Sep 30 2013
Top scientists and policymakers from the developing world – including science ministers from at least two nations – will convene in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Monday 30 September for a meeting that will explore new research and compelling challenges in science and engineering.
The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center for business meetings on Monday, and for four days of science meetings from 1-4 October. Attendance is by invitation only, but sessions will be open to the press. The official language of the meeting is English.
In all, more than 300 researchers, top science policy officials and educators are expected to attend the yearly General Meeting of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). They will engage in discussions and hear presentations on a range of critically important issues, including innovation in Latin America, cancer research in Africa, membrane-based technology for environmental protection, biotechnology for agriculture, and the social science of poverty.
On Tuesday 1 October, government ministers and their representatives from some of the developing world's science leaders will meet to discuss the development challenges their nations have faced. The session is expected to include speeches by Lino Barañao, Argentina's minister of Science, Technology and productive innovation; Derek Hanekom, minister of South Africa's Department of Science and Technology; Thirumalachari Ramasami, secretary of India's Department of Science and Technology; and TWAS President Bai Chunli, who also serves as president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The session also will include top officials of Brazil, Italy, Mexico and UNESCO.
In addition, TWAS will announce winners of its major prizes, including the first-ever TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize, which includes a USD100,000 award. The Lenovo Prize, to be given for achievements in physics and astronomy this year, is one of the most prestigious science prizes in the developing world and will be announced at about noon during the opening ceremony on 1 October, followed by a lecture from the prize winner at 14:30.
To learn more, view the meeting programme. For questions and further information, email [email protected] or [email protected].
The 2013 TWAS General Meeting is supported and co-organized by the Argentinian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation – created in 2007 by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), an independent body under the ministry and the leading scientific institution in Argentina.
The meeting will also include lectures on a range of important issues, including preventing HIV infection in women; biomedical advances against infectious diseases; and crystallography as a driver of industrial development and economic growth. The meeting also will feature two symposia. The first, on the evening of 1 October, is on the development of Argentine science and technology. The second, the morning of 2 October, is on quantum information and quantum computing.
Wednesday 2 October will also feature lectures by Chinese climatologist Xiaojing Zheng on the modeling of dune field evolution, which can serve as a reflection of global climate change, and by TWAS fellow and International Union of Crystallography President Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju on the International Year of Crystallography.
On Thursday 3 October, the meeting will screen "Seeds of Science," a new documentary by Italian filmmaker Nicole Leghissa that explores how TWAS prize-winners and fellowships are transforming agriculture and farm productivity in Kenya. Leghissa will attend the screening to take questions from the audience.
Three TWAS Medal winners will also speak on 3 October. Francisco José Barrantes, a TWAS vice president and a neuroscientist at the University of Buenos Aires, will discuss the brain on the nanoscale level. Chemist Michael Lawrence Klein of Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), will focus on using computer simulations to understand molecular cell membrane channels for ions that are relevant to pharmacology. And cancer researcher Tebello Nyokong of Rhodes University, South Africa, will discuss the use of combined therapies to fight cancer in Africa.
"It's very exciting that TWAS is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Buenos Aires," said TWAS President Bai Chunli. "Latin American scientists have been centrally important to TWAS since the Academy's founding. And today, Argentina is a hub of global science, with innovation in fields ranging from agriculture to space technology. Such innovation will be essential to address global challenges that are growing in scale and complexity. I'm confident that at our meeting, we will hear some of the world's top scientists, from many countries, address these issues in ways that can be helpful for policymakers and the public."
Source: http://twas.ictp.it/