HRH(Her Royal Highness) Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Kingdom of Thailand, the most popular and admired member of the Thai Royal Family or Chakri Dynasty, is going to come to the 5th ICSC 2008 Jeju in Korea and deliver a keynote lecture.
  To make this happen, the 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee (NOC) had tried to contact the Royal Thai Embassy since last year and sent an invitation letter. Finally, the acceptance letter from Thai Embassy was received on July 3rd. It will be such a great honor to the potential attendees as well as the 5th ICSC NOC. It will be more meaningful as 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Thailand and South Korea.
  Her topic will be "Rural Development or Combating against Malnutrition in Developing Countries", one of the greatest interests among crop scientists all over the world.
  Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has been aware of the importance of agriculture and contributed a lot to the eradication of poverty and hunger. She has delivered speeches throughout the world about importance of agriculture and supported for international organizations of agriculture like FAO.
  The 5th ICSC NOC expects that it will be a great opportunity that draws more representatives of agriculture and crop science all together not only in Asia but all around the world. We'll look forward to seeing Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn at beautiful island, Jeju.

  The timetable and scientific program are all set to implement. Some of scientific programs have been changed and plenary speakers of the 5th ICSC are all arranged. The biggest change is that there'll be satellite and business meetings on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Farewell Dinner has been changed its name into Congress Dinner, and also the schedule was changed to Wednesday evening. What you may be wondering is who plenary speakers will be and what their topics will be. Details are as follows:

Plenary 1	Science, food security and achieving the UN millennium development goal in the eradication of hunger and poverty (M.S. Swaminathan, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation)
Plenary 2	Can genome sequencing of model plants be helpful for crop improvement? (Ronald Phillips, University of Minnesota)
Plenary 3	Nutrient management in crop production system for agroecosystem sustainability (Fusuo Zhang, China Agricultural University)
Plenary 4	Adaptative crop strategies for changing environments (Makie Kokubun, Tohoku University)
Plenary 5	Super hybrid rice breeding through functional genomics approach (Qifa Zhang, Huazhong Agricultural University)
Plenary 6	Genetic dissection and cloning of QTL (Roberto Tuberosa, University of Bologna)
Plenary 7	Recent Progress and Future Perspective of Rice Production Technologies (Takeshi Horie, National Agricultural Research Organization)
Plenary 8	Physiological understanding for increased crop productivity (Yong-Woong Kwan, An honorary Professor of Seoul National University)
Plenary 9	Functional genomics and crop improvement (Gary Stacey, University of Missouri)
Plenary 10	Crop genetic engineering for future use (Steve Padgette, Monsanto Co.)

  Beside plenary sessions, some titles of symposia are a bit modified. Potential attendees need to check the new scientific program schedule on the website: www.cropscience2008.com
  All inquiries should be emailed to icsc2008@snu.ac.kr

  Last May, the 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee (NOC) designated Star Alliance as the official airline network for the congress, signing on "Star Alliance Conventions Plus" that offers special Conventions Plus Delegate Fare Discounts to delegates and accompanying persons. This agreement is established between Korean Society of Crop Science (Organizer) and Asiana Airlines (Lead Airline) of Korea to offer convenience and benefits to delegates during the 5th ICSC 2008.
  Ho-Jin Lee, the president of the 5th ICSC NOC, said that "I believe this will be a great opportunity for both of the international congress organizer and attendees. And I hope that lots of attendees would take an advantage of discount fares, coming to Korea."
  Registered participants plus one accompanying person traveling to the event are automatically granted a discount of up to 20%, depending on the type of class. Discounts are offered on published business and economy class fares, excluding website/internet fares, senior and youth fares, group fares and Round the World fares.
  As a Conventions Plus delegate, they can access the flight schedules of 17 airlines across the world in one place with 855 airport destinations and 650 lounges in 155 countries. Potential attendees can search their own options in a fast and easy way.
  To obtain the Star Alliance Conventions Plus discount, please contact your local Star Alliance Member and quote the following Event Code OZ022S8 or if you go to the Conventions Plus website www.staralliance.com/conventionsplus, enter OZ022S8 when asked for the Delegate Login.
For more details about Star Alliance, please visit www.staralliance.com/conventionsplus.

