Saturday, April 23, 2005

Roles for National Academies in Building Worldwide Scientific Capacity—a symposium in honor of Bruce Alberts

142nd NAS Annual Meeting: April 30-May 3, 2005: (This seminar is to be held May 2, 2005.)

"Bruce Alberts will conclude his term as Academy President on June 30. In recognition of Bruce Alberts' inspired leadership, this symposium will reflect on his role in creating new organizations and relationships in international science. Many of the issues facing the world--such as emerging infectious diseases, global climate change, energy sources, human migration, and the problems of megacities and environmental sustainability--are fundamentally international and do not respect national borders. Confronting these problems requires organizing the world's science, health, and technology communities as a source of global science policy advice. Academies are an essential element of such an organization because in many countries, academies form a vital link between governments and the science community. A global network of academies can thus identify critical issues and communicate these issues to policy makers both in national governments and international organizations such as the United Nations. Under Bruce Alberts' leadership, the InterAcademy Council (IAC), a global analog of our National Research Council has been successfully launched and has achieved a remarkable level of global influence. The symposium will include international science leaders who have worked to realize the vision of an effective source of international science policy advice and will conclude with a roundtable discussion addressing future directions in international science policy."

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