Fourth Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 11 July 1999

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

Opening
Prof. Karel Luyben opened the fourth meeting of the Section and welcomed all present (present: 31).

Minutes
Minutes Third Meeting of the EFB Section on Biochemical Engineering Science, Porto, 17 September 1998.
The minutes of the Third Section meeting were adopted.

News from the Board
Report from chairman
Prof. Luyben informed Section members on the meeting held in January in Vienna with the Board and announced the presentations of the Task Group leaders and Prof. Nielsen on the organisation of ESBES-3. The chairman further reported on the Executive Committee’s request to merge the Working Parties in the Sections. Prof. Lübbert of the Working Party on Bioreactor Performance claimed that the Working Party’s activities should be considered under the umbrella of the Section and that its national delegates were also members of the Section with special responsibilities towards their own organisation. He reported on two upcoming activities, i.e. the organisation of a course on Bioreactor Performance and the drafting of a position paper. It was agreed that the Working Party should report directly to the ESBES Board. The Working Party on Measurement and Control aims to dissolve itself completely during their coming meeting on 13 July and to continue as a Task Group of the Section. The working Party on Downstream processing has already dissolved and became a Task group in agreement with its members, although this still has to be formally endorsed.

Finances
The chairman presented the financial results of the Section, which accumulated to NLG 74.820 or an equivalent of around EURO 35.000. This amount is presently available for Section activities.
Elections for Board membership

Report from the secretary
Patricia Osseweijer reported on the 56 votes that were received and on one request for clarification on the election procedure. The votes were all in agreement with the suggested Board candidates.
Prof. Luyben welcomed the newly elected Board members and thanked the leaving members for their support in forming the Section.

Task Groups reports
TG on Biotransformations: Prof. Cabral reported on the organisation of the 2nd International Conference on Protein Stabilisation, which will be held in Lisbon; 9-12 April 2000. The conference will have a contribution from the TG on Biotransformation. A book on multiphase bioreactors will be published by the end of this year. It is intended to organise a workshop on the importance of ‘biotransformation’ for industry.
TG on Thermodynamics: Prof. Von Stockar informed the Board on the reorganisation of the course on Thermodynamics which will be organised again from 29 October to 3 November in 2000 under the Section’s activities and which will have a low fee for students. The congress centre ‘Franscini" will be used, which has the added advantage that it supplies grants and stipends for students for meetings organised through Swiss institutions.
TG on ‘Modelling for Improved Performance": Prof. Bay Jorgensen reported on a ‘transition’ discussion that presently takes place with the members of the existing MIP group. He reported a clear willingness to form an ESBES TG. The group further agreed to focus on ‘what process systems engineers can do for biotechnology’ in a workshop to be organised in spring 2000.
TG on Process Integration: Drs Ard Tijsterman mentioned that it was felt within the TG that the TG could not develop activities without funds. Luyben replied that funds should be available from the Section and it was agreed that the TG would put efforts in finding a chairman.
TG on Synopsis of convential and non-convential bioprocess monitoring: Prof. Bernhard Sonnleitner reported on the compilation of a special issue of the journal " Advances in Biochemical Engineering Biotechnology" with the title "Bioanalysis and biosensors for bioprocess monitoring" with contributions from Sonnleitner; Mandenius; Kell; Schugerl; Pons; Schuster and Nielsen. The issue will be published in October 1999. The TG on Collection of simulation examples that are useful in research and teaching wishes to organise a demonstration at ESBES-3 (organisation of a similar demonstration at ECB9 unfortunately proved to be impossible).
TG on Chromatography: Prof. Jungbauer reported on the organisation of a PhD course on Industrial Chromatography to be held in Vienna, May 2000.
The chairman thanked the TG leaders for their contributions and asked them to keep their WWW information up to date and provide a link to the general site: http/:www.kluyver.stm.tudelft.nl/esbes. He invited all present to come forward with new initiatives.

Symposium ESBES-3
Prof. Jens Nielsen presented the first announcement for the third European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Science, 10-13 September 2000, Copenhagen. Information is available at http://www.ibt.dtu.dk/esbes-3.
He mentioned that SAS will give a discount of up to 40% on economy class tickets and 25% on business class.
Prof. Lübbert commented that he felt that Bioreactor Performance was under represented. Prof. Nielsen welcomed suggestions that fit in the programme and emphasised that was chosen for a novel approach to include metabolic engineering. The inclusion of a plenary session on ethics was questioned by Prof. Jungbauer, but strongly supported by Profs Sonnleitner and Cabral and Patricia Osseweijer. It was suggested to ask the EFB Task Group on Public Perceptions for their advice on speakers. The possible overlap with Biotech 2000 in Berlin was raised. Although both events may share speakers it is expected that the audiences will differ.

Scheme for grants for young scientists
Although the experiences with the scheme used for ESBES-2 were not very successful for each country, it was agreed to again try and raise funds in each country again. In Porto a large number of young scientists could participate thanks to the generous grant of the European Commission. It was agreed to also try again to receive support from the Commission.

Malcolm Lilly Award
In commemoration of Prof. Malcolm Lilly the Board had decided to introduce an award to be presented to a promising young scientist in biochemical engineering during the ESBES Symposia: the Malcolm Lilly award. Prof. Luyben announced that Merck has very kindly offered to sponsor the Malcolm Lilly award for the next thee ESBES meetings. The prize will comprise of a financial contribution of EURO 4500,- and a trophy. The procedure for selection will be as follows: a jury of three established biochemical engineers will select 6 abstracts from the call for ESBES contributions. These nominated candidates will be invited to give an oral presentation at the ESBES symposium, from which the jury will select the winner. The procedure will also be announced at the WWW site.

Next meeting
The Next meeting will be held during ESBES-3 on Monday 11 September 2000 in Copenhagen, 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, 10 November 1999