An international conference will be jointly organised by CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Jammu (IIIM) and Society of Ethnopharmacology (SFE), Kolkata from February 16 to 18, 2024 on the theme ‘Ethnopharmacology in Development of Phytopharmaceutical Drugs.’ Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director CSIR-IIIM and Organising Chairman of the Conference informed that Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union MoS (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Atomic Energy and Space and Vice President CSIR has consented to be the chief guest at inaugural function. Padma Shri Prof. Vinod K Singh, Chair Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, Chairman, CSIR-RAB and Mentor of CSIR-IIIM from amongst CSIR Society, Dr. N Kalaiselvi, Director General CSIR & Secretary to Govt of India, DSIR will be guests of honour. Dr. Ahmed said that many distinguished scientists, technologists, policy makers, industry people, academicians, clinicians, researchers, students from all over India and abroad are expected to participate in the Conference.

“More than 20 sessions have been planned for the Conference on themes like ‘Development of Phytopharmaceutical Drugs: Tradition to Translational’, ‘Young Ethnopharmacologist Award Function’, ‘American Chemical Society Best Oral Presentation Award Session’, ‘SFE Best Poster Presentation Session’, panel discussion on ‘Opportunities and Challenges in Cannabis Research’ and Traditional Healers Meet, etc” he maintained. IIIM Director also said that other scientific sessions would be on themes ‘Phytopharmaceuticals: Drug Development from Traditional Medicine’, ‘Evidence-Based Validation of Traditional Medicine’, ‘Traditional Ethnopharmacology Inspired Drug Discovery and Development’ etc. He said that more than 100 distinguished invited speakers from about 20 countries including United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Ghana and India would be delivering their talks while about 700 participants from all over India have registered for the mega event. The international conference is being organized under the overall supervision of Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director CSIR-IIIM and the organizing Chairman for the Conference while Dr. Prasoon K. Gupta and Dr. Naveed Qazi are organizing secretaries. Dr. Pulok K. Mukherjee, Chairman, Scientific Services SFEC-2024, Dr. Subhash C Mandal, Secretary SFE, Birendra Kumar Sarkar, President SFE, Dr. CK Katiyar, Vice President SFE, Indraneel Das, Vice President, SFE, Dr. Amit Kar, Treasurer SFE, Dr. Vikash Babu, Treasurer and members of S&T staff of CSIR-IIIM are included in the Organising Committee for the event.