By Danny Mann, CSBE/SCGAB President
I would like to begin by thanking the Local Arrangements Committee for planning an excellent Annual General Meeting at the University of Guelph in July 2018. There were excellent plenary speakers (Dr. Evan Fraser, University of Guelph; Dr. Slava Adamchuk, McGill University) who delivered thought-provoking presentations on topics of Global Food Security and Precision Agriculture, respectively. There were a total of 18 technical sessions covering technical content in areas of clean/green energy, food safety & quality, waste water treatment & reuse, greenhouse gas emissions, soil & water management, precision agriculture, biotechnology, and process & product development. The technical content also included a Tuesday afternoon poster session. Thanks to all of the researchers for sharing their findings and expertise.
Congratulations to all of the award recipients that were acknowledged during Tuesday evening’s Awards Banquet. The recipients of the major awards are listed below.
- Dennis Hodgkinson: CSBE/SCGAB Fellow
- Sylvio Tessier: CSBE/SCGAB Fellow
- Stéphane Godbout: CSBE/SCGAB Fellow
- Ramesh Rudra: Maple Leaf Award
- Satyanarayan Dev: Young Engineer of the Year Award
- Kris Dick: John Turnbull Award
- Oon-Doo Baik: John Clark Award
- Venkatesh Meda: Glenn Downing Award
- Nazim Cicek: Jim Beamish Award
There are several exciting new initiatives that received formal approval at the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Society for Bioengineering which took place on Monday, July 23rd.
For the past couple of years, CSBE/SCGAB Council has been working on a Memorandum of Understanding between CSBE/SCGAB and the Council of Engineering & Technology (India). Although representatives from CET(I) were not present in Guelph, this MOU was officially signed by President Danny Mann and Society Manager John Feddes at the AGM on Monday, July 23rd. Fundamentally, this MOU states that the two organizations agree to share information where it is mutually beneficial to do so.
A new category of society membership has been created. The category of “Associate Member” is intended for those individuals, who may not be engineers, who provide products and services to the Agricultural or Bioengineering sector. We are proposing an annual membership fee of $200 which will provide the Associate Member with complimentary advertising in our quarterly Perspectives newsletter and on the CSBE/SCGAB website and exhibit/booth space at any CSBE/SCGAB conference or event for a fee of $500. Council is optimistic that this new category of membership will have the effect of enhancing the value of CSBE/SCGAB membership through stronger connections with industry. In the weeks ahead, Council will finalize details and prepare some form of recruitment information that will enable us to begin to recruit Associate Members.
A new award has been created. The CSBE/SCGAB Research Innovation Award is to acknowledge outstanding contributions to research, in any field of research relevant to CSBE/SCGAB, by an individual or team of researchers (which may include graduate or undergraduate students). The Research Innovation Award is not intended to acknowledge the cumulative impact of a career’s worth of research contributions; rather, it is intended to recognize the innovation or ingenuity of a single research project. The research team (individual or group of researchers) is required to prepare a brief nomination that clearly explains why the research is innovative. Recipients of the CSBE/SCGAB Research Innovation Award will be selected by the CSBE/SCGAB Awards Committee. Up to three Research Innovation Awards may be awarded each year. All recipients (including all members of a research team) must be members of CSBE/SCGAB in good standing. Individuals may be awarded the Research Innovation Award multiple times throughout their career, however, not in consecutive years. In the weeks ahead, Council will develop a nomination form with the intent of being in a position to give our this award at next year’s AGM in Vancouver. Council is also considering the naming of this award so stay tuned.
There are changes ahead for our journal. R. Sri Ranjan has served as Journal Editor for many years (actually longer than permitted by our By-laws) due to challenges associated with recruiting another individual to take on all of the responsibilities currently being completed by Ranjan. A decision has been made to separate duties into two positions. The Journal Editor will continue to oversee the editorial process to ensure high-quality scientific publications are peer reviewed in a timely manner. Dr. Mano Krishnapillai (Associate Professor, Environmental Science Unit of Grenfell campus, MUN) has agreed to assume the responsibilities of Journal Editor. Tasks associated with actual publishing of the manuscripts will be handled through a new position of Journal Manager. It is proposed that the Journal Manager will be a non-voting member of Council; the Journal Editor will not formally be part of Council. A job description for the Journal Manager position will be created in the weeks ahead. It is anticipated that By-law changes will be required to accommodate this new position. Dr. R. Sri Ranjan has agreed to fill the role of Journal Manager.
Conversations resumed with regard to development of a Memorandum of Understanding between CSBE/SCGAB and the Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers.
Dr. Aitazaz Farooque invited CSBE/SCGAB to hold the 2021 AGM in Charlottetown at the University of Prince Edward Island. Council voted to accept this invitation.
The following individuals were nominated to various roles within CSBE/SCGAB with terms beginning immediately:
- President: Danny Mann* (2018-2019)
- President-Elect: Joy Agnew (2018-2019)
- Past-President: Vijaya Raghavan* (2018-2019)
- VP Technical: Jan Adamowski (2018-2020)
- VP Membership: Bernard Goyette (2018-2020)
- Regional Director Atlantic: Alex Martynenko (2018-2020)
- Regional Director Quebec: Stephane Godbout (2018-2020)
- Regional Director Ontario: Ashutosh Singh (2018-2020)
- Regional Director British Columbia: Fahimeh Yazdan Panah (2018-2020)
- Regional Director Alberta: Israel Dunmade (2018-2020)
- Awards Committee: Deepika Dave (2018-2020)
- Awards Committee: Anthony Lau (2018-2020)
- Awards Committee: Nazim Cicek (2018-2020)
*Term has been extended for an additional year due to resignation of last year’s President-Elect due to health reasons.
We are excited to announce the upcoming conferences:
- 2019 AGM: July 14-17 in Vancouver
- 2020 AGM: July 14-17 in Quebec City (joint meeting with CIGR)
- 2021 AGM: Charlottetown (date not yet finalized)
