December 2005
American Chemical Society, India council to hold meeting to promote shared research
The American Chemical Society (ACS) and India’s Council on Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will hold a joint conference in India Jan. 7-9 to promote research cooperation in chemical biology and organic chemistry among scientists in the two nations. Details on the conference, "Building Bridges, Forging Bonds for 21st Century Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology," are available at http://www.ncl-india.org/occb2006/index.htm.
The meeting, which is expected to attract more than 500 scientists from industry, academia and government, will be held at CSIR’s National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India, and a follow-up mini-symposium will be held at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in Hyderabad on January 11-12 (details are available at http://seminar.iictnet.org/aoccb). The symposium will offer the opportunity for some 400 additional Indian scientists and students to interact with speakers from the United States.
A highlight of the meeting, which inaugurates a close working relationship between the two organizations, will be presentations by prominent researchers, including 2005 chemistry Nobel laureate Robert Grubbs of the California Institute of Technology. Other featured speakers include Robin Ganellin, University College, London; Laura Kiessling, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Kevan Shokat, University of California, San Francisco; and Stephen Buchwald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among the major subject areas to be covered are organic synthesis of bioactive natural products, supramolecular chemistry, chemical biology, organometallic chemistry, drug discovery and process research.
A special session at the conference, an "Indo-U.S. Workshop on Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology," will provide early-career researchers from the United States and India a chance to talk about their research in an international setting. “Starting this important dialogue between U.S. and Indian researchers through this workshop will improve the flow of scientific information and improve prospects for research collaboration between scientists in both nations,” said Tamara Nameroff, Director of the ACS Office of International Activities. The Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum provided funding for the workshop.
The American Chemical Society – the world’s largest scientific society – is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.