Jacob Palis is a Brazilian mathematician and professor. Since 1973 he has held a permanent position as professor at Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was director of the same institute from 1993 until 2003. He was Secretary-General of the Third World Academy of Sciences from 2004 to 2006, and elected its President in 2006. He was also president of the International Mathematical Union from 1999 to 2002.

In 2010 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his fundamental contributions in the mathematical theory of dynamical systems that has been the basis for many applications in various scientific disciplines (such as in the study of oscillations).

His Erdős number is 3.

Palis serves on the board of the Science Initiative Group.

Palis' research interests are mainly dynamical systems and differential equations. Some themes are: Global stability and hyperbolicity, bifurcations, attractors and chaotic systems.

 

 

She is a member of the Jordanian royal family. She was born in Amman, Jordan. Her father is Prince Hassan bin Talal and her mother is Princess Sarvath El Hassan.

Princess Sumaya was married to Nasser Judeh, the son of Sami Judeh, Jordan's former Cabinet Minister. Mr. Judeh is the country's current Minister of Foreign Affairs. They have four children together.

The Princess is presently the head of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology Board of Trustees (PSUT), the President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) as well as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jordan National Museum. Princess Sumaya also works as an archeologist, following the work of the British Institute in Amman for Archaeological Research and the Council for British Research in the Levant.

 

 

Vilasrao Deshmukh, popularly known as Vilasrao is the current Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences. He has previously held the posts of Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India. He is member of Rajya Sabha representing Maharashtra. He was also a two-time Chief Minister of Maharashtra, from 1999 to 2003 and from 2004 to 2008. He is a member of the Indian National Congress and originally belongs to Latur district in the Marathwada region of the state of Maharashtra.

 

 

 

Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz is an Israeli politician, mathematician and rabbi. In 2009 he was elected to the Knesset as the leader of The Jewish Home, and was appointed Minister of Science and Technology.

Hershkowitz also serves as the rabbi of the Ahuza neighborhood in Haifa and as mathematics professor in the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

 

 

Professor Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed has been Deputy Director General, ISESCO since Feb 2011. With a Bachelors & Masters of Science from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Pakistan and Master in Business Administration & PhD from University of California, Riverside, USA have over 23 years of educational development and management experience: including teaching, policy development, linking educational research to industry / commercialization, introducing entrepreneurial approaches to education and a diverse range of educational development programs. His distinguished career enriched with diverse Academic, Research and Administrative Experience both in public and private sectors of higher education in Pakistan. Worked with numerous educational Institutions in different capacities as Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor, Chairman/Head of Departments, Dean, Rector, Member (Operations & Planning), Acting Executive Director, Consultant Coordinator, Project Director, Director Student Affairs, Director Campus, etc.  

 

 

Gebisa Ejeta  2009 World Food Prize Laureate, Science Envoy of President Barack Obama

 

Gebisa Ejeta was born and raised in a small rural community in west-central Ethiopia.  He completed his early education in his native country including a BS in Plant Sciences from Alemaya College in 1973.  He attended graduate school at Purdue University earning his Masters (1976) and PhD (1978) in Plant Breeding & Genetics. 

Professor Ejeta has served on numerous science and program review panels, technical committees, and advisory boards of major research and development organizations including the international agricultural research centers (IARCs), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and a number of national and regional organizations in Africa.  He was a member of the team that launched the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, a joint effort of the Rockefeller and Gates Foundation.  Dr. Ejeta has served the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the largest publicly funded agricultural research consortium in the world as member of its Science Council (2008-2010) and currently as member of its Consortium Board.  He is also a board member of Sasakawa Africa Program.  Dr. Ejeta was recently designated special advisor to USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah. Among his many awards, Gebisa Ejeta was the recipient of the 2009 World Food Prize; and a national medal of honor from the President of Ethiopia.

WSF 2011-es előadás

Gebisa Ejeta arra hívta fel a figyelmet hogy a Föld népessége 2011. októberében átlépte a hétmilliárdos határt, és lakosainak száma 2050-re már 9,5 milliárd is lehet.

