IAP Meeting of Young Scientists held in conjunction with The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Dalian, PRC, 10-13 September 2009

Background

The InterAcademy Panel (IAP) was launched in 1993 to help national Science Academies work together to communicate global scientific issues. Following last year’s inaugural young scientists’ meeting, the IAP selected young scientists under the age of 40 to attend the 2009 World Economic Forum (WEF) summer meeting in Dalian, PR China. The IAP aimed to provide a forum for young scientists to discuss international issues and to participate in sessions of the main WEF meeting. Two scientists were nominated from Australia. However, one was unable to attend and I was the sole Australian young scientist representative.

Science Attendees

Approximately 50 young scientists attended the IAP meeting from South Africa, Chile, Spain, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Kenya, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Palestine, Portugal, South Korea, the UK, Australia, Nigeria, the USA, Sweden, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Guatemala, Canada, Tanzania, Mauritius, Thailand, China, Jordan, India, Senegal, Israel, Sudan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Japan, Uganda, Finland, Mexico, New Zealand. Seven ‘young mentors’ who had attended the previous year’s meeting as young scientists returned to help facilitate proceedings. Ten scientists from China attended as observers. Three senior members of the science community provided invaluable help and advice: Howard Alper, Chair of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Canada, Robert Dijkgraaf, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of Science magazine.

The IAP meeting

Two private sessions were help for Young Scientist attendees on the first day of the WEF meeting.

The first, entitled “Science Education to Create the Innovators of the Future” addressed the teaching of science around the world. Dr Nitsara Karoonuthaisiri from Thailand gave an excellent presentation on outreach programs looking to help science educators in rural areas. The second session, “Research Priorities and Partnership to Address Societal Needs through Innovation” discussed ways in which young scientists could help to better integrate science into society. Both sessions were organised as round-table discussion sessions.

The ideas generated in these sessions were discussed in several informal get-togethers throughout the meeting, before an attempt was made to synthesise some conclusions and recommendations in a closing session on the final morning. Several broad areas were chosen for further work, including:

• Addressing how the Young Scientist group might best interact at future WEF meetings;
• The formation of a Global Young Scientists Forum, to promote international links and raise issues of particular concern to young scientists with national Science Academies and Governments;
• Science education, including trying to specify a minimum science content for primary and secondary school curricula, supported by web-based teacher resources; and
• Science communication, looking at how to train young scientists in working more closely with the media, Government and business.

Several young scientists were nominated to continue working on these themes after the meeting ended, with the aim of preparing recommendations for submission to the IAP and WEF. I am working as part of the Science communication group.

The WEF meeting

Over 1300 people attended the main WEF meeting (see full list here). In addition to the Young Scientists, groups included Young Global Leaders, Technology Pioneers, Social Entrepreneurs and senior representatives of business and Government. A comprehensive series of talks, interactive sessions and workshops was organised around 5 themes: New Business Models in a Deleveraging World; Opportunities in a

Green Economy; Rethinking Asia’s Development Model; Driving Economic Growth through Science and Technology; and Addressing Societal Needs through Innovation. The full program for the meeting is available here. Sessions that I found particularly interesting included:

Future revolutions in Science, discussing radical shifts in physical and life sciences that are likely to change the way we think;

How good is your judgement?, illustrating how we tend to rely on intuition rather than analysis in our decision making processes. Based on the tests and games we worked through in the session, the answer to the title questions has to be “not very good at all”;

Private meeting between the Young Scientists and China’s Minister for Science and Technology on the future development of science in China;

Groundbreaking discoveries in Science, looking at what science ideas will be needed to tackle problems in the developed and developing world. Along with many of the Young Scientists, I participated as a discussion leader in this session;

Pioneers to pitches, addressing how new ideas and products should be pitched to marker; and

Groundbreaking ideas for Social change. Whilst covering similar material to the groundbreaking discoveries in science session, the discussions were enlivened by a good mix of social and technology leaders.

Personal Reflections

I found this a fascinating meeting to attend, completely outside my normal technical sphere. I found the interactions with my fellow young scientists particularly valuable and have made some good friends.

In many ways, the best parts of the meeting happened outside the formal sessions. Chance conversations over lunch with senior leaders from both the public and private sectors often spun off in unusual directions and gave great opportunities to share and receive ideas from around the world.

As always in China, the meeting was impeccably hosted and we were generously looked after. In particular, the Cultural Evening hosted by the Dalian Municipal Government in the stunning Xinghai Square showcases the region’s dance, music and food.

I would like to thank the Australian Academy of Science for nominating me to attend the meeting and supporting my travel to Dalian and the IAP, the WEF and the Dalian local Government for organising the meeting and hosting me in China.