TWAS 9th General Conference and 20th Anniversary Celebration

The Third World Academy of Sciences' (TWAS) 9th General Conference and 20th anniversary celebrations were hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and held at the Beijing International Convention Centre, Beijing, China from 14 - 19 October 2003. The event was attended by more than 300 delegates, including 13 government ministers. Highlights of the conference included an address by China's President Hu Jintao, given during the Opening Ceremony, and presentations by two Nobel Laureates.

More than 3000 people from 77 countries attended the Opening Ceremony held in the Great Hall of the People in Tian'anmen Square, the highlight of which was the address by China's president Hu Jintao. The ceremony was held just hours after the successful return of China's first manned space flight, which Hu called "another important step in China's efforts to scale the summit of world science and technology." Hu also emphasized the importance of South-South cooperation as a critical prerequisite for the advancement of science throughout the developing world. He closed his address by noting that "TWAS has made outstanding contributions to promoting the development of science and technology," and that he expected the Academy "to play an even greater role in global science in the years ahead."

In his presentation, TWAS President C.N.R. Rao outlined his 'dreams' for a better world, including eradicating malnutrition from the world within 10 years, and thanked CAS for hosting the conference. In return, CAS president Lu Yongxiang emphasized China's commitment to South-South cooperation to further scientific and economic development and called on TWAS to work towards ending what he called 'knowledge poverty' in the South.

Among the other highlights of the Opening Ceremony, messages received from the heads of state of Italy, Kuwait, Nigeria and Tanzania, as well as from the Director General of UNESCO, were read out by representative ministers and ambassadors. The messages congratulated TWAS on its 20 years of accomplishments.

Addresses stressing the importance of international cooperation for the advancement of science in the developing countries were also presented by Thomas Östros, Sweden's Minister for Education and Science; Jane Lubchenco, president of the International Council for Science (ICSU); Yves Quéré and Eduardo Krieger, co-chairs of the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP); and Gabriele Menegatti, Italy's ambassador in China.

During the ceremony, Hu Jintao also presented the winners of the 2002 TWAS Prizes with their medals. The winners were: Deepak Dhar, India (Physics); Peng Shie-Ming, Taiwan, China (Chemistry); José Antonio de la Peña, Mexico (Mathematics); Wang Zhizhen, China (Biology); and Ranulfo Romo, Mexico (Basic Medical Sciences). Paolo Budinich (Italy) was presented with the 2003 Abdus Salam Medal.

Forty-nine scientists from 20 countries were elected new members of the Academy, bringing TWAS'  total membership to more than 700. For the first time, scientists from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were elected, raising the number of countries represented in the Academy to 81.

Eight scientists from developing countries who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of sciences were announced as the 2003 TWAS Prize winners. These were: Fu Ting-Dong, China (Agricultural Sciences); Mayana Zatz, Brazil (Basic Medical Sciences); Rafael Palacios de la Lama, Mexico (Biology); Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis, India (Chemistry); Kaigala Venkata Subbarao, India (Earth Sciences); Mayra de la Torre, Mexico (Engineering Sciences); Welington Celso de Melo, Brazil (Mathematics); and Rodolfo Gambini, Uruguay (Physics). The prizes will be presented to the recipients on the occasion of the next General Meeting of the Third World Academy of Sciences in the autumn of 2004.

Recipients of the 2004 TWAS Medal Lectures were also announced at the conference. The winners are Edward S. Ayensu (Ghana), José L. Morán López (Mexico), and Sheikh Riazuddin (Pakistan).

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Academy, the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a short musical concert. Academy Founding Fellows, including Muhammad Akhtar (Pakistan), S.S. Chern (China), M.G.K. Menon (India), and A.S. Paintal (India), then related their memories of the founding of TWAS, including the untiring work of the Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, and reminisced about the 20-year history of the Academy.

In his presentation, TWAS Executive Director Mohamed Hassan summarized the history of TWAS and outlined the Academy's current programmes and future plans, while Paolo Budinich, in his Abdus Salam Medal Lecture, explained how a group of international organizations, including TWAS and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, have been formed, with funding from the Italian government, to create the 'Trieste System'.

The winners of the 2002 TWAS Medals each presented their Medal Lectures. These were: Bai Chunli (China) - Characterization and Preparation of Two-Dimensional Nanostructures; G.O.P. Obasi (Nigeria) - Contribution of the Earth Observing System to the Advancement of the Atmospheric Sciences; and K.R. Sreenivasan (USA) - On Thermal Convection.

Presentations were also made by Nobel Prize Laureates Hartmut Michel (Chemistry, 1988) - Membrane Proteins as Targets for Drugs in Medicine and Agriculture; and Samuel C. Ting (Physics, 1976) - In Search of the Fundamental Building Blocks of Nature. Michel's presentation, together with others from TWAS President C.N.R. Rao and Bruce Alberts, President of the US National Academy of Sciences, were also part of an 'E-Session' broadcast live on the internet and recorded for airing on CCTV, the Chinese national television channel.

TWAS President C.N.R. Rao presented the TWAS 20th Anniversary Lecture - Making and Manipulating Nanomaterials Through Soft Chemistry - which featured the latest results from his laboratory at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India.