Manapság 1 milliárd ember éhezik, 2,6 milliárd ember él napi két dollárnál kevesebből. Barack Obama nagykövete szerint a világ élelmezésének kulcsa a tudományban, technológiában és innovációban rejlik, ám sajnos, a tudomány egyelőre nem képviseli elég jól saját érdekeit. A világra óriási népességnövekedés vár az elkövetkező évtizedekben, ezzel együtt az élelmezés is megváltozik.

Ejeta a bolygó lakosságának növekedése és a súlyos élelmezési gondok mellett kitért az ökológiai problémákra is: a kárba vesző élelmiszerekre, alapanyagokra, nyersanyagokra és a termőfölddel kapcsolatos nehézségekre.

A problémák egyre összetettebbek, és általában véve elmondható, hogy a tudománynak fokoznia kell jelenlétét és jobban kell képviselnie magát, ahhoz hogy egyebek mellett megoldással szolgáljon az élelmezés gondjára. Ebben a tekintetben pedig “semmi kétség” – jelentette ki az etióp születésű szakember -, hogy Afrikának van a legnagyobb szüksége a tudományra.

Ajánlott poszt: Gebisa Ejeta és mások a tudomány jövőjéről.

 

Romain Murenzi is the Executive Director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, in Trieste, Italy, since April 1, 2011. He was born in Rwanda and raised in Burundi. After graduating from the National University of Burundi in 1982, he taught mathematics in high school for three years before being awarded a fellowship for doctoral studies from the Catholic University of Louvain, where he earned his doctorate degree in physics in 1990.

He later became:

(i) Chairman of Physics Department at Clark Atlanta University from 1999 to 2001.

(ii) Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research from August 2001 to March 2006.

(iii) Minister in President's Office in Charge of Science, Technology, and Scientific Research from March 2006 to July 2009. This included information technologies.

(iv) He returned to the United States in 2009 to assume a joint appointment as Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Sustainable Development at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC, and visiting professor at the University of Maryland's Institute of Advanced Computer Studies in College Park, Maryland.

 

Romain Murenzi's blog: http://romainmurenzi.blogspot.com/

 

Related posts:World Science Forum 2011. Budapest - AAAS and TWAS signed an important formal agreement

World Science Forum 2011. Budapest - fontos egyezményt írt alá az AAAS és a TWAS

 

Kari Raivio,

Vice-President for Scientific Planning and Review, ICSU

Chancellor Kari Raivio completed his medical training at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, where he also earned his Ph.D. degree in 1969. After three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego, he went on to specialize in pediatrics and neonatology, and was appointed Professor of Perinatal Medicine at the University of Helsinki and Head of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the University Central Hospital in 1982. In 1991-92 he was Visiting Professor at WashingtonUniversity in St.Louis. He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1994 and served as Rector (Vice-Chancellor) of the University of Helsinki in 1996 - 2003. Thereafter he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Helsinki, becoming Chancellor Emeritus in 2008.
Chancellor Raivio´s main research topics have been in purine metabolism, xanthine oxidoreductase and production of oxygen radicals, organ damage by oxygen radicals, ontogenesis of antioxidant enzymes, and clinical studies on newborn infants. He has been active internationally as President of European Association of Perinatal Medicine and European Society for Pediatric Research. He has extensive experience in medical publication, as European Chief Editor of Pediatric Research, Editor-in-Chief of the major Finnish medical journal Duodecim, and a member of the Editorial Board of several international journals.
Chancellor Raivio is Past President of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Delegation of Finnish Academies. He was a member of International Council for Science´s (ICSU) Committee for Scientific Planning and Review 2005-08 and its Chair as Vice President for ICSU 2009-2011.
Chancellor Raivio´s experience in university affairs has been exploited in an advisory role by the governments of Sweden and Singapore, and the universities of Tokyo and Lund. He was Chair of the Board of Directors of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) in 2005-08.

 

13:45 - 14:45 LUNCH BREAK

Venues: 1. Academy Club