8 July 2022
Opening Ceremony Program
Welcome speeches
Moderator: Ms Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO
Mr Xing Qu, Deputy Director-General, UNESCO
H.E. Dr Luther Castillo Harry, Secretary of Science, Technology, and Scientific Innovation, Republic of Honduras, on behalf of H.E Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, President of the Republic of Honduras
H.E. Csaba Kőrösi, President-elect, 77th United Nations General Assembly
Dr Michel Spiro, Chair, Steering Committee of IYBSSD; President, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
Dr Merieme Chadid, President, Scientific Board of the UNESCO International Basic Sciences Program
UNESCO’s role in basic science: the beating heart of substainable development
Ms Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO
The role of basic sciences in decision making
Ministers of science and high-level scientists discuss the importance of basic sciences in policy decision making, especially regarding the sustainable development challenges that we face.
Moderator: Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer, President, SESAME council; Professor Emeritus, University of Hamburg, Germany; former Director General, CERN
H.E. Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Republic of Cuba
H.E. Luther Castillo Harry, Secretary of Science, Technology, and Scientific Innovation, Republic of Honduras
H.E. Wang Zhigang, Minister and Secretary of Ministry of Science and Technology, People’s Republic of China
H.E. Dr Bonginkosi Emmanuel Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science & Innovation, Republic of South Africa
H.E. Huynh Thanh Dat, Minister of Science and Technology, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Dr Low Teck Seng, Chief Executive Officer, National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Republic of Singapore
Dr Serge Haroche, Honorary Professor, Collège de France, France, Physics Nobel Laureate (2012)
Dr Giorgio Parisi, Emeritus Professor, Rome University La Sapienza, Italy, Physics Nobel Laureate (2021)
Strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics for the SDGs
H.E. Mohamed Belhocine, African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation
The Role of Basic Sciences in developping societies
How do scientists contribute to the progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, with their results, and also in the way they are working and interacting with society?
Moderator: Ms Dominique Leglu, Editorial Director, Science&Avenir La Recherche
Dr Rui Bai, Associate Research Fellow, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
Dr Karen Hallberg, Research Director, Bariloche Atomic Centre, Argentina
Dr Hany Helal, President of Senghor University in Alexandria, Egypt; Professor, Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering; Former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Dr Barry Barish, Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology, USA, Physics Nobel Laureate (2017)
Dr Francine Ntoumi, Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases-Christophe Mérieux, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo; Professor of Molecular Epidemiology of infectious Diseases, University of Tübingen, Germany
Remarks: Dr Emil Bjerrum-Bohr, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr International Academy, Denmark, Great-grandson of Niels Bohr
Perspectives on Basic Sciences and the Sustainable Development Goals
What are the challenges of Sustainable Development that basic sciences can help to address?
Moderator: Ms Mamphela Ramphele, co-chair, Club of Rome
Dr Tandong Yao, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Co-chair of Third Pole Environment Program, chief scientist of the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research program, China
Dr Pierre Léna, Honorary President, Office for Climate Education, France
Dr Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci, Ordinarius Professor for Physical Chemistry; Founding Director of the Linz Institute for Organic Solarcells (LIOS), Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria
Dr Mercedes Bustamante, Full Professor, University of Brasília, Brazil
Dr Mu-ming Pu, Scientific Director, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Chair of Organizing Committee, China Brain Project
Dr Mansurah Abdulazeez, Professor, Head of the Health Research Group, Centre for Biotechnology Research, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
Dr Luca Marchetti, Assistant Professor, University of Trento; Supervisor of the Computational Biology Group at The Microsoft Research – University of Trento COSBI
Dr Luc Aguilar, Research Director, Skin Microbiome and Exposome, L’Oréal
Basic Sciences from around the Globe
How international collaborations already contribute to address the SGDs?
Dr Ursula Bassler, Research Director, IN2P3, CNRS, France; former president, CERN Council
Dr Khaled Toukan, Director, SESAME, Jordan
Dr Atish Dabholkar, Director, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Dr Mohammed Hassan, President, The World Academy of Sciences
Dr Mike Stratton, Director, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK
Remarks: Ms Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations, CERN
Concluding remarks
Ms Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO
Dr Michel Spiro, Chair, Steering Committee of IYBSSD; President, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
