NAIST Global COE International Symposium on Plant Biology 2007
The 1st Global COE International Symposium on Plant Biology was held on Oct. 18-19, 2007 in the Millennium Hall, NAIST. The aim of the symposium was to foster international and regional research co-operation, particularly between the tripartite workgroup of CAS-IGDB (China), UCD-CBS (USA), and NAIST-BS (Japan). For these purposes, eleven eminent international scientists, including five from the workgroup, and five Japanese scientists, including three from NAIST, were invited to give presentations on their current research.
The theme of the symposium focused on recent progress in plant research, particularly in the model plants rice and Arabidopsis. Participants from the GCOE International Student Workshop also presented their work in a poster session. Approximately 350 participants attended the symposium. The symposium was opened by the GCOE Program leader Professor Ko Shimamoto, beginning a two-day meeting filled with presentations of interesting new findings and questions from the audience that often stretched the presentation time. A buffet dinner was held at the end of the first day, which encouraged lively interactions among the participants. The symposium laid a strong foundation for further international co-operation in the future.