Presentations were made by a panel of 15 ministers from countries as diverse as Brazil, China, Jordan, Nigeria, North Korea and Rwanda. The ministers agreed that investment in science and technology capacity building was essential for furthering economic development, but that meagre budgets meant that cutbacks and compromises often had to be made.

On the brighter side, the ministers from Brazil, China and Mexico each announced that their countries would host 50 TWAS Fellowships a year, thus putting in place a large part of the 500 South-South Fellowships that TWAS is aiming to offer by 2005.

During this session, Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, who was among the first researchers to identify the clinical existence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), outlined the different treatments that had been administered to SARS patients. He explained that one of the most effective treatments was a combination of traditional Chinese and modern medicines. But the key to controlling any future SARS epidemic, explained Zhong, was to identify patients as quickly as possible and isolate them.

The second speaker, Christophe Fraser from Imperial College, London, UK, an expert in the mathematical modelling of disease epidemics, also confirmed the importance of tracing SARS patients' contacts and isolating those showing symptoms of the disease. Fortunately, in the case of SARS, symptoms appear before a patient is infective, so transmission of the disease can be halted by isolating patients.

One conclusion from this session was that, because of control measures that have been put in place, another major worldwide epidemic of SARS is unlikely.

The history of science in China and the achievements of Chinese scientists over the past few years were outlined by CAS President Lu Yongxiang. Behind these great strides forward, explained Xu Guanhua, the Chinese minister for science and technology, is the fact that China has increased the percentage of its GDP spent on research and development from 0.64 in 1990 to 1.2 percent in 2002.

Among the achievements highlighted during the session were China's involvement in the international consortium that mapped the human genome, the development of computer software that can recognize more than 10,000 handwritten Chinese characters, and China's key role in the Digital Earth project, which is using satellite technology to accurately map the entire global surface.

China also has ambitious plans in science and technology that include increasing the output of computer chips from 8.5 billion in 2002 to 50 billion by 2020; completing the identification and characterization of all the proteins found in the human liver, a project that began in 2002; and using functional genomics to analyse the potential benefits of traditional Chinese medicines.

"The conventional path followed by the developed countries is to have industrialization before the development of information technology," said Xu. "China does not have to go this route - and, in basing our growing economy on information technology, we can be a model for other developing countries."

Five papers from renowned experts in their respective fields summarized the major scientific developments of recent years, and attempted to predict the areas in which future advances were most likely to be made. Jorge Allende (Chile), in his 'Challenges of the Post Genomic Era' presentation, suggested that biological research was undergoing a paradigm shift from the reductionist approach to a more holistic and integrated approach - a trend he believes will increasingly involve mathematics.

This was echoed by Philip Griffiths (USA) in his 'Mathematics for a New Millennium' presentation, who contends that mathematics will become more involved in almost every aspect of modern science. Anthony Cheetham (UK and USA) and Narendra Kumar (India), expanding on the future of chemistry and physics respectively, envision increasingly important benefits from the development of nanotechnology, which will depend, in part, on a more profound understanding of both chemistry and physics. Li Yiyi (China) examined technological progress in her country, and how recent developments, including novel computer software, had been applied to the construction of valves to high specifications and the control of grain-size in industrial steel production - an important part of the strength of the material.

The final afternoon saw delegates take a break from lectures and visit local scientific institutions. Among these were: Peking University, Tsinghua University, the CAS Institute of Physics, the CAS Library, and the Lenovo Group, China's largest maker of personal computers.

Many delegates also chose to attend the two-day visit to other research institutes in Shanghai organized by CAS.

The informal meeting on 'Harnessing Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in Africa' brought together about 50 participants from African ministries, research councils, academies of science and scientific institutions. Under the co-chair of the President of the African Academy of Sciences and TWAS Executive Director Mohamed Hassan and Turner T. Isoun, Nigeria's Minister of Science and Technology, specific problems were identified and strategies discussed for improving support for science in Africa. Also present were Bruce Alberts, President of the US National Academy of Sciences and William Clark of Harvard University.

Among the topics discussed were the need for focused initiatives with long-term impacts to support the funding of projects, and the lack of well-established academies of science in most of Africa. With assistance from TWAS, the African Academy of Sciences is attempting to remedy that problem. The Millennium Science Initiative meeting in Uganda, which resulted in a US$4.2M grant from the World Bank for the development of biotechnology in that country, was also highlighted. The meeting was an initial point of contact for a roundtable on 'Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in Africa' scheduled to be held in mid-2004.

The closing ceremony consisted of brief reports from each of the conference's sessions, as well as a vote of thanks to CAS and the Chinese government for their sterling efforts in organizing and hosting the conference, which many delegates agreed was one of the most stimulating, informative and forward-looking conferences ever held by the Academy.

The session concluded with participants discussing the Beijing Declaration (see below) and was followed by a banquet hosted by the Mayor of Beijing.

TWAS publications issued at the conference included: the TWAS Yearbook 2003; the TWNSO Yearbook 2003; a 20th anniversary celebration book containing congratulatory messages from over 100 heads of state, ministers of science, heads of national and international organizations and distinguished scientists. Drafts of the 20-year history of TWAS and the Academy's Third Strategic Plan were also circulated to the membership.

Full proceedings of the conference will be published and distributed by TWAS as soon as possible.

CAS also published a 494-page hardback book to commemorate the conference: 'Science Progress in China', edited by CAS President Lu Yongxiang.