Indian Biophysical Society (IBS)

Guidelines for the organizers of IBS Annual Meetings & Symposium

(Prepared by N. R. Jagannathan, President IBS)

 

Composition of the National Organizing Committee:

 

  1. All the members of the IBS Executive Council shall automatically be the members of the National Organizing Committee.

 

2.   In addition, the organizers may choose other eminent Scientists as Patron/Advisors/Members, at their discretion.

 

Seed money for Local Organization:

 

  1. Seed money required for the initial expenditure incurred in the preparation of symposium activities is provided by the IBS (to the tune of Rs. 25,000/-) on the request from the Convenor. This money is expected to be returned to IBS corpus fund immediately after the meeting.

 

  1. In the event of any surplus funds the organizers may donate it to the IBS corpus fund.

 

5.   IBS desires that the symposium expenditure be audited by a qualified chartered accountant and a copy of the auditor report sent to the Secretary as soon as the symposium is over.

 

 

Prof. G. N. Ramachandran Memorial Lecture:

 

  1. The speaker for Prof. GNR memorial lecture should be an eminent scientist, either from aboard or from India. In the past, this lecture was delivered by eminent scientists like Profs. V. Ramakrishnan (2002), W. Hull (2003), H. Michel, NL (2004), K. Wuthrich, NL (2005), R.R. Ernst, NL (2006) and S. Ogawa (2007).  The speaker for the IBS -2008 meeting is Prof. T. Blundell.

 

  1. The search for an eminent speaker is generally initiated 8 to 10 months prior to the annual meeting by the President in consultation with the members of EC, local organizers and other leading Indian scientists.

 

  1. Once a consensus and the availability of the speaker are known, the IBS President writes an official invitation requesting him to participate in the meeting and to deliver the GNR memorial lecture.

 

  1. There is no provision for TA to the eminent speaker for his participation in the meeting.   The local organizers are expected to take care of the speaker’s local hospitality.  However, a partial travel support may be given provided by the local organizers if the speaker makes a request.

 

9.   IBS will give a sum of Rs.10,000/- to the local organizers towards this event of the symposium.

 

  1. The speaker is felicitated at the end of the lecture by the President. The local organizers must arrange a floral bouquet and a befitting memento for this session/function.

 

 

Inaugural Function and the Role of President, IBS

 

  1. It is mandatory that during the inaugural function, the President will deliver a small introduction to the activities of the Society. Provision for this should be made by the organizers in the schedule. In the absence of the president, the vice president may be requested to do this act.

 

Arrangements for Executive Committee (EC) meeting of IBS:

 

  1. The local organizers should make sure that there is a provision for the Executive Council (EC) meeting on the 1st day of the meeting, preferably during lunch time. A separate room for this should be reserved (a working lunch will be preferred).

 

  1. The notice for the EC meeting should be sent to all the members of the EC by the Secretary, IBS at least a month in advance either by regular mail or by e-mail in cases where such e-mail addressees of the members are available

 

Arrangements for General Body (GB) meeting of IBS:

 

  1. The General Body should be convened after the EC meeting, preferably during the evening on the first day of the symposium.

 

  1. The notice for the General Body meeting should be sent to all Life Members of the IBS by the Secretary, IBS at least 6 weeks before the meeting by regular mail or by e-mail wherever e-mail addresses of the members are available. The notice shall contain the place, day and time of the meeting.

 

  1. The local organizers may give wide publicity about the General Body meeting before and during the meetings. The date, time and venue should be notified by the local organizers in the schedule so as to encourage maximum participation of the members attending the symposium.

 

  1. For the General Body meeting, the local organizers should arrange a hall to accommodate Members of IBS with a table and 5 chairs on the dais.  Sound system is also needed for this meeting.

 

  1. An important item of the meeting is the presentation of Secretary’s report, audited statement of accounts of the previous year, adoption of accounts and future directions to undertake by the IBS.

 

Poster and Poster Awards:

 

  1. It is the usual practice to have the posters displayed on all the days of the symposium.

 

  1. The local organizers, in consultation with the President, may constitute a panel consisting of three members to evaluate the posters for poster awards.

 

  1. In the circular, it is mandatory to include the details of the poster awards for the young investigators (students/PDFs), which include the Ratna Phadke Award (for young scientist below 35 years of age). Such abstracts should be accompanied by the bio-data of the young investigators duly attested by the Supervisor/HOD.

 

  1. The oral presentation for Ratna Phadke Award is pre-selected.  For this purpose, the Local Organizing Committee should invite nominations and a small committee may decide on the awardee, who is paid an award money of Rs.1500/- and 3rd AC to and fro train fare from the normal place of his work.

 

  1. Other poster awards (Rs. 1500/- each) are chosen by a panel during the meeting.  The awardees are given a certificate and cash prize. They will also be asked to present their work briefly for 5mts during the last session of the meeting.

 

  1. The money (Rs. 9000/- plus the travel to the Ratna Phadke Awardee) for the above awards will be reimbursed by the IBS to the local organizers.

 

  1. The following are the poster awards currently given away by the IBS
    1. D. M. Bose
    2. N. N. Saha
    3. N. N. Das Gupta
    4. A. R. Gopala Ayengar
    5. K. S. Korgaonkar

 

Valedictory Function:

 

  1. The valedictory function should also have a provision for a small speech by the President of the IBS. It will be desirable that the President covers various activities of IBS such as future conferences, IBS travel grants, etc.

 

  1. During valedictory function, the organizers of the subsequent IBS meetings are given time to make a brief presentation about the venue and other details.

 

  1. Poster awards are normally distributed by the President during Valedictory function and provision should be made for this.

 

 

 

 

Invited Speakers Selection and other Oral Presentations:

 

  1. Invited speakers are selected by the Local Organizers. However, they may consult the members of EC and NOC.

 

  1. It is the usual practice, that speakers giving invited talks should not have given any invited talk during the preceding two or three years of the IBS meeting. This is primarily to encourage younger scientists.

 

  1. Young research workers should be encouraged to give oral presentations to the tune of about 30-50% of the orals presented in the symposium. Such speakers are selected by the Local Organizing Committee from the abstracts submitted for the meeting.

 

Chairpersons of Scientific Sessions

 

  1. The local organizers may also consider members of EC and other senior scientists of IBS for chairing scientific sessions.

 

TA and DA for Students:

 

  1. Sufficient provision may be made in the Symposium budget to take care of the payments of TA/DA to a maximum number of student participants by the local organizers so as to encourage the students to participate in the IBS meetings in large numbers. To this effect, the organizers may announce the availability of such support in their symposium circular.

 

Preparation of Circulars:

  1. In preparing the circular about the meeting, the local organizers should include information on the poster wards (for students/PDFs) and the Ratna Phadke award (for young scientist – student/PDF/Pool Officer/young faculty –age of 35 years or below).

 

  1. In the circular it may also be mentioned that those willing to be considered for the poster award should send their bio-data duly forwarded by their Research Supervisor.

 

  1. It should also be made clear that those selected for poster awards should come prepared to make 5 minutes presentation of their work on the last day of the meeting.