Overview of the FAOBMB Congresses, Conferences and Special Meetings

The FAOBMB began sponsoring its own scientific meetings in 1977. FAOBMB Congresses, organized triennially, and FAOBMB Symposia, held in intervening years, are major scientific activities, which are co-hosted by a local society or group and sponsored by the IUBMB. A Congress, 1,000 – 2,000 participants in size, is a gathering for discussing and presenting major topics in biochemistry and molecular biology and has become a main event in the biochemical calendar of the region. A Symposium, with 100 – 300 attendees, is used to focus on local scientific matters or specific topics in the region, depending on the host organization. The FAOBMB has several Endowment Funds, interest from which is used to sponsor Plenary Lectureships at every FAOBMB Congress: These are the Osamu Hayaishi Lecture, the Takashi Murachi Memorial Lecture, the Jisnuson Svasti Lecture and the Kunio Yagi Lecture. In 2003, the Federation accepted a new Endowment Fund from Yasuhiro Anraku and decided to found a FAOBMB Young Scientist Award.