FTPP Annual Meeting 2026
Dear FTPP Colleagues,
The 2026 FTPP Annual Meeting will be held on May 6–8, 2026, at the Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex (ACLC) at Auburn University, Alabama. The Annual Meeting will showcase the research, educational, and outreach activities from the past year. Research presentations and summaries from our faculty, our postdocs, and our students will be featured.
Registration and poster setup will begin at 8:00 AM CST on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, followed by the start of the meeting at 9:00 AM. The meeting will conclude on Friday, May 8, 2026, with lunch at 1:00 PM.
Registration
Visit the link below to register for the FTPP Annual Meeting.
- Please note that you should only use the link below to register for the event.
- After registering, you will be directed to a page with links to three hotels. These hotels have room blocks reserved for our group. You will also receive an email at the address you provided with these links, in case you need to book at a later time.
- For reimbursement inquiries, please contact your respective FTPP university.
Agenda
Lodging
There are 3 hotels with our group rate:
Please continue to register through the conference link to access the group rate hotel links.
Travel Information
Annual Meeting Address
Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex (ACLC)│347 Duncan Dr. Auburn, AL 36849
Airport
The best airport to fly into for Auburn, Alabama, is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), located about 100 miles (1.5–2 hours) away, offering the most flight options and direct shuttle services.
Group Dinner Address
The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center, Legacy Ballroom│241 S College St, Auburn, AL 36830
walk
From the Annual Meeting location, Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex (ACLC) to the hotel, which is where the dinner will be held (in the Legacy Ballroom) it is a 10-minute walk, or 0.5 miles.
Local Attractions
Auburn, Alabama, offers a mix of outdoor recreation, college-town charm, and local culture. Visitors can explore scenic spots like Chewacla State Park, enjoy the lively atmosphere around Auburn University, or stroll through downtown Auburn’s shops and green spaces. The area also features local events, art galleries, and walking trails that highlight the community’s welcoming and vibrant character.
Local Restaurants
Auburn’s dining scene features a variety of popular restaurants ranging from casual bites to elevated Southern cuisine. Favorites like Lucy’s, Acre, and The Hound offer unique menus and inviting atmospheres that appeal to both locals and visitors. Whether you’re looking for classic comfort food, fresh ingredients, or a lively place to gather, Auburn has plenty of options to enjoy.
Guest speaker
Dr. Demitrius T. Barksdale
Dr. Demitrius T. Barksdale, known as Dr. Dee by community members and students, is a compassionate visionary who specializes in holistic practical ways to serve humanity through empathic service, active leadership, and care & wellness.
Dr. Barksdale is the Co-Founder and CEO of LEADingWell Holistic Development and Leadership, a faith-based wellness non-profit. LEADingWell strives to aid community members and leaders in their personal and professional developmental embarkments through holistic developmental resources. In brief, these resources span emotional and cultural intelligence, effective communication and personal branding, self-care and compassion, and work-life harmony.
As Dr. Barksdale is passionate about helping others lead well, he also serves as a higher education professional. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Counselor Education and the inaugural Director of School Partnerships and Community Engagement and Innovation for the College of Education at the University of Alabama. He also serves as faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as he instructs courses on Emotional Intelligence.
Through Dr. Barksdale’s work, he is providing practical tools and guidance to empower individuals and communities to thrive physically, mentally, occupationally, socially, and spiritually. His efforts are to further demonstrate how human connection, heartfelt mentorship, and intentional advocacy can create a lasting impact on the world beyond ourselves.
He is a three-time alumnus of the University of Alabama, with over 16 years of experience in education, community engagement, and holistic development.
Guest speaker – via zoom
Dr. mike Morrison
Dr. Mike Morrison is a designer and psychologist who is trying to speed up scientific discovery by creating new, more efficient designs for tools that scientists use every day. He’s most known for creating the viral ‘#BetterPoster’ movement and YouTube cartoons that affect how hundreds of thousands of studies are communicated. Mike has been invited to give workshops on design and communication at many wonderful organizations including Harvard, Stanford, the US Centers for Disease Control, Microsoft Research, and Johns Hopkins. He is currently the Lead User Experience Designer at Curvenote, where he works to redesign scientific publishing.
Guest speaker
Dr. Erik Schwiebert
Erik Schwiebert, PhD, leads all Station 41 programs. He is focused on new early-stage, mid-stage, and later stage therapeutics discovery and development projects identified within Southern Research and its allied institution, the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Erik holds a PhD in cell biology and physiology in health and disease from Dartmouth College’s Medical School (now the Geisel School of Medicine) as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in cell physiology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has held multiple leadership positions in both academic and industry settings, including founding DiscoveryBioMed, Inc.—a life sciences and biotechnology company that gave rise recently to AeroNeph Therapeutics, Inc. DiscoveryBioMed’s human cell models and assays that underpinned its CRO services business were acquired recently by Eurofins Discovery Panlabs and integrated into its Translational Biology Center of Excellence.
Guest speaker
Dr. Dana Longcope
Dana Longcope is a Professor of Physics at Montana State University, and was the Head of the Physics Department from 2020 – 2023. Dana graduated from the Laboratory of Plasma Studies at Cornell University in 1993. He did post-doctoral research at The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (New York University) and the University of California, Berkeley, both in the Astronomy Department and the Space Science Laboratory. He joined the faculty of MSU in 1996.
Longcope studies a variety of phenomena in the Sun’s interior and atmosphere, including magnetic flux emergence through the convection zone, magnetic energy build-up in the solar corona, and energy release and conversion in solar flares. He conducts these studies theoretically by combining analytical and numerical methods, and comparing directly to observations.
Dana has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the AAS Solar Physics Division and has also served the National Research Council (NRC) on the Committee on Solar and Space Physics, and on several of its decadal survey reports, including “The Next Decade of Discovery in Solar and Space Physics” released in Dec. of 2024. Dana Longcope received the Arctowski Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (2021), the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (2000), the Karen Harvey Prize from the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society (2003), and a Fellowship from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science (1993). He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Dana was born in Baltimore, MD and grew up outside Worcester, MA. When not working he enjoys exploring Montana by skiing, hiking, and kayaking with his wife Valerie and their two dogs. He also plays on a lower-tier, beer-league hockey team, with mixed results.
Poster & 3-min talk competitions
The poster template design has been updated! Please refer to the link below to ensure you are using the correct template and following the guidelines.
Contact Information
