First Day of the Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference
The BAPTC&B organized Conference on Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology was held as per schedule in the Department of Botany, Dhaka University . The conference drew an impressive gathering comprising delegates and intellectuals from major public and private educational and research institutions of the country as well as distinguished NRB's from Australia , Japan and USA . Former Chief Plant Biotechnologist & Rice Breeder, IRRI, Professor Swapan Kumar Datta, credited for evolving indica version of Golden rice as well as a few other scientists from India also graced the occasion. The conference was inaugurated by Professor Nazrul Islam, Chairman, The University Grants Commission. The conference highlights were three plenary lectures: Professor Abed Chaudhury, an NRB from CSIRO, Australia spoke on, "Plant Breeding Systems for Increasing Agricultural Productivity." The topic of the first plenary lecture by Dr. Zaheed Husain at the Immune Disease Institute, Harvard Medical School was on, “Molecular Targeting and Drug Discovery in the post-Genomic Era”, while that of the third plenary by Dr. M. C. Kharkwal at the Indian Agricultural Res. Institute was on, “Mutation Breeding and Food Security: Achievements and Prospects.” The new concept and strategy elaborated by Dr. Chaudhury for increasing agricultural productivity provided food for thought. The first scientific session on, “Production and conservation of medicinal, horticultural, ornamental timber and other cash crops through in vitro techniques” was chaired by Professor T. B. Jha at the Presidency College , Kolkata. The poster session covering a wide variety of areas of biotechnology was inaugurated by Professor Ahmed Azad, an NRB from Australia . The names of the prize owners will be announced on the concluding day, the 13th of April.
