A few weeks ago, I had the honor and privilege of attending the 2nd Congress of the AOCS China Section. I was among more than 300 professionals and students who were there to present, learn and make connections with researchers from China, Malaysia, Canada, Europe and USA. In fact, the organizing committee was really proud of the global impact of this meeting, because nearly 33% of the presenters were from outside of China.
The 2019 AOCS China Section Conference: Health, Advanced Processing and Value-Added Utilization was held in the beautiful southern China city of Guangzhou. Other co-hosts included Northeast Agricultural University, South China University of Technology and Jinan University. The conference was chaired by Lianzhou Jiang (China Section, Chair), Xuebing Xu, Keshun Liu, Guoqin Liu, Yong Wang and Yuanfa Liu.
On Friday, November 8, nearly 40 people attended the Practical Short Course on Advanced Technologies in Oilseed Processing, Edible Oil Refining and Oil Modification. The room was packed and included speakers from nine companies (all AOCS Corporate members!). Longtime AOCS members Ignace Dubruyne and Sefa Koseoglu were the organizers (and also presented during the conference).
Friday evening, the AOCS China Section Board convened. Many items were discussed and decisions made. Also during the meeting, two additional Vice Presidents of the Section were named: Guoqin Liu and Yong Wang. Four new advisory council members were added: Dayong Zhou, Hui Zhang, Xiuhuan Yu and Mingming Zheng.
The final decision of the night — thanks to the persuasion of Keshun Liu (I love his passion for the Society) — was to hold the next China Section conference in Shanghai 2021 (more details soon).
Saturday started bright and early with a career development session for students and young scientists. Despite the time, nearly 65 people attended to learn more from several highly regarded AOCS members and leaders in their disciplines:
- Tong Wang talked about how to make the most of a scientific society.
- Doug Hayes, incoming editor-in-chief of the Journal of Surfactants and Detergents and Eric J. Murphy, current editor-in-chief of Lipids, shared insights on how to improve the chances of getting your article published.
- Xuebing Xu explained what corporations value the most — he emphasized the importance of having a great attitude.
- Kangming Ma provided tips on making connections and growing your networking through LinkedIn and other sites.
After the career development session, the conference kicked off with a Plenary Session. During the entire day, there were many sessions to attend, with topics covering nutrition, biocatalysis, lipid oxidation, analysis, enzyme application and development, processing of oils, and much more. In total, over 70 presentations were given over the course of one and a half days, of which 12 presenters won a "Best Paper Award" and three won "Best Poster Award." The winners were identified Saturday evening during the enjoyable and entertaining Gala. In fact, I think we all thought the Gala was a big "thumbs up!"
Throughout my time in China, I felt the influence of the tight-knight AOCS family. It was wonderful spending time with AOCS members and volunteer leaders, including Cas Akoh, former AOCS President and AOCS award-winner; Chibuike Udenigwe, Protein and Co-Products Division Vice-Chair; Nuria Acevedo, a leader of the AOCS Professional Educator Common Interest Group; Eric Murphy and Doug Hayes, our amazing journal editors-in-chief; Tong Wang, member of the Books and Special Publications Committee (and passionate about membership!); Carl Arevang, Larodan — the company who always sponsors the AOCS fun run; and so many more that I cannot list them here.
The conference concluded with a quick photo stop at Jinan University and a tour at South China University of Technology.
The meeting flowed wonderfully and was well organized, thanks to the detailed and endless (I don't think he slept) work of AOCS China Section Secretary-General Xiaonan Sui. Thank you! Please get to know more about him by reading this Member Spotlight posted on AOCS inform|connect (login required).
Thank you to all the organizers for bringing together fats, proteins and oils researchers in Guangzhou this past November. What a wonderful event. Please contact me if you have any questions about Sections, this meeting or anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment