STS Forum （Science and Technology in Society Forum） was held in Kyoto. I have been involved in this Forum since its start. It is a daring attempt to bring together people in politics, business, science and other fields from all over the world to discuss about issues we all share in common.
My role was to give a keynote lecture at the Science and Technology Ministers’ Meeting (Photos 1-4) with Dr. Philip Campbell, Chief Editor of ‘Nature’. Ministers from 24 countries (9 from Africa) participated The meeting was chaired by Mr. Keisuke Tsumura, Science and Technology Vice-Minister and a young and bright legislator iand one of future leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan. After our keynote lectures, ministers at the audience talked actively about the policies and issues of their home countries.
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Photos 1-4 With participants
On the 2nd day, I co-chaired the session of ‘Proposals from Young Scientists’with my old friend Prof ohamed Hassan, Executive Director of TWAS and other places. It was a long session of 2 hours or so, where 8 young scientists introduced themselves and split to 4 tables of 8-10 guests and had 1 hour discussion. In the end, each table presented summary and recommendations based on what they discussed. The summary of the session is available, too. Some people teased me and said that I belonged to the young people.
Photo 5: With Young Scientists at the Forum. Front row, at the center is myself, Mr. Ono of JSPS, the sponsor institution of this Forum, and Professor Hassan.
Mr. Ellis Rubinstein, President and CEO of NYAS told me that he would participate at some point of the meeting, but he was unable to make it because of some other responsibility. For NYAS, I serve as an advisory council member of ‘Scientists Without Borders’ .