Feature

The 2nd congress of youngBB

Adnan mannan

19th March, 2008. It will be marked as one of the historical days for youngBB. The 2nd Congress was arranged very successfully on this day at TSC, University of Dhaka. Young Biotechnologists from all over the country joined the congress to express their united efforts for biotechnology.

We had Prof. Naiyyum Choudhury, Secretary, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences among us. He adorned the chair of chief guest. We had Prof. Haseena Khan, Prof. Zeba Islam Seraj, both from University of Dhaka and most importantly professor Maqsudul Alam from university of Hawaii, as the main attraction of the congress.

Mustak Ibn Ayub, coordinator of youngBB delivered the welcome speech, it was followed by Professor Haseena Khan, advisor, youngBB, Prof. Maqsudul Alalm as the guest of honor. The Chief Guest Prof. Naiyyum Choudhury addressed the youngBBs very warmly and expressed the dreams he had regarding the youngsters. This session was chaired by Dr. Jesmin, acting chairperson of Dept. of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Dhaka.

The inaugural session was followed by the “Theme Session”. In this session Prof. Maqsudul Alam delivered a ppt presentation on Genomics, proteomics and Bioinformatics. Nazlee Sharmin, a Graduate student of Dept. of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (GEB- DU), delivered the theme talk- Biopharmaceuticals: Global and Bangladesh Perspectives. She was very elegant and eloquent in her speech. Salim Ahmed, another graduate of GEB talked about the business perspectives of Biotechnology.

Dr. Firdousi Qardi, Senior Scientist and Head, Immunology, Lab, ICDDRB, also joined the congress at 12.45 PM. She spoke about her works and how she climbed up this apex of success over the years. She was very touchy in her speech and the youngsters were greatly inspired by her words.

The next session was “Interactive session”. Here the youngbbs from different institutions asked their queries to the board of experts which consisted of Dr. Maqsudul Alam, Dr. Firdousi Qadri, Prof. Haseena Khan, Prof. Zeba Islam Seraj, Dr. Jesmin, Dr. Sabina Yeasmin and Dr. Nazmul Ahsan. The session lasted for almost 1 hour and 30 mins.

After lunch and prayer break the fourth session- “Perspective Business Biotech” took place. Mr. Asraf Ali Biswas, Associate professor, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University delivered a very moving speech on Feed Biotechnology in this session. It was followed by a presentation from Zannatul Firdous, a student of University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC). She talked about probiotics, her research topic.

The day ended with vote of thanks and announcement of youngBB. We hope the next year will be more eventful and successful for youngBB.

NB: May I request all the participants to express their views on this congress and how the next one can be made more fruitful and attractive.