International conference ''Photosynthesis in the Global Perspective'' held in honor of Govindjee, November 27-29, 2008, Indore, India

An International conference ‘‘Photosynthesis in the Global perspective’’ was held in Indore, India, during November 27–29, 2008, in honor of Professor Govindjee. The conference provided an opportunity to felicitate him for the numerous significant and outstanding contributions in the field of photosynthesis research (also see Eaton-Rye 2007a, b). His dedication for communicating photosynthesis and his passion for the ‘‘History of Photosynthesis Research’’ has been commendable. He has been already recognized with the first Lifetime Achievement Award of the Rebeiz Foundation for Basic Research (Rebeiz et al. 2007) and with the prestigious 2007 Communication Award of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research (ISPR) (see Blankenship 2007). Just before the conference in Indore, University of Illinois recognized him on October 24, 2008, with an LAS (Liberal Arts and Sciences) Alumni Achievement Award (see http://www.las.illinois.edu/alumni/magazine/articles/2009/ govindjee). Figure 1A shows Govindjee’s photograph with three of his graduate students (George Papageorgiou, Julian Eaton-Rye and Prasanna Mohanty) who actively participated at the Indore Conference. Figure 1B shows a group photograph of Govindjee with many of the participants at the conference. The conference covered all the important aspects of photosynthesis, especially their relationship to global issues. Topics included: photobiology, structure and function of Photosystems I and II, stress responses & adaptive mechanisms, plant productivity, and artificial photosynthesis. Advances in structural and functional aspects of Photosystem II (PS II, the water-plastoquinone oxido-reductase, the only system on Earth that is capable of oxidizing water to molecular oxygen) was at the heart of many talks. This was highly appropriate for this celebration since Govindjee and co-workers were the first to measure the primary photochemistry of PS II, to provide an understanding of the PS II light emission from plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, to provide the theory of thermoluminescence from PS II, and to establish the unique role of bicarbonate/carbonate on the electron acceptor side of PS II. Stress responses of plants and their adaptive strategy to cope with stress was another key issue at the conference. There were 32 talks and about 45 posters, presented by both established and young scientists from about 12 countries (listed alphabetically): Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, (The) Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Speakers included (listed alphabetically): Arjun Tiwari, Asako Kawamori, Atipally Reddy, Baishnab Tripathy, Basanti Biswal, Bhumi Nath Tripathy, Debashish Banerji, Eva Mari Aro, Gyozo Garab, Hiroyuki Mino, James Barber, Julian EatonRye, K Padamsree, Kastoori Hingorani, Kumud Mishra, Louis Sherman, M.J. Baig, Michael Seibert, Munna Singh, Norm Huner, Pandit Vidyasagar, Prabhat Kumar Sharma, Prasanna Mohanty, Ralph Gasanov, Renu Khanna-Chopra, Reto Strasser, Shigeru Itoh, Subramanyam Rajagopal, Sujata Mishra, Suvendra Bagchi, Toshi Nagata and Uday Pathre. The guest of honor at the inaugural session was James Barber, President of International Society of Photosynthesis Research (ISPR). Govindjee delivered his inaugural talk Prasanna Mohanty—Formerly Professor of School of Life Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.