Fifth Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, 11 September 2000

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

Opening
Prof. Karel Luyben opens the fifth meeting of the Section and welcomes all present. He shortly mentions for those interested attendees, who are not yet a Section member, how to become a member.

Minutes
Minutes Fourth Meeting of the EFB Section on Biochemical Engineering Science, Brussels, 11 July 1999
The minutes of the Fourth Section meeting are adopted.

News from the Board
Report by the chairman
Prof. Luyben informs Section members on the new initiatives of the Board. During the present Symposium of ESBES-3, the Malcolm Lilly award will for the first time be granted. The criteria are scientific excellence of young researchers. A new initiative is now launched: the Design Competition. Dr. Kieran, who initiated this project with Dr. Gram, explained that the Competition focuses on novel, innovative (bio)chemical engineering applications (designs). The proposed procedure includes three presentations of selected candidates during the ESBES Symposia for a final selection of a winner. She expects to be able to provide more information in spring 2001, with a first granting procedure at ESBES-4.

Luyben announces that each Board member has separate tasks and asks members with new tasks to introduce these themselves:
Dr. Kieran reports the preparation of a affordable text book on Bioseparations, covering a quantitative approach in engineering, which will be multi-authored. Her other task has already been mentioned, the Design Competition.
Prof. Reuss announces the launch of a new journal "Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering", of which he will be editor. It has completely changed the original Springer journal in this field, with a wider scope and a new Board of Editors. A leaflet on the new journal is in delegates conference bags. It is planned to use this journal in future for ESBES Symposia editions and he hopes it will become the "house journal" of the Section.
Prof. Enfors will become chairman of the Section in January 2001. He is preparing a position paper on the importance of Biochemical Engineering Science for the EC Framework VI, while he acts as the contact person for the Section in Brussels.
Prof. Luyben encourages Section members to nominate Board candidates. The next meeting in July 2001 will open the nomination procedure in preparation for the election in August 2002.

Prof. Luyben continues to report on the development of new Statutes for the Federation. The present Statutes are taken out of order for about ten years now. The then installed EFB Executive Committee decided that new statutes, more in line present society organisations, had to be developed. It took some years but a final draft is now ready to be adopted by the EFB member Societies. The main differences are that the closed, limited structure of country delegates has been opened to encourage a large membership and involvement. Not only societies but also universities and companies can become a member of the EFB. The General Council will be based on a delegation of these members; they will overlook and install the Executive Board (ExBo). The ExBo will include 3 industry members, 3 academic members, the 3 co-officers of the Paris, London and Frankfurt offices, the chairman of the Sections and the General Secretary. The chairman will be chosen amongst them and will have the opportunity to appoint one more co-opted member. A professional secretariat will support the ExBo and a contract has been drawn with Dechema for running the EFB Secretariat for the next 7 years. The EFB will be organised in Sections and Task Groups (for horizontal activities), the present Working Parties can decide in what they would like to transfer. At present there are Sections formed on:

• Biochemical Engineering Science
• Microbial Physiology
• Applied Genomics
• Applied Biocatalysis
• Environmental Biotechnology
• AgriBiotechnology
• Medical Biotechnology

Task Groups include Public Perceptions, Education and Biosafety. Both Sections and Task Groups can be divided in Working Groups in which the individual members carry out activities. Each individual can become a member.
Prof. Bay Jorgensen commented that he thought the original aim was to decrease the number of Working Parties, while the now announced number of Sections almost equals the original number of Working Parties. Luyben agreed and emphasised that people can always start Working Groups (unlimited) under a Section. To do this, one should write a proposal to the Board of the Section. The life span of a Working Group can be limited, while the idea is that Sections will remain in place for a long time.

Prof. Luyben further announces that the bid is now open for the organisation of ESBES-5 in 2004. Up till now the secretariat has received a number of offers from professional congress organisers. These were referred to the national Section members. A bid should consist of a proposal for a venue, a (draft) budget and a first outline of the theme for the Symposium. Bids can be send to the Board. The ESBES chairman is chairman of the Scientific Committee, while the local organiser usually is chairman of the Organising Committee. A number of Board members will be member of the Scientific Committee to ensure a good interaction. Further information will be placed on the Section web site.

