More than three hundred experts in the meeting of the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology in Barcelona

SEFV, created as a scientific institution in 1974, has more than 600 partners and is member of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) and Global Plant Council (GPC), an international coalition of entities and societies related to plant biology and agriculture. The new meeting, which will gather more than three hundred international experts in the Hotel Alimara in Barcelona, is organized by the University of Barcelona (UB), the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology (SEFV).

The opening ceremony, to be held on Monday 26, at 17 h, will be chaired by the Secretary of Universities and Research of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Arcadi Navarro; Francisco Ciruela, Rectorʼs Delegate for research strategy actions and UB senior office for LERU; Aurelio Gómez-Cadenas, President of SEFV; Jorge Marques da Silva, President of the Portuguese Society on Plant Physiology, and the lecturer Teresa Altabella, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the UB and CRAG, who also chairs the organizing committee of the meeting. The opening conference, entitled “Arabidopsis, 40 years a useful tool in plant biology” will be given by Professor Maarteen Koornneff, from the University of Wageningen (the Netherlands). 

From plant biotechnology to environmental sustainability

Improving the agricultural performance, producing high nutritional quality foods and high added value molecules, fighting the effects of climate change, promoting environmental preservation and boosting sustainable economies are some of the challenges for the international scientific community in the field of plant physiology.  

From June 26 to 29, the participants of the meeting will cover the most current progresses in the fields of study such as applied plant physiology and genetic improvement, biotic and abiotic stressʼ response in plants, mineral nutrition and plant-water relations, plant growth and development, systems biology, plant biotechnology and synthetic biology, among other subjects. Another of the topics to be covered in the conference will be focused on the state of women in the field of research, in particular, the “glass ceiling” associated with the scientific career of women researchers.

Public debate on the relationship University-Business

Giving thought to the importance of the relationship between the university and the field of business (agricultural chemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutics) is the objective of the public debate which will take place on Tuesday, June 27, at 19 h, in the headquarters of the conference. The idea is to deepen into the identification of new and potential training areas for future professionals, to create strategies for the industrial sector as well as for their insertion into the studentsʼ training process, and analysing the role of the industrial sector in the studentsʼ training and the strategies to improve it. The debate will be chaired by Professor Manuel Pineda (University of Cordova) and participation from the experts María Dolores Rodríguez (University of Salamanca), Maria Isabel Trillas (University of Barcelona), Torben Jahrmann (Semillas Fitó), Pedro Molina Guevara (IDENBiotechnology) and Gonzaga Ruíz de Gauna (Biovegen) is planned.

Science, society and scientific communication

On Wednesday June 28, at 19 h, CaixaForum Barcelona (Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8 Barcelona) will hold a new public debate on scientific communication and social perception in the field of plant physiology, chaired by Pere Puigdomènech, research professor (CSIC-CRAG), with the participation of the professors Ramón M. Massalles (UB), José Miguel Mulet and José Pío Beltrán (IBMCP), Luis Matias (SequentiaBiotech company and the group Big Van) and the journalists Xavier Duran (Televisió de Catalunya) and Milagros Perez Oliva (El País). The media who wish to attend the public debate in CaixForum have to confirm their attendance to UB Communication (premsa@ub.edu).  

The closing ceremony of the conference, to be held on June 29, will be part of the award ceremony of Sabater Award for young researchers, an award given by the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology which this year honours José Manuel Torres, Doctor of Biology at the University of Seville.