Jeju, Special Self-Governing Province, has decided to join the 5th ICSC 2008 by participating in the exhibition programs with the financial support from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Korea.   Through the 5th ICSC, Jeju Province will have lots of opportunities to promote its environment-friendly agriculture and industries to the world. Also, it will be a great chance for Jeju Province to facilitate the regional economy in the agricultural field and enhance the brand value of beautiful Jeju.

  Jeju Province has already recognized that the 5th ICSC is such an international event that attracts about 2,500 scientists, engineers, researchers and investors. Jeju Province has been faithfully cooperative with the 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee.

Great news! The first Silver Sponsor was IRRI (International Rice Research Institute). The 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee (NOC) has tried to inform a lot of international institutes of the 5th ICSC. On August 22nd, 2007, Robert S. Zeigler, Director General of IRRI, and Ho-Jin Lee, President of the 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee signed the Sponsorship Letter of Agreement.

In fact, IRRI had sponsored for the 4th International Crop Science Congress 3 years ago, and they made the congress even more successful.
  Based in the Philippines, IRRI is one of the oldest and largest international agricultural research institutes. It is an autonomous, nonprofit rice research and training organization with staffs based in 14 countries in Asia and Africa.
  IRRI was established in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in cooperation with the Philippine government. They said their missions are to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable.
  As IRRI supports this congress, the 5th ICSC NOC expects that a lot more international institutes or organizations all over the world will be getting interested in the 5th ICSC

the 5th ICSC could be a chance to enhance their company's brand value. Besides that, it will be a good opportunity to promote their products to the lots of experts of crop science, build the global network between participants, and expand their market on the crop science to the world market.
  According to the Sponsorship Packages, these two companies will be put in Bronze Level. Therefore, Monsanto Company and NICEM are going to take their special benefits as well as those for all congress sponsors during the event.
  NICEM was founded in 1992 in the college of agriculture and life science of Seoul National University to improve the quality of research and education in agricultural, environmental, and life sciences. Since then, NICEM has contributed to the development of agriculture by promoting a more rational and efficient use and maintenance of expensive research equipment, enhancing research capacity of graduate students and researchers by increasing the operational skills to use state-of-the-art research equipments, and encouraging and fostering scientific collaboration between diverse research communities relevant to agricultural, environmental, and life sciences. For more information about NICEM: http://nicem.snu.ac.kr/
  Monsanto is a relatively new company. While they share the name and the history of a company that was founded in 1901, the Monsanto of today is focused on agriculture and supporting farmers around the world in their mission to feed, clothe and fuel our growing world. Monsanto is an agricultural company. Their business is structured in two segments: Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. To check out more about Monsanto, please go to their website: www.monsanto.com
  Beside Monsanto and NICEM, the 5th ICSC 2008 has been supported by Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry of the Republic of Korea and Rural Development Administration. The 5th ICSC 2008 Sponsorship opportunities start at $1,000 up to $100,000. You can find all the benefits for sponsors at our official website: www.cropscience2008.com

- Abstract Deadline Extension
The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to September 13th, 2007 as there are a lot of people who request extension. For guidelines for abstracts, check out [What's New] on the website.

- New Exhibitors
There are new exhibitors, participating in the 5th ICSC exhibition: NIAST (National Inst. of Ag. Science and Tech.), NICS (National Institute of Crop Science), GYEONGSANGBUK DO AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EXTENSION SERVICES, and NSMO (National Seed Management Office). Everyday, new exhibitors will be updated. Please check out the website: www.cropscience2008.com

- Satellite & Business Meeting
For those who would like to hold a satellite & business meeting, please contact Secretariat of the 5th ICSC National Organizing Committee. The details you need to let us know as follows:
1. The title of meeting
2. Expected attendees.
3. Contact information of organizer