Plant lipid biomaterials for the renewable resource economy – Cairns, Australia, July 11-13, 2010

Announcing  the CSIRO Cutting Edge Symposium as part of the 19th International Symposium on Plant Lipids (http://www.ispl2010.org/):

Plant Lipid Biomaterials for the Renewable Resource Economy

Cairns, Australia, July 11-13

See the Plant Lipid Biomaterials for the Renewable Resource Economy web site

This meeting comes at a time when the world is faced with significant challenges.  Over the coming decades, global population is set to increase by almost 50%.  As well as greatly increasing the demand for food and raising significant issues around food and nutritional security, this population increase will bring major challenges for sustainable supply of the energy and industrial materials that underlie our current economies and lifestyles.  Long-term provision of these from traditional petroleum resources is unsustainable in view of their ultimate finite availability and the rising atmospheric CO₂ levels associated with their utilisation.  We must increasingly switch to renewable resource and energy systems. 

Plant lipids, whether they are produced from terrestrial oil crops or from intensive algal fermentation systems, provide one of the most promising alternative renewable sources of carbon skeletons for use in industrial chemistry or as biofuels.  Realising the full potential of this opportunity will require significant production scale increases, major step changes in productivity, and targeted design of oil products to meet existing and emerging industrial needs.

This Cutting Edge Symposium brings together keynote presentations from leading international researchers in the field of plant and algal oil synthesis to scope out the opportunities and challenges for renewable industrial oil production through plants and algae.  Each session will include presentations focussing on cutting-edge science highlights around these opportunities. The symposium will be held in conjunction with the International Symposium on Plant Lipids meeting before an audience of the world’s leading plant lipid scientists.  What better forum to discuss, analyse and debate the true potential for this area. 

Session highlights include:

- Keynote presentations from Paul Roessler (Synthetic Genomics Inc) and Richard Gross (Synthezyme LLC & Polytechnic Institute of NYU) describing the latest research to engineer algae to produce specialised high-value biofuels and biomaterials.

- A session devoted to exploring the potential to reorient carbon partitioning in plants and algae to increased oil production, including a keynote presentation on oilseed biochemical genomics from Prof. John Ohlrogge (Michigan State University)

- Sessions on advances in metabolic engineering of plant oils to provide renewable alternatives to petrochemicals and synthetic lubricants, including keynote presentations from Jürgen Metzger (University of Oldenburg), John Dyer and Sevim Erhan (USDA Agricultural Research Service) and Sten Stymne (leader of the EU ICON project).

- Exploration of new agro-industrial value chains needed to deliver renewable resources to industrial end-users, including a keynote presentation from Chris Dayton (Bunge Ltd) providing the perspective of one of the world’s largest grain handlers.

Full details of the Symposium are available at the Plant Lipid Biomaterials for the Renewable Resource Economy web site.  The symposium will be held in the Cairns Convention Centre on Monday 12^th and Tuesday 13^th July.  There will be a catered Welcome Reception on Sunday evening at 5:30-7:00.  At the close of each day’s sessions there will be Poster Mixers providing the opportunity for delegates to meet and discuss with speakers and poster presenters.

Registration:

Full registration for the Symposium is $275, which includes the Welcome Reception, lunches, coffee breaks and Poster Mixers on both Monday and Tuesday.

Early Career Scientist Travel Grants:

We are also pleased to announce that there will be a number of Travel Grants available to assist selected early career scientists to attend the meeting.   Australian resident post-graduate students and scientists within their first 6 years of postdoctoral experience are eligible to apply for these grants.  These grants will be awarded competitively and each grant will provide complimentary conference registration and AUD $500 towards the costs of attendance.  Applications close on June 4.

Accommodation:

A wide range of accommodation options can be booked through Tropical North Queensland Tourist Information Centre.