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Science for Sustainability 26Th General Meeting | Vienna, Austria Year 2016 - Vol. 28 - No.1 NEWSLETTER A PUBLICATION OF THE WORLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Science for Sustainability 26th General Meeting | Vienna, Austria PUBLISHED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE KUWAIT FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCES TWAS Research Grants Building laboratories in the developing world See details at www.twas.org/opportunities/research-grants CONTENTS 6 2 Editorial: Developing 20 In the spirit of Abdus our full potential Salam in science Former TWAS President Jacob Palis TWAS President Bai Chunli: Networks received the Abdus Salam Medal. between North and South are key. 21 ‘A Voice for Science 3 In the news in the South’ Mongolians are turning to open data In a new book, leaders reflect on the and smartphones to monitor air quality. history and future of TWAS. 4 A high-level pledge 22 Joining forces for cooperation to build success 18 Austrian President Heinz Fischer urged Four TWAS partners delivered a vital science to take a front-line role. message: cooperation is essential. Seaweed farming at Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia SPECIAL SECTION: 24 Brazilian wins (Photo: Jean-Marie Hullot | A FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY Wikimedia Commons | CC by-SA TWAS-Lenovo Prize 2.0); A street market in Vietnam. 6 Science for At the age of 36, Artur Avila has already (Photo: Peter van der Sluijs/ a sustainable future made great waves in mathematics. Wikimedia Commons) Our challenges are interconnected – Cover picture: Sprawling Mexico and cooperation unlocks solutions. 26 Innovation for clean City rolls across the landscape, displacing the natural habitat. energy (Photo: Pablo Lopez Luz) 12 Dreamers without Mirabbos Hojamberdiev won the 2015 borders Atta-ur-Rahman Prize. Palestine and Burkina Faso show Austria’s approach to cooperation. Unless otherwise noted, all 27 Learning from photos in this issue are by the Himalayas Michael Weinwurm/ÖAW-TWAS. 14 Q&A: Anton Zeilinger C.N.R. Rao Prize winner Bishal Upreti of on Austria’s S&T vision Nepal studies Himalayan earthquakes. North-South efforts can shape a better future, says ÖAW President The headquarters of the 28 In Kuwait, science that Anton Zeilinger. Kuwait Institute for Scientific serves people Research in Kuwait City. KISR combines science with (Photo provided) 16 Photos: The spirit sustainable economic growth. of science Scenes from TWAS’s 26th General 30 People, places & events 28 Meeting in Vienna, Austria. 32 Voices: A focus 18 Feeding the future on disease prevention Leading thinkers examined strategies Epidemiologist Vincent Titanji says to feed the world’s growing population. Ebola shows why vaccines are key. TWAS Newsletter, Vol. 28 No. 1, 2016 1 EDITORIAL DEVELOPING OUR FULL POTENTIAL IN SCIENCE t the first TWAS meeting in 1985, 250 100 fellowships over five years, plus training in Adelegates representing 50 science science diplomacy. academies and councils from the developing Over the past three years, TWAS has been a key world came to Trieste in support of an idea: that voice in discussion of the post-2015 Sustainable developing nations would be more prosperous, Development Goals (SDGs). Global science more independent and more stable if they built leaders are looking to TWAS for perspective on a their research capacity. Academy Founder range of issues. Abdus Salam made this point clear in his Our initiatives in communication are extending opening address. He said: “Our major task is – the global reach of our ideas and our work. first and foremost – the health of science itself Our online and print publications have a new, in the South.” dynamic focus. TWAS and CAS recently released The 30th anniversary of that meeting is a good an excellent film about young scientists at the moment to assess the Academy’s impact and its CAS-TWAS Centres of Excellence. future. TWAS has made a historic contribution There is another important goal, and I think it TWAS President Bai Chunli thanks to the commitment and energy of its is often overlooked: We need to continually build leaders and Fellows, its staff, and many partners. networks for South-North cooperation. Today, we have a responsibility to maintain the This is not a new idea. The theme for the first vision of our Founders. In the past three years, TWAS meeting was “South-South and South- we have continued to achieve progress. North Cooperation in Sciences”. We have exerted ourselves to find new But we are living in a new era: Today, we Fellows from nations where we have little or face regional and global challenges detailed no representation. We have elected members in the SDGs – climate change and biodiversity from the Central African Republic, the Republic loss, threats to our oceans, and the need for of Congo, the Palestinian Territories, Hungary, sustainable food and energy. Austria and Sweden, among others. To address these challenges, South-South Of the 44 TWAS Fellows elected in 2015 networks are essential. But so is South-North in