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A success story: 2014 IPSR International Training Course was held in August

IPSR strives to become an international center in plant stress and resource research. We are launching several new activities to increase the institute presence in research community, as well as we aim helping young scientists in their career development.
This year a pilot run of the “2014 IPSR International Training Course: Methods in Plant Stress Research” was organized in August 25-29, 2014. Over one week, three participants from overseas (Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan), and three young Japanese scientists engaged in learning the mass spectrometry methods for:
1. Plant stress hormone analysis by LC-MS/MS
2. Analysis of rice volatiles released from herbivore-attacked plants by GC-MS
3. Analysis of metals and minerals in plants by ICP-MS
The course included real stress treatments, sample preparation and training on three high-tech MS instruments. Each block was introduced by a short introductory lecture providing necessary theoretical background. That allowed all participants to understand fully the experimental flow of each experiment.

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Each course participant also had a chance to present short talk about his work, following the Round Table lecture presented by the renowned scientist and leader in the field of chemical ecology Professor John Pickett (Rothamsted Research, UK). In addition, John held plenary lecture for the institute entitled
“New approaches to sustainable intensification of global food production from agroecological interventions to new generations of GM crops for protection against pests and beyond”.

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In his inspirational presentation, Prof. Pickett summarized his long-time research achievements as a chemist and, later, as a chemical ecologist, and talked about his practical activities in Kenya where farmers are adopting the push-pull technology to control insect pests without the use of chemical pesticides.
Finally, we all enjoyed special course social activities such as Kurashiki Night Walk or BBQ with “Fireworks and Fun”.
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Our aim was a small working group and intensive course scheme, so that immediate answers and exchange of ideas would become natural between participants. From immediate responses, this idea was a fair success. With such a positive feedback, we are hoping to promote our course in 2015 at even higher level, both scientifically and socially.
We thank all participants, and people who helped us to make the 2014 course a big success. Already looking forward to the next year, in our 2014 Course Gallery bellow, you can recall the best moments of this year.
See, maybe YOU, next year!
Takashi Hirayama
Ivan Galis
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Picture gallery “2014 IPSR International Training Course”

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