The Department of Life Sciences organized a DST-SERB sponsored workshop on “Techniques in research for insects of medical importance” on 19-20 March, 2021 with Dr. (Mrs) Dipsikha Bora as Co-ordinator and Dr. Devid Kardong as Convener. The Hon’ble Vice Chancellor (i/c), Prof L.K. Nath inaugurated the workshop by lighting the ceremonial lamp and delivering an illuminating speech elaborating different insect borne diseases. The Chief Guest, Dr. Rupali Phukan, Professor, Community Medicine, Assam Medical College highlighted the use of different approaches used in prevention of public health problems for surveillance and community awareness. The Guest of honour, Dr Jagdish Mahanta, Distinguished Scientist Chair, ICMR and former Director RMRC, Dibrugarh stressed on necessity of more in-depth research in different aspects of “Public health entomology”. A workshop manual was released during the inaugural session. The session ended with vote of thanks delivered by Dr. D. Kardong.
The workshop was organized in blended mode . The online talks were deliverd by
- Dr. Kalpana Baruah, Addl. Director, National Vector Borne disease Programme , New Delhi
- Dr Abhijit Mazumder, Professor, Department of Zoology , Burdwan University ,Burdwan
Dr. Kalpana Baruah spoke on the national scenario regarding prevention and control of vector borne diseases and highlighted the challenges and opportunities. Dr. Abhijit Mazumder delivered on innovations in trap designs. Dr. Jagdish mahanta and Dr. Rupali Baruah also addressed the issues raised by the invited speakers. The session was chaired by Dr.(Mrs)DS Bora .
The offline talks were delivered by
- Dr. D. Chetia, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, Dibrugarh University
- Dr. RNS Yadav, Ex. Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh University
- Dr. (Mrs)DS Bora, Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh University
The insect vector borne diseases cause millions of death annually and the South East Asia is a major contributor of the global vector borne disease burdens. A greater number of researchers are required to be mobilised for focusing on research on different aspects of insect vector borne diseases for generating region specific data which can meaningfully contribute towards national programme for disease prevention and control. Therefore, Dr.(Mrs)Dipsikha Bora organized the workshop under “Social responsibility policy” of DST in association with a DST sponsored project with herself as Project Investigator for developing awareness among College teachers and research scholars regarding the expertise and facilities available in the Department of Life sciences for research techniques particularly associated with prevention and management of insect vector borne diseases. The research scholars (Urbbi Devi, Himadri Borah, Eva Rani Hazarika), former PDF of Entomology laboratory (Dr. Rupamoni Thakur), Department of Life Sciences and research scholar of entomology laboratory of RMRC, Lahoal (Biplob Sarmah) assisted Dr. Bora in conducting the hands-on sessions. The participants interacted effectively and expressed the need of more such hands on sessions. The workshop ended with notes from the Coordinator who thanked the students, research scholars , faculty members and all others who were directly or indirectly associated in making the event successful.
