Third Meeting in Porto, Portugal, 17 September 1998

Chairman: Prof. K.Ch.A.M. Luyben

Opening
Prof. Karel Luyben opened the third meeting of the Section and welcomed all present (present: 45). He introduced the members of the Board and shortly illustrated the activities of the past year. The Section now has a total of 176 members and 14 Task Groups, of which some have already presented business plans and others are in the process of being formalised.

Minutes
Minutes Second Meeting of the EFB Section on Biochemical Engineering Science, Budapest, 18 August 1997
The minutes of the Second Section meeting were adopted.

News from the Board
Prof. Luyben explained that the Section and its Task Groups are still in their "starting-up phase". He informed Section members on the meeting held in January in London with the Board and Task Group leaders, where the activities of the Task Groups were discussed in detail. He further thanked Prof. Feyo de Azevedo for the excellent organisation of the Second Section Symposium. Regarding the Sections’ involvement in ECB9 he reported his concern since it is not yet clear what input ESBES and or ESBES related Working Parties will have.
He asked Section members who know more on this topic to forward this information to Patricia.
Regarding the financial situation of the Section he reported that the budget is still as last year, when a positive budget of NLG 61.000,- was presented due to the success of ESBES-1. He suggested that Task Groups could request the Board for guarantees and possibly a small contribution for activities. Prof. Luyben informed the meeting that Dr Robert Aarts had resigned from the Board and that he was pleased to introduce Dr. BjØrn Kristiansen as a new chosen Board member. It was further decided by the Board to not fulfil the vacancy provided by the unfortunate death of Prof. Malcolm Lilly until the next elections.

Elections for Board membership
Prof. Luyben then proceeded to announce the forthcoming elections (July 1999, during ECB9) and asked members to nominate candidates for the Board as of from today. Because the chairman of the Board is by ruling a Board member for 6 years (1,5 year vice-chairman; 3 years chairman and again 1,5 years vice-chairman) the Board itself is nominating a candidate for (vice) chairman in the person of Prof. Sven-Olof Enfors. If Prof. Enfors nomination for Board member is supported during the next elections, he will become the next chairman of ESBES.
Prof. Luyben further announced the resignation of three Board members: Prof. Feyo de Azevedo; Prof. Sonnleitner and Drs. Tijsterman. It could at the meeting not be confirmed if also Prof. Lübbert were to resign as Board member. The actual procedures for nomination are available at the secretariat and will be enclosed with these minutes.

Task Groups reports
Prof. Joaquim Cabral presented the plans of the Task Group: Biotransformations and invited those interested to come to their meeting planned after this Section meeting. The TG has now 14 members, including 7 from the Working Party on Applied Biocatalysis. Prof. Alois Jungbauer presented the Task Group on Chromatography. Since the last meeting in Budapest circa 20 people joined the TG, which focuses on continuous chromatography. Its plans include three (industrially supported) symposia in 1999 while the TG is also contributing to the 18th International Symposium on Separation of Proteins, Peptides and Polynucleotides (Vienna, 1-4 November 1998).

Prof. Jean Marie François presented the Task Group on Physiological Engineering and invited those interested to join their first meeting the following day (18th ). He already received 20 reactions from people who wish to be involved in the plans to combine biological with engineering data.

Prof. Francesc Gódia presented the new Task Group on Education, which has a basis in the activities of the EBEN (European Biochemical Engineering Network). He reported on the modules that were made by EBEN members and are now used in different universities. He promised that for the design of 1 module each person could receive 6 designed modules in return. Those interested are invited to contact Prof. Gódia ).

Prof. Bernhard Sonnleitner, leader of the Task Group: Synopsis of conventional and non-conventional bioprocess monitoring and the Task Group: Collection of simulation examples that are useful in research and teaching invited participants to come to the TG meetings held later during this Symposium. He had noticed a lack of interest, not in signing up to be a member, but in actually being involved in the TGs activities. He announced that he would stop the TGs when this continues. He also suggested a possible merge with the TG on Education which he will discuss with Prof. Gódia . (for more information on activities, members etc. please view: http://www.twi.ch/~snl ).

Prof. Luuk van der Wielen presented the Task Group on Biothermodynamics and its first course. He stressed that financial support would help to continue the TG’s activities and Prof. Luyben suggested that he could send requests to the ESBES Board.

For further information on Task Group activities, please contact the secretariat or view: groups.htm .

Symposium ESBES-3
Prof. Jens Nielsen presented the venue and organisation for the next ESBES Symposium, 10-13 September 2000, Copenhagen. First announcements were handed out with the request to inform as many potential interested colleagues as possible. Information is available at http://www.ibt.dtu.dk/esbes-3.

The chairman proceeded in announcing that the bid for ESBES-4 is now open.

Next meeting
The Next meeting will be held during ECB9 in July in Brussels, details on exact date and venue will be announced.

Any other business & Close
Patricia Osseweijer asked members to inform her on correct (e-mail) addresses and specifically asked the Task Group leaders to provide information on their activities for the ESBES WWW site or provide information for a link to their own site. Prof. Karel Luyben closed the meeting by thanking all for their contribution and inviting all to sign up for ESBES-3.

Drs P. Osseweijer, 5 January 1999