On June 2-7, 2011, Siberian Federal University and the Institute of Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences held the International Workshop “Biotechnology of New Materials and the Environment”. The Workshop was organized within the framework of the project of the SibFU Institute of Fundamental Biology and Biotechnology “Biotechnology of New Biomaterials” under the supervision of the leading scientist Prof. Antony J. Sinskey. The project has won in the call for grant proposals under the Resolution No. 220 of the Russian Government for the support of research carried out by the Russian educational institutions of higher education. Famous scientists from Russia, Germany, Greece and the USA, specialists and faculty members, as well as undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. students of SibFU took part in the Workshop and the Summer School. “The Scientific Workshop and the Young Scientist’s School are two components of one big event,” says Prof. Tatiana VOLOVA. “Last year it was the first time we organized the Summer School on Biotechnology for students. Then we invited two leading Russian scientists in the field of cellular materials and biotechnology. It became obvious that our young scientists wanted something more – not only to broaden the geography of the lecturers, but to become active participants of the Scientific Forum themselves. Thus, we have come to the conclusion to make the Summer School an annual event and invite the best world specialists to participate in it.”
This year famous scientists not only from Russia, but from other countries as well have been invited: Prof. A. Steinbüchel (the Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany) – the head of the largest Center of metabolism engineering and biotechnology in Europe ; Prof. D. Jendrossek (Institute for Microbiology, University Stuttgart, Germany); Dr. Anna Schwedeman (Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences Cerenis Theraputics, Ann Arbor, MI, USA); Prof. A. Tsatsakis (Department of Forensic Sciences & Toxicology, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece); Prof. M.I. Shtilman (Director of the Center for Biotechnology at D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia Moscow, Russia). One of the guests, Prof. Vasif Hasirci, the Director of the Center for Biomaterials, University of Ankara, Turkey, haven’t had an opportunity to come to the Workshop due to some health problems, but nevertheless he delivered a lecture for students on-line via Internet. Young researchers were not only listening to the world-famous specialists in the field, but also were sharing the information about their own developments. On the second day of the conference there was a poster session, where undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. students of IFBB presented the posters with the brief description of their research achievements to the committee of the faculty members. The other days the students were presenting their reports and answering the questions of the audience. According to Prof. T. Volova the Summer school has progressed a lot this year, therefore the organizers plan to hold the next Summer school within the framework of the International symposium. The dynamic development of the biotechnology field at Siberian Federal University attracts the attention of specialists in the field of biotechnology and materials science from the largest European universities and may foster the organization of an international Master course in biotechnology at SibFU in the nearest future.