Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada has successfully held the international conference known as, “The 7th International Conference on Biological Sciences (ICBS) 2021”. This conference is a biennial agenda in the Faculty of Biology as a series of events from the celebration of the faculty’s anniversary. This year, the 7th ICBS was held online on October 14th-15th 2021 and inviting Prof. Craig Moritz (Director of the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis Australian National University) together with Dr. Aparna Lal (Research School of Population Health, ANU College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University) as the keynote speakers. Besides, there were several invited speakers, namely Prof. Datin Dr. Maryati Binti Mohamed (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia), Dr. Ahmed Abd El Wahed (University of Leipzig, Germany), Prof. dr. Joana Falcao Salles (University of Groningen Netherlands), and Dr. biol. hom. Nastiti Wijayanti (Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada).
The theme that was discussed in the 7th ICBS was “Contributing to Global Issues: Current Advances in Biodiversity and Health Research in the Face of Climate Change”, with 7 conference topics, which are biosystematic, functional biology, biomedical, bioinformatic, genetic, bio-nanotechnology, and bioengineering.
The conference was opened with the event report by the Chairman of the committee, Dr. Miftahul Ilmi, M.Si. “This year’s conference is also the first time held online due to the global pandemic situation. However, it becomes a blessing in disguise, because the conference becomes accessible to a wider audience and participants from all over the world. The number of participants registered is 223. Among them, 183 participants will present their paper of which 6 of them are presented in the poster form. Most of the participants are from Indonesia, but we also have participants from Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, and India,” said Dr. Ilmi in his report.
The first welcoming speech was delivered by the Rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., IPU ASEAN Eng., then continued by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Ir. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, CHFC, CLU. As the opening remark of the conference, Prof. Dr. Budi Setiadi Daryono, M.Agr.Sc., as the dean of the Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, delivered his speech as well, “I’m sure this conference will really have a fruitful exchange of ideas of biology and provide valuable input for supporting better human life in overcoming climate change”. Aside of that, Prof. Budi also delivered a verse in English, “English is easy, easy is abcd. If you lose your sweety, join ICBS and be happy”.
Meanwhile, the first day of the conference was started with presentation from the keynote speakers, Prof. Craig Moritz together with Dr. Aparna Lal who discussed about “Synergistic approaches to understanding impacts of climate change on biodiversity and human health”, continued with presentation from Prof. Em. Dr. Datin Maryati Mohammed about “Biodiversity and human welfare amidst global climatic changes: food and medicines from insects”. After that, a parallel presentation session by the participants was conducted and then the first day was closed with a presentation by Prof. dr. Joana Falcão Salles with a topic “Taming the plant microbiome for a sustainable agriculture”.
On the second day, the event was opened with a presentation by Dr. biol. hom. Nastiti Wijayanti, that discussed about “Animal Cell Culture: Development of research on biodiversity and virology”, then continued with a parallel presentation session by participants, and the last session was a presentation by Dr. Ahmed Abd El Wahed who brought the topic about “Next generation molecular assay: time to think different”. As the closing act, there were announcement for the best presenters, best poster, and also door prizes winners for participants who actively participated during the whole sessions.
The result of the seminar will be published in Advances in Biological Sciences Research as the conference proceedings and also as journal publication to The Indonesian Journal of Biotechnology dan Journal of Tropical Biodiversity and Biotechnology. Those publications have been indexed by Scopus as well as Web of Science. This whole event was held by the support of Publishers and Publications Boards (BPP) of Universitas Gadjah Mada, HEXOS, Manna Kampus, Mykonos, KONIMEX, and Vishuo Biomedical Pte. Ltd.