November 27-28, 2018; Lucknow, India was organized by the CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, India in association with The Biotech Research Society, India. The venue was CSIR-IITR. A total of ~ 200 participants attended the conference from all over the world, which included invited speakers from India, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Italy, Hong Kong, South Korea, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA. A total of five plenary talks and 40 invited talks were held in 10 parallel sessions held in two days along with 157 posters.
The opening session of the BEHSD-2018 was held at 9.00 am on 27th November 2018. Dr N Manickam, Convener, BEHSD-2018 welcomed the dignitaries on the dais and also the delegates and special invitees. Prof Alok Dhawan, Director, CSIR-IITR, Lucknow welcomed the participants. In his address, Prof Dhawan emphasised the relevance of the theme of the conference and also briefly shared the relevant activities of the institute related to the conference theme. In his welcome address, Prof TP Singh, President, BRSI mentioned the growing global concern on the energy and environmental sustainability issues and linked them with the sustainability development goals set by the UN. He spoke about the role of BRSI in this concern and asked the delegates to discuss the burning global issues to address them. Prof Duu Jong Lee, President, International Bioprocessing Association (www.ifibiop.org), addressed the audience and mentioned about the collaboration between BRSI and IBA, which has led to development of several networks and collaboration between the partners. Prof RD Tyagi, University of Quebec, Canada was guest of honour. Prof Pandey also welcomed the invitees and delegates and spoke about the BRSI and its activities, especially about its skill development and entrepreneurship development programs.
The opening session was followed by Plenary lectures by Dr Anjan Ray, Director, CSIR-IIP, Dehradun and Prof Mohammad J. Taherzadeh, Director, Swedish Centre of Resource Recovery, University of Borås, Sweden. This was followed by coffee break; subsequently parallel sessions were run on different themes including Biological Waste Treatment, Lignocellulose Biorefinery, Environmental Bioengineering, Waste Biorefinery and Sustainability and Industrial Bioprocesses and Products in which several invited lectures were presented (also a few short contributoiry orals). At the end of day 1, a culture program was organized in which students from SMVD University, Katra (J&K) presented Kashmiri and Punjabi dances and also some songs. A special presentation was put by Ms Priyam Pandey, who performed two cinematic kathak dances. Couple of other dances were performed by the young kids of scientists of CSIR-IITR.
On 28th November 2018, there were three Plenary talks delivered by Prof Rekha Singhal, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India, Prof Huu Hao Ngo, University of Technology Sydney, Australia and Prof RD Tyagi, University of Quebec, INRS, Quebec, Canada. This was followed by coffee break; subsequently parallel sessions were run on different themes including Environmental Bioengineering, Industrial & Food Technology and Toxicology, Waste to Wealth- Resource Recovery, – Nanotechnology – Applications in Food and Health Sectors in which several invited lectures were presented (also a few short contributoiry orals).
The closing session of the BEHSD-2018 was held at 4.00 pm on 28th November 2018 in which Dr Vivek Agarwal, CMD, CDC India, Jaipur was guest of honor. Winners of BEHSD poster awards and SLBK Foundation sponsored poster awards were announced and honored by Prof TP Singh and Dr Vievk Agarwal.
At the end, on behalf of BRSI, Prof Pandey thanks the CSIR-IITR, especially Prof Dhawan, Dr Manickam and Dr Parthasarathi for their efforts for the success of BEHSD-2018. He also thanked Prof Singh for his vision and stewardship in managing the BRSI. Dr Manickam thanked all in CSIR-IITR and in BRSI for the help rendered by all for the successful organization of BEHSD-2018.
BEHSD-2018, Lucknow Posters Awards Winners
Shree Lok Bahadur Khanal Memorial Education Foundation Awards (For female candidates only, Certificate + Rs 3000):
• Ms Ranjana Sirohi, GB Pant University, Pantnagar; Application of Genetic Algorithm in modelling Optimization of Cellulase Production
• Ms Shipra Pandey, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow; An Optimization of Physico-Chemical Conditions for Enhanced Catalytic Activity of Biogenic Gold Nanoparticles
Session 1: Biological Waste Treatment
• Ms Annapurna Maurya, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow; Detection and quantification of biofilm-forming bacteria from sludge of CETP treating tannery wastewater
• Ms Rwiddhi Sarkhel, Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Biodegradation of Polymers by Bacteria isolated from marine environment
Session 2: Environmental Bioengineering
• Dr Sunita Varjani, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar; Optimization of Fermentation condition for pullulan production by a new isolate of Micrococcus luteus
• Ms Juhi Gupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Production and characterization of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) for the biodegradation of carbofuran by Cupriavidus sp. ISTL7
and few others among 8 sessions were awarded Poster awards at the closing ceremony of the event.
