Cover Story
New Year’s Greeting from Malaysia
Prof Ts Dr Suraini Abd-Aziz
• Professor, Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia
• Vice-President AFOB Malaysia Region
• President, AFOB Malaysia Chapter
• Co-chair AFOB Bioenergy and Biorefinery Division
My contribution to the development of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology
Let me begin with my involvement in the development of AFOB.
I start knowing my Korean colleagues from the recommendation of Prof Dr Mohamed Ismail Abdul Karim, Head of Biotechnology Department, Faculty of Food Science and Biotechnology, Universiti Putra Malaysia. I was introduced to Prof Yoon-Moo Koo and Prof Tai Hyun Park as an observer at the 9th Symposium of Young Asian Biochemical Engineers’ Community (YABEC 2003) in Jeju Island, South Korea. I was awarded the YABEC Travelling Award for the meeting. From there I met and get to know all distinguished Professors and researchers of the YABEC community. Not to forget, the very friendly Prof Jeung Keug Park that welcomes me at Jeju Airport. During the meeting, I also met 2 more observers i.e Prof Dr Virendra Bisaria (from India) and Assoc Prof Dr Klanarong Sriroth (from Thailand).
9th Symposium of Young Asian Biochemical Engineers’ Community (YABEC 2003), Jeju Island, South Korea
9th Symposium of Young Asian Biochemical Engineers’ Community (YABEC 2003), Jeju Island, South Korea
From the kick start meeting at YABEC, my collaboration with all the countries in YABEC community has grown stronger. We met almost every year for all the conferences and the discussion on the Asian Federation of Biotechnology development was discussed with the attendance of delegates from Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India
From Malaysia, I am one of the pioneers that put forward the idea of this federation and brought together my colleagues from Malaysia (Prof Mohd Ali Hassan, UPM & Assoc Prof Dr Madihah, UTM) for the discussion. Three of us are always together for almost every meeting/symposium/conference for the development of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology.
Preparative meetings for the formation of AFOB had been held four times prior to its official establishment (KSBB 2007 National Spring Meeting, April 27th, Songdo Technopark, Incheon, Korea; APBioChEC 2007 Meeting, November 5th and 7th, Taipei International Convention Center, Taipei, Taiwan; KSBB 2008 National Spring Meeting, April 18th, Jeonju City, Korea.)
The incorporation was agreed upon by the delegates from Asian countries during the IBS 2008 conference, October 12th -17th held in Dalian, China. The delegates from participating Asian countries discussed the launching of AFOB during the meetings. The International Federation bears the name Asian Federation of Biotechnology, abbreviated to "AFOB", hereafter referred to as 'The Federation'.
13th International Biotechnology Symposium (2008), Dalian, China
I have witnessed all the development, discussion, meeting and conferences to bring forward AFOB development to success. Starting with 8 Asian countries members, AFOB already has 14 countries members.
Some nice photos as memory to share:
Asian Congress on Biotechnology (2015), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
9th AFOB Board Meeting (2016), Gyeongju, South Korea
10th AFOB Board Meeting (2017), South Korea
AFOB Seminar (2017), South Korea
Summer Forum (2018), Songdo, South Korea
Asian Congress on Biotechnology (2019), Tamsui, Taiwan
2021 AFOB Board Meeting, November 5th, ONLINE
Here I shared the AFOB President and Secretary General appointed from 2008 until 2022 for us to treasure their effort that makes AFOB an active and successful federation.
TERM | PRESIDENT | SECRETARYÂ GENERAL |
---|---|---|
1st (2008-2012) |
PROFESSOR DR TOSHIOMI YOSHIDA Osaka University, Japan |
PROFESSOR DR JEUNG KEUG PARK Dongguk University, South Korea |
2nd (2012-2016) |
PROFESSOR DR HO NAM CHANG Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea |
PROFESSOR DR JIAN-JIANG ZHONG Shanghai Jiao Tong University) |
3rd (2016-2018) |
PROFESSOR DR GEORGE FU GAO Chinese Academy of Sciences,  Mainland China |
PROFESSOR DR YOON-MO KOO Inha University, South Korea |
4th (2018-2020) |
PROFESSOR DR WEN-CHIEN LEE National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan |
PROFESSOR DR TAI HYUN PARK Seoul National University, South Korea |
5th (2020-2022) |
PROFESSOR DR WEN-CHIEN LEE National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Korea University. South Korea |
PROFESSORÂ DRÂ SEUNGÂ WOOKÂ KIM |
AFOB Malaysia region does put a big effort to make sure that the success of all organized events and collaboration. On November 12th, 2013, AFOB Malaysia successfully registered to the Registrar of Society, Malaysia and is officially known as AFOB Malaysia Chapter.
AFOB Malaysia Chapter is a very active federation in organizing international conferences and collaborating with AFOB member countries and other countries. We successfully organized AFOB Asian Regional Symposium in 2014 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and AFOB Asian Congress on Biotechnology in 2015 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Along with that, we successfully organized the AFOB Malaysia Chapter International symposium in 2018 (Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia), 2019 (Putrajaya, Malaysia), 2021 (Online) and coming on September 18th – 21st, 2022 at Langkawi, Island, Malaysia.
There is much more to do and as Asian Federation of Biotechnology, we will. This demands hard work and we are ready for it. With the continuous support and hard work from AFOB Headquarter, AFOB Malaysia Chapter Committees (Session 2021-2022), AFOB Executive Board members (Malaysia region), AFOB Advisory Board members (Malaysia region) and AFOB Malaysia Chapter active members - together we will achieve the best for all. We need to work together, create a healthy environment where we all can strike the balance between work and life.