Message from the Chairperson of the Organising Committee
Remarks on the Occasion of the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry (JSBBA)
TETSUO KOBAYASHI
On behalf of the executive committee, I am pleased to welcome you to Nagoya and the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry (JSBBA).
It has been 10 years since this meeting was last held in Nagoya. Let me provide a brief overview of the meeting as we eagerly await your active participation. The event will be held for four days from March 15th (Thursday) to March 18th (Sunday). Although a number of past meetings were held around late March, this year the entire schedule has been moved earlier to mid-March just as last year, so it is recommended that you make the necessary arrangements as soon as possible. The event will open at Hotel Nagoya Castle on the 15th. It is located near Nagoya Castle, a 10-minute walk from Sengen-cho Station on subway Tsurumai Line. Then, from 16th to 18th, the meeting will be held at the Tempaku campus of Meijo University, a 4-minute walk from Shiogamaguchi Station on subway Tsurumai Line. Moving between venues is made easier as lectures are held in two adjacent lecture buildings, giving you more flexibility in scheduling.
As is the case every year, an award ceremony, including acceptance speeches by award winners, and a social gathering will be held on the first day of the meeting. The JSBBA Chemistry and Biology Symposium will be held twice (the first and the third days) during the entire event. Akira Endo, who won the Canada Gairdner International Award for the first discovery and development of statins, and Yoshinori Ohsumi, the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy, will be present on the first day and the third day, respectively, as honorable guests. This year's JSBBA Chemistry and Biology Symposium, as was the case last year, is closed to the public and is only accessible to participants of the meeting.
General lectures (oral presentations) will be held on the second and the third days, while the symposium will be held on the fourth day. There will also be regular events, including Luncheon Seminars and exhibitions of equipment, reagents, and books. Events scheduled on the second day include acceptance speeches by winners of various women’s awards, which were introduced last year, and talks by members of the Forum of the Academic Exchange Committee between Government, Industry, and Academia. Two Committee Organized Symposiums will also be held on the same day. These are our joint projects with the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition and the Japanese Society for Chemical Biology, respectively, as a way to reinforce collaboration between different academic disciplines. The annual mixer is also planned on that same evening as an opportunity for participants to interact with one another.
The Luncheon Symposium about Gender Equality will be held on the third day. This, along with the abovementioned women's awards, is part of a greater effort by the society to promote cross-gender cooperation. In addition, the Nougeikagaku Meeting for High-School Students will also be held. Participants are encouraged to take part in this event to show support for the students. A special lecture by Prof. Ohsumi will be delivered on the third day after 4 pm following the early completion of other general lectures. To make full use of the facilities provided by Meijo University, the speech will be broadcast live from the lecture hall. A total of 2,000 seats will be made available.
On the last day, the symposium will be held in the morning while the Committee Organized Symposium is scheduled in the afternoon. For the symposium, there will be 29 different programs running concurrently. However, programs with similar contents will be organized in nearby venues for your convenience. The Committee Organized Symposium will focus on the theme of "business innovation," and participation is highly recommended for those with particular interest in industry, academia, and government collaboration. The Frontiers Symposium, which is another routine event targeting young researchers and students, will also commence on the last day of the entire meeting for a period of two days. This program is designed to encourage interaction among young researchers and students. We look forward to the active involvement of our younger participants.
The Chubu branch of our executive committee will also launch a program called Corporate Exhibition. As this meeting is held around the beginning of the job-hunting season for university students, we hope that such exhibition could provide a meaningful forum for companies and students associated with bioscience, biotechnology, and agrochemistry. We are confident of its success as our Chubu branch has had numerous experiences in organizing Corporate Exhibitions during past Chubu branch meetings. A Corporate Exhibition will be held on the second and the third days of the meeting. We have already informed our corporate participants of the event. However, it is possible that the information may not have been conveyed to everyone. Therefore, please contact the executive committee if you have any questions.
The style of conference management by JSBBA has largely changed since last year. We will maintain cooperation with the board of directors and the secretariat so that we can serve as a model for branches with less experience in organizing meetings of this size at such frequency. We ask for your patience and understanding in case of any shortcomings, and we would appreciate it if you could share your opinion of the event with us through our executive committee or secretariat.
Last but not least, this meeting would not be possible without support from businesses and various other organizations. We are still seeking help for the exhibition of equipment, reagents, and books, as well as Luncheon Seminars, Corporate Exhibition, and advertisement. We ask for your further assistance in making this event an even greater success.
It is the responsibility of all of us here at the executive committee to make sure that this meeting runs smoothly, but its success largely rests on the collective effort of our members and sponsors. Hence, we would like to extend our warmest welcome to all, and we look forward to your keen support and participation.
