The 8th International Conference on Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability-2017 in honor of Agepati S. Raghavendra, William A. Cramer, and Govindjee was organized by the Department of Plant Science, School of Life Sciences, at the University of Hyderabad on October 30, 2017.
The global challenges on the available energy sources, and accelerated efforts towards tapping solar fuel, biofuel, and hydrogen energy production have thrown unlimited possibilities mostly due to the increased understanding of the photosynthetic structures in bacteria and plants. The challenge on food security heavily depends on our understanding of the photosynthetic efficiency of crop plants and the need to increase crop productivity to meet global demands, by better utilization of renewable energy, namely sunlight, and carbon dioxide. The University of Hyderabad (UoH) organized a conference on these challenging aspects titled, 8th International Conference on Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability-2017 during October 30 – November 03, 2017, at the Department of Plant Sciences in the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad.
There has been tremendous response from scientists from all over the world for this important conference, first time in India, with confirmed participation of about 100 overseas scientists. This five day packed event, will have 71 lectures and 120 poster presentations. The speakers at the conference are the world leaders in the field of bioenergy and some of them have also been nominated for the Nobel Prize. The lectures and posters will address these two global challenges and discuss various aspects of photosynthesis and therefore would be relevant to crop/energy, particularly renewable energy, based industries. In addition, three distinguished scientists Professors Agepati S. Raghavendra, University of Hyderabad (India), William A. Cramer, Purdue University (USA) and Govindjee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), who have made pioneering contributions to the field of photosynthesis, were honoured in this conference on the inaugural day.
This meeting will provide a forum for students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientists from different coun¬tries to deepen their knowledge and understanding, widen professional contacts, create new opportunities, and establish new collaborations. The topics of this conference, range widely, are grouped into two main areas: photosynthesis and biohydrogen. The photosyn-thesis section includes its primary processes, structure & function of the photosystems, water oxidation mechanism, excitation energy transfer and trapping in the photosystems, generation of the proton electrochemical gradient, as well as biogenesis of the photosyn¬thetic apparatus and climate changes on plant photosynthesis. Additional topics covered are bacterial photosynthesis and its metabolism, systems biology of photosynthesis based on omics approach, photosynthesis education, and emerging techniques for studying photosynthesis. The bio-hydrogen section covers topics of hydrogen energy for the future, hydrogen economy, biological hydrogen production, hydrogenases, proton reduction catalysts, and emerging techniques for studying of hydrogen energy.
The conference was inaugurated by Prof. Podile Appa Rao, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad (UoH) at the School of Life Sciences. The organizing secretary of the conference, Prof. S. Rajagopal, Prof. P. Reddanna, Dean, School of Life Sciences, Prof. Ch. Venkataramana, Head, Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, and Suleyman, Co-coordinator of this conference welcomed the gathering and spoke on the occasion.