The 4th Aquaphotomics International Conference – Report

Abstract

The 4th Aquaphotomics International Conference organized by Aquaphotomics International Society and Biomeasurement Technology Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University was this year organized as a hybrid event. The first day of the Conference, 20 March, was held on-site at the Centennial (Rokko) Hall of Kobe University, and broadcasted in real-time for the online participants (Figure 1, left). Owing to the kind support of Tsukino Shizuku Foundation, real-time interpretation in Japanese language was provided (Figure 1, right). After the opening of the Conference by the Chairman of the Aquaphotomics International Society Prof. Dr Roumiana Tsenkova, the program kicked-off with the pre-Conference Aquaphotomics Workshop. The workshop was organized by Dr Jelena Muncan, one of the leading aquaphotomics researchers and Prof. Dr Federico Marini, one of the world experts and leaders in chemometrics and data analysis. While Federico provided the ground from which one can literally build up all the most important knowledge for successful spectral pre-processing, Jelena gave a step-by-step tutorial for aquaphotomics spectral and data analysis, showing examples from her own experience and highlighting the critical need-toknow points. The workshop was attended by almost 150 people (Figure 2, left) from most diverse backgrounds and educational levels. The Conference continued with the traditional Aquaphotomics Open Lecture, free of charge to all who wanted to attend, by the founder of Aquaphotomics, Prof. Dr Roumiana Tsenkova. This year, however, the Open Lecture was somewhat special. It was the last lecture which she gave as a professor of Graduate School of Agricultural Science of Kobe University, head of the Bio Measurement Laboratory, the function she performed since 1996, making it in the same time her retirement speech. The Lecture was listened by more than 300 people (Figure 2, right) and ended with a surprise collage video for Prof. Tsenkova, made by her colleagues, friends, co-workers and associates from all around the world, who sent beautiful messages with good wishes for her retirement and reflections on her career, personality and character. Prof. Tsenkova was first pleasantly surprised, laughing at some comments, being amazed by the amount of effort some people put in creation of videos, and also kindness of the messages. By the end, despite her stoic efforts, it was not possible to hide the tears of gratitude (Figure 3). When her former students appeared and Dr Mutsuo Iwamoto handed large bouquets of flowers it was really emotional for all, not just for Prof. Tsenkova. After the short rest, the Conference featured a session Leading Edge of Science, chaired online by Prof. Dr Christian Huck, who joined from Austria (Figure 4). The Conference was honored to present as keynote speakers in this session, persons who were always leaders of development in spectroscopy, both in Japan and the whole world – Dr Mutsuo Iwamoto and Prof. Dr Yukihiro Ozaki. Both distinguished scientists gave rich lectures, drawing from their long experience particularly interesting and important aspects of water research. They expressed the expectations that aquaphotomics future developments would progress more to encompass different spectral ranges, and provide explanations of some of peculiar properties of water, making a bridge between the fundamental science and applications. The following lecture presented by Prof. Dr Masato Yasui from Keio University, expressed hope that aquaphotomics will contribute with Nobel-prize worthy discoveries in the fields of protein functionality, such as aquaporin and amyloid, because the developments in that direction could eliminate diseases that present a huge burden to the current society. The following session continued in a similar manner, placing the focus on the current and future developments of aquaphotomics. The first speaker, Prof. Huck, talked about the significant advancements