National Conference on Recent Development in Plant Stress Biology: Translating Laboratory Research to Human Welfare (RDPSB2018) organized by Department of Botany, Central University of Jammu concluded at Brig. Rajinder Singh Auditorium, University of Jammu.

Eighty five delegates, including eminent academicians and scientists – Prof. N. Tuteja, Prof. B. C. Tripathy, Prof. Rajam participated and presented their work in the six technical sessions and the poster session. Young delegates got an opportunity to hear stalwarts in this area of research. Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Director CSIR- IHBT, Palampur and Chief Guest of the Valedictory session delivered a talk on the adaptive strategies of high altitude plants. He congratulated Prof. B. S. Bhau, Head, Department of Botany, for taking the initiative to organize this conference in the State. He especially applauded the enthusiasm of the young students of the Department of Botany. Eminent Botanist ,Prof. A. K. Koul, Former Head, Dept. of Botany, University of Jammu and Guest of Honour, commended the Botany Department, CUJ for a successful maiden conference. He exhorted all participants to incorporate the takeaways from the deliberations in their research work, and urged the scientific fraternity to research more actively on reproductive stress biology of plants. Prof. B. S. Bhau expressed his satisfaction that the conference provided an excellent platform for academic deliberations in this important area of plant science research. Prof. A.K. Wakhlu and Dr. C. M. Seth were amongst the dignitaries present on the occasion.
On this occasion, Young scientist, oral and poster presentation awards were given jointly by Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Prof. A.K. Koul and Prof. B. S. Bhau. Young Scientist award was given to Dr. Sonal Mishra, Jammu University and Dr. Meenakshi Raina, CUJ for their research work. The first position in oral presentation category went to Dr. Deepak Kumar, Dept. of Botany, CUJ, second to Ms. Arti Sharma, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu and the third was shared by Ms. Nitika Kapor, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu and Mr. Mohd. Urfan, Jammu University. In Poster category, Dr. Anjana Rustagi, Gargi College, New Delhi stood first. Dr. Samantha Vaishnavi and Dr. Vikas Srivastava, CUJ jointly shared second position. The third position was shared by Dr. Sonal Mishra, JU and Dr. Mohd. Asgher, BGSBU, Rajouri. Special appreciation award was given for their poster, to 5th semester students, Ms. Akriti, Ms Harisimerpreet and Mr. Raghubar of Botany Dept., CUJ. The session was convened by Dr. Samantha Vaishnavi, who while proposing the vote of thanks acknowledged the support extended by CUJ and University of Jammu in organizing the conference. She also acknowledged UGC, SERB-DST, CSIR and Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi for extending financial support for the conference.