18-24 March 2012 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
IWA-UTM International Publication Workshop in UTM Johor Bahru
Publication in high impact cited journals is one of the measures of scholarly work in academia as well as an indicator of an instiution's progress in terms of research accomplishments and technology and ad.men
In view of this, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) organised the IWA-UTM International Publication Workshop to provide yet another platform for strategic actions in publication within the water science and water discipline on the whole, involving water professionals and academia. A skills-based approach is offered to young representatives of different countries as an investment plan for future leaders within the water sector.
For the last 10 years, UTM and the International Water Association (IWA) have engaged in various initiatives through an array of international meetings, workshops and congress through the IWA network of members and experts in water research.
UTM Vice Chancellor Professor Zaini Ujang said the workshop, which took place from 19 to 24 March 2012 at UTM Johor Bahru campus was another collaborative engagement between UTM and IWA to encourage a more vibrant and dynamic publication culture in water sciences among the university community, locally and abroad.
He further added that the receptiveness of international audience to the implementation of this workshop has been very encouraging, where 30 PhD students, including 20 from abroad came to UTM for a week, with most of the participants receiving the UTM Water Scholarship. The facilitators for the one-week workshop included Prof. Gustaf Olsson from Lund University, Sweden and Prof. Helmut Kroiss from Vienna Technical University, Austria.
Explaining further, Prof. Gustaf Olsson, the current IWA Publishing Award holder says: “We have to become aware of what the international reader would expect from scientific publications. This workshop is a unique opportunity for communication between different parties within the water discipline and between different cultures and countries.”
Prof. Olsson further adds, “It is now increasing important to instill understanding between different specialties of science and bridge the gap between the specialty groups so that knowledge can be readily transferred to the final users. Also, different groups from across nations can come together with different water problems and challenges in their home countries and learn from one another how to tackle some of these problems.”
Prof. Olsson also highlighted that “Scientific communication becomes crucial and we have to translate our results for a larger group. Too often the art of communication is not taken seriously. Therefore this initiative from UTM together with IWA is crucial. It is important that the water issues be discussed and deliberated further.”
In addition, Prof. Helmut Kroiss, Head of IWA Publication Committee suggested that this workshop could be recognized as a starting point of a very useful new exercise of IWA for the sake of academic capacity building worldwide. The model workshop may be repeated at other locations in the world in the future with similar emphasis on the YWP programme.
Article Prepared by Norhayati Adbullah
Department of Industrial Biotechnology,
Faculty of Biosciences and Bioengineering,
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