Finances
Luyben presents the financial results of the Section. At present there is Euro 33.145 available, excluding the results of ESBES-3. Working Groups are invited to put a request to the Board for financial support of specific activities or for financial guarantees.

Working Groups reports
WG on Biotransformations: Prof. Cabral reports a successful organisation of the 2nd International Conference on Protein Stabilisation, which was held in Lisbon; 9-12 April 2000. A special journal coverage was achieved for 11 selected lectures. For ESBES-3 the Group had organised the session on Biotransformations. A position paper on "Biocatalysis in non-conventional media-how is it important to industry?" is presently being prepared. The (earlier announced) book on multiphase bioreactors is in press. He invites attendees to become a Working Group member.
WG on Thermodynamics: Prof. van der Wielen informs the General meeting on the activities of this small Working Group. In 1994 a first course on Biothermodynamics was organised, which is since held every two years. Further activities include the production of a book based on the course notes and the establishment of a database to exchange data, more information will be presented next time.
WG on ‘Modelling for Improved Performance": Prof. Bay Jorgensen informs that the WP Bioreactor Performance has decided to continue as Working Group on Bioreactor Performance. Activities include the preparation of a position paper to be published in ‘General biotechnology", the organisation of the course in Bioprocess Engineering in Brac, Croatia (17-21 September 2001) and the MIP (Modelling for Improved Processing) series, planned to be held in Slovakia in spring 2002. People who wish to join can send an email to Prof. Gen Larsson.
WG on Courses: Dr. Berovic presents the programme for the course in September (17-23) 2001. The last course was organised in October 1998 as a Section activity which was attended by 62 participants.
WG on Process Integration: Not reported.
WG on Synopsis of convential and non-convential bioprocess monitoring: Prof. Bernhard Sonnleitner announces the production of a special issue of the journal " Advances in Biochemical Engineering Biotechnology" (nr. 66) with the title "Bioanalysis and biosensors for bioprocess monitoring" with contributions from Sonnleitner; Mandenius; Kell; Schugerl; Pons; Schuster and Nielsen. The Working Group may be dismantled now. A new Working Group is proposed to the Board: Working Group on Measurement and Control (or M3C).
The WG on Collection of simulation examples that are useful in research and teaching organised a demonstration during ESBES-3.
WG on Chromatography: Prof. Jungbauer reports the decision of the WP Downstream processing, they wish to continue as a Working Group on Downstream Processing in ESBES. Activities include the organisation of a international PhD course (summer course), activities on Bioprocess validation and crystallisation. He invites interested members to join the WG.
WG on Education: Prof. Godia suggests a collaboration with the WG who collected the Simulation examples but is looking for a interested member to organise this professionally.

The chairman thanks the WG leaders for their contributions and asks them to keep their WWW information up to date and provide a link to the general site. He invites all present to come forward with new initiatives.

Symposium ESBES-4
Prof. Luuk van der Wielen presents the first announcement for the fourth European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Science, 29 ­ 31 August 2002, Delft. The theme will be "Life Science and Technology", including a broad list of subjects and a similarly broad Scientific Committee. He invites all to come forward with suggestions.
Scheme for grants for young scientists
The scheme through national ‘ambassadors’ is not very successful, still a high number of grants were achieved for participation in ESBES-3. With hope, we continue the scheme.

ECB-10 and next meeting
Luyben reports on the minimal input the Board received for the organisation of sessions at ECB-10. He promises to clarify the organisation (a lot of confusion with Working parties and Sections) and will try to secure the BES input as Section activities.

Next meeting
The Next meeting will be held during ECB-10 in Madrid, details on exact date and venue will be announced at this WEB site.

Any other business & Close
No further comments are given after which Prof. Karel Luyben closes the meeting by thanking all for their contribution and inviting all to enjoy ESBES-3.

Drs P. Osseweijer, June 2000