The ongoing 52nd annual conference of Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI) 2011 , being conducted by Panjab University, Chandigarh which is seeing participation from more than 1500 delegates from India and abroad began with the general body meeting of the delegates on the third day to discuss the various agendas related to AMI. This was followed by an award ceremony that was held to honor the distinguished scientists for their contribution to the field of microbiology. Prof. K. Dadarwal was presented with the life time achievement award. Other awards such as FAMI award, Prof. G. Rangaswami memorial award and Young scientist award were also presented. In the second half of the day, the delegates had the opportunity to interact with the heads of India’s topmost leading biotechnology-microbiology industries. The Industry-Academia Interface gave the delegates a golden chance to express their point of views and clarify their perceptions and doubts about various facts and trends related to job opportunities in the industries. The Industry-Academia Interface session included the lectures on “A practical approach of microbiological industry” by Mr. Anil Arora, Abbotts; “Omics done ? Now what ?” by Mr. Lalith Kishore, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, India; “Large scale microbial production technology for human therapeutic products”by Dr. Ganesh Kumraj, Bharat Serum & vaccines Ltd., Mumbai; “The new drug development process : An overwiew” by Dr. B. Manivannan, Panacea Biotec, New Delhi and “Analytical techniques for Microbiology” by Mr. Roopak Mitra, Perkin Elmer. It was focused that the collaboration between the industry and the institute not only provides an advantage to science at market level but also gives numerous job opportunities to the students who wish to be a part of the industries. The delegates were introduced to even the minor details which the industry looks for while choosing the candidates for them. Delegates actively participated in the discussion with the industry heads and gained massive knowledge about the job opportunities in the industries and the advantage of the industry-institute collaborations. Several poster sessions and scientific sessions were also held at different venues in the university.
