Conferences and meetings arranged by various scientific organizations provide a platform for science, career development, business, and policy making to come together. They help give a good exposure to scientists about the latest developments in research. Apart from science they are good chance to visit new places and learn about new cultures.
Fifteen thousand letters, that’s the number of letters which the Darwin Correspondence Project claims to have archived. These are letters which Darwin and his contemporary biologists exchanged. What was the purpose? The answer is NETWORKING. Darwin would have faired well in twittering or facebooking.
Well in the present day world, it has become much more easier for scientists to come and meet at platforms like the EMBO meetings etc. What else do you need when you have Nobel laureates, an author of a best seller, top scientists, editors of high profile journals, top business companies of science and the young minds together on the same platform (EMBO2010). Darwin would have saved a lot of his energy, paper and ink had he been provided with a platform like EMBO meetings to convey his ideas and theories among fellow scientists.
Networking is an important issue nowadays among scientists as we are heading towards a border free science. Meetings and conferences have become like the neuronal synapses, without which science would be a little difficult. It helps fellow scientists to know what is going on in other parts of the world and it also provides an insight into the latest developments in research. Conferences and meetings open avenues for inter subject research. With experts of diverse field around there, it provides a chance to know the probabilities of inter subject collaborations.
These conferences are a good platform for young scientists to explore new avenues of research. They help the graduate students and postdocs to look into new avenues for their future.
Scientists need to get out of laboratories, and these scientific conferences and meetings provide them a chance to do so. Apart from the scientific aspect meetings like the EMBO 2010 allow scientists to travel and explore new places.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
EMBO Global Exchange & The Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance Meeting.
What is the purpose of such meetings and conferences ? Do scientists really need to have such meetings ?
Imagine what would happen if the synapses between the neurons were not formed in us. Science in the present day, without networking would be like a nervous system without the ability of form synapses. EMBO aims at bringing scientists from across the globe together so that there is more interaction and people know what is going on in other parts of the world. Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, at the outset of his talk, said that he was attending the meeting because, as a scientist of Indian origin, he wanted to know what was going on in India. It was with this objective of sharing knowledge, that the above meeting was held at the EMBO 2010 , Barcelona meeting.
The meeting started with a welcome address followed by a series of talks which ranged from ribosomes, vaccines, stem cells, policy matters and of course funding issues (after all money makes the world go round). The panel discussion on research opportunities spiced up the meeting, with the conversations between the panelists and the audience (mostly young indian scientists based outside India). Dr Venki gave keynote talk on ribosomes, with an insight into its structure.
Dr Vijayraghavan`s talk on the development of movement was not just focused on the movement in animals, but it also focused on the development of biological science research in India. He gave an overview of the genesis of life science research in modern India, which started sometime in the late 19th and early 20th century. With the establishment of institutions like Bose Institute, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore (now Bengaluru), the Bhabha Research Institute in Bombay (now Mumbai), etc, research in the field of life sciences gained momentum. After the independence of India, many centres of excellence came into existence in the form of national research institutes each of which was a feather in the cap of life science research in India. The present government has taken steps to increase the number of centrally aided universities and open new research institutions across the length and breadth of the country to facilitate quality higher education to the masses of India.
The Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance is facilitating quality research opportunities for scientists in India and as Dr Anuradha said, it aimed at bringing people with a taste for quality research into India. The panel discussion which followed the talks of Anuradha and Gerlind, discussed about the opportunities researchers have in India. Embo Director, Maria said that Indians outside India could help India develop by adding their share of knowledge once they are back to their country. In response to a question about the problems one faces in India at different levels, Anuradha, with a very positive approach said that, what people take as problems should be taken up as challenges and dealt with a positive attitude rather than complaining about them. The panelists further added that money for research in India was not a problem, but the real problem was lack of good working hands.
There were eminent scientists of India and also from outside India like Dr Partha Majumder, Rashna Bhandari, Sandhya Visweswariah, Azim Surani, Vivel Malhotra, Ashok Venkitaraman and Satyajit Rath, who spoke on various scientific issues. The meeting ended with a positive note of bringing collaboration and mutual understanding among the scientists of India and the whole world.
Imagine what would happen if the synapses between the neurons were not formed in us. Science in the present day, without networking would be like a nervous system without the ability of form synapses. EMBO aims at bringing scientists from across the globe together so that there is more interaction and people know what is going on in other parts of the world. Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, at the outset of his talk, said that he was attending the meeting because, as a scientist of Indian origin, he wanted to know what was going on in India. It was with this objective of sharing knowledge, that the above meeting was held at the EMBO 2010 , Barcelona meeting.
The meeting started with a welcome address followed by a series of talks which ranged from ribosomes, vaccines, stem cells, policy matters and of course funding issues (after all money makes the world go round). The panel discussion on research opportunities spiced up the meeting, with the conversations between the panelists and the audience (mostly young indian scientists based outside India). Dr Venki gave keynote talk on ribosomes, with an insight into its structure.
Dr Vijayraghavan`s talk on the development of movement was not just focused on the movement in animals, but it also focused on the development of biological science research in India. He gave an overview of the genesis of life science research in modern India, which started sometime in the late 19th and early 20th century. With the establishment of institutions like Bose Institute, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore (now Bengaluru), the Bhabha Research Institute in Bombay (now Mumbai), etc, research in the field of life sciences gained momentum. After the independence of India, many centres of excellence came into existence in the form of national research institutes each of which was a feather in the cap of life science research in India. The present government has taken steps to increase the number of centrally aided universities and open new research institutions across the length and breadth of the country to facilitate quality higher education to the masses of India.
The Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance is facilitating quality research opportunities for scientists in India and as Dr Anuradha said, it aimed at bringing people with a taste for quality research into India. The panel discussion which followed the talks of Anuradha and Gerlind, discussed about the opportunities researchers have in India. Embo Director, Maria said that Indians outside India could help India develop by adding their share of knowledge once they are back to their country. In response to a question about the problems one faces in India at different levels, Anuradha, with a very positive approach said that, what people take as problems should be taken up as challenges and dealt with a positive attitude rather than complaining about them. The panelists further added that money for research in India was not a problem, but the real problem was lack of good working hands.
There were eminent scientists of India and also from outside India like Dr Partha Majumder, Rashna Bhandari, Sandhya Visweswariah, Azim Surani, Vivel Malhotra, Ashok Venkitaraman and Satyajit Rath, who spoke on various scientific issues. The meeting ended with a positive note of bringing collaboration and mutual understanding among the scientists of India and the whole world.
EMBO 2010
Networking, Science, Business, Policy making, Career are the ingredients of the EMBO 2010, Barcelona. To add flavour to it there are talks by scientists like Dr Venki, Dr Elizabeth, Dr Frans de Waal and many more...
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