland). Simulation models of auxin transport-based patterning in plants. Thursday, 4th September 2008 Plant growth mechanics 10:00-11:00 Alain Goriely (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA). Continuum models of plant growth and remodeling 11:15-12:15 Roeland Merks (VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent, Belgium). Cell-centered modeling of plant tissues Friday, 5th September 2008 Whole plant development and evolution. 10:00-11:00 Xavier Draye (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). Model integration: building multidisciplinary, soil, plant and atmosphere models 11:15-12:15 Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz (Calgary, Canada). Cells to ecosystems: multiscale modeling of plant development and form