IRRI Young Scientists Conference opens today. :)

-
This time, I write snippets as I attend the IRRI Young Scientists Conference. 
---

During the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) Asia Review, I observed that early-career scientists are being given the exposure they need to move their careers forward. Just four weeks after, they are once again given the chance to talk about their work, to meet their peers, and to hear what their peers in other scientific fields are doing. I am talking about the two-day IRRI Young Scientists Conference (#IYSC2012) going on at the International Rice Research Institute.

According to Govinda Rizal (IYSC conference chair and current president of the Association of Fellows, Scholars, Trainees, and Residents in IRRI), the conference serves as a platform to bridge "between experienced senior scientists and those following their footsteps". Indeed, the conference did allow me to talk with more established scientists. I was able to discuss with the likes of Jauhar Ali (who used to be a post-doctoral fellow at IRRI and is now a scientist involved in the Green Super Rice project) and Randy Barker (Cornell University professor emeritus and former head of IRRI's Social Sciences Division) during the technical sessions... they're not grain quality specialists so I don't see them often. 

During the opening program, Robert Zeigler (IRRI Director General) reminded us, young ones, to enjoy the experience of being a student or a post-doctoral fellow because this time of our lives won't last. One day, we'll start getting administrative and managerial responsibilities and may not be able to be as productive, scientifically, as we are now. On the other hand, Achim Dobermann (IRRI Deputy Director General (Research)) remarked that IRRI has a growing population of young scientists. In the past three years, the numbers of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows have approximately doubled; MSc student numbers have gone up; the number of nationally recruited staff has risen too. The IYSC is a venue for these budding scientists to share their research with a wider audience. Thus, he hopes that the IYSC is not just a one-time event.

The abstract book for the IYSC shows just how vibrant our set of young scientists are. On the first day of the conference, there were six concurrent sessions with about 78 speakers! The variety of the presentations indicated that rice science is not just about being in the farm. It's also about crop improvement and protection, markets and policies, genetics and molecular biology, innovations, and environmental issues. Really, rice science is a mix of so many different scientific fields!

Despite the complexity and diversity of rice science, there are people who tend to go only to sessions that are related to their fields of study. Both Drs Zeigler and Dobermann thus urged us to go to presentations on topics we don't normally listen in on so we don't become intellectual silos. Instead, we'd get the opportunity to become well-rounded, balanced scientists. Perhaps, this is one way to follow on Dr Buresh's lesson during the Mentoring Program lunch this week: learn to see the big picture.

 No doubt, the future of rice science appears to be secure. The young scientists at the IYSC are surely "sustaining excellence in rice research".

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more