From July 31 to August 5, Dunedin (New Zealand) hosted the 18th International Congress on Photosynthesis on the theme "Photosynthesis Research: Fundamental and Applied Science for Energy and Food Security". Azerbaijan was represented by two scientific reports at this Congress which organized in a hybrid format. The first report was presented by academician Irada Huseynova, the general director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies (IMBB), on the topic "Photosynthetic apparatus, carbon metabolism and antioxidant status of wheat genotypes during drought stress and repeated irrigation", and the second report was presented by the institute's senior researcher, doctor of biological sciences Shahniyar Bayramov on the topic "Daily regulation of the activity of FBP-aza and NADP-GAPDH enzymes in some local C4 plants of Chenopodiaceae". Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Zealand government has closed the border to many countries, including the Republic of Azerbaijan. For this reason, Azerbaijani scientists participated in the work of the Congress only online. However, despite this, the work of Azerbaijani scientists aroused great interest, extensive discussions were held around the topics.

It should be noted that at the 18th Congress, the award named after Jalal Aliyev (The Jalal Aliyev Lecture Award), established by the International Society for Photosynthesis Research, was awarded to Donald Orth, a prominent American scientist and Professor of the Carl Weze Institute of Genome Biology of the University of Illinois, USA, for his great services in the development of the science of photosynthesis,.