Vienna, 10 are women, and women now collaboration. All of us can learn from the North – comprise nearly 11 percent of our membership. from the way that their policies, R&D investment, This is up significantly from years past, but it and their universities and research centres is not enough. If TWAS is going to be a global shape a powerful ecosystem for innovation. leader, we must increase the ratio of women in Of course TWAS is focused on science in the our membership and leadership. developing world. That will always be our mission. Programmes in education and training But for The World Academy of Sciences, it is a are achieving impressive growth. In 2012, we natural role to bring South and North together, to had 163 PhD fellowships; by the end of 2015, help the world develop its full potential in science that has nearly tripled – to 441 fellowships. and engineering. The CAS-TWAS President’s PhD Fellowship programme since 2013 has awarded 540 Bai Chunli, president, TWAS fellowships to young scientists from 49 countries, most of them in the developing world. A new agreement with South Africa will provide 80 new TWAS fellowships per year. And an agreement with India is expected to provide 2 TWAS Newsletter, Vol. 28 No. 1, 2016 WORLD NEWS TWAS NEWSLETTER Published quarterly with the support of the China becoming global leader Kuwait Foundation in renewable energy for the Advancement IN THE NEWS of Sciences (KFAS) In the past five years, China has become the top by The World Academy investor in renewable energy, far outstripping of Sciences - for the advancement the European Union, the former market leader. of science in developing The country will likely overtake the EU in countries (TWAS) ICTP Campus Poor countries can copy installations of new wind and solar technology Strada Costiera 11 patented drugs in the next five years, if its plans hold up, said 34151 Trieste, Italy The World Trade Organisation agreed to climate change think tank E3G. Last year, tel: +39 040 2240327 fax: +39 040 224559 extend a waiver set to expire in January 2016 cumulative sales of electric vehicles in China e-mail: [email protected] that allows poor countries to copy patented reached 450,000, 50% higher than in the EU. website: www.twas.org medicines to 2033. Quartz: www.bit.ly/1pRqK70 TWAS COUNCIL The countries that will benefit from the waiver President are “Least Developed Countries” – or LDCs Bai Chunli – and include many African and some Asian Immediate Past President countries. About half of the 900 million people Zimbabwe gets its first Jacob Palis in these countries live on less than US$1.25 a supercomputer Vice Presidents Moctar Toure day. The waiver is critical for the LDCs, because Zimbabwe has launched its first ever Mohammed Hamdan they have high rates of infectious diseases such supercomputer, at a cost of $5.4 million, Rabia Hussain Khatijah M. Yusoff as HIV and malaria. becoming the third African country to have such Manuel Limonta-Vidal The Conversation: information technology as it aims to address Secretary-General www.bit.ly/1HjKpUV the needs of the country’s scientists. Ajay K. Sood Supercomputers are used for complex jobs Treasurer Samira Omar Asem such as processing massive sets of data to find Council Members In Mongolia, open data may aid information, run simulations and solve large Robin Crewe air quality and complex problems. The supercomputer is Abdel Nasser Tawfik Habib Firouzabadi Mongolians are increasingly turning to open data being kept at the University of Zimbabwe and Bishal Nath Upreti and smartphone apps to monitor air quality as was built by Chinese computer manufacturer Mahabir Prashad Gupta the country’s government plans to cut funds Inspur Group with a loan from the Chinese Ex-officio Council Member Fernando Quevedo for clean air efforts, according to advocates. government. The country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, is among the The Herald-Zimbabwe: TWAS Executive Director five cities with the worst air pollution in the world www.bit.ly/1P2FZ4R Romain Murenzi due to heavy industry and coal-based household Editor cooking and heating. Yet data on pollution Edward W. Lempinen hotspots and trends is rare. A prototype ATMs bring cheap, safe water Assistant editors Francesca Pettoello smartphone creates an online database and to Nairobi Cristina Serra global map of air pollution. They hope the Last year a public-private partnership between Sean Treacy public and scientists will exchange real-time Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, the city’s Design & Art Direction Rado Jagodic information about pollution and take action. main water distribution company, and Grundfos, Studio Link, Trieste, Italy SciDevNet: a Danish water engineering firm, resulted in the Printing www.bit.ly/1P9eDNj installation of water vending machines. La Tipografica Srl Campoformido, Udine, Italy The machines are expected to revolutionise water availability and distribution to populations Unless otherwise indicated, that have long been at the mercy of water the text is written by cartels and a changing, unreliable climate.
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