The 6th World Laureates Forum (WLA Forum) and the Award Ceremony of the 2023 WLA Prize opened in Shanghai on Nov 6, 2023, with the attendance of more than 300 scientists from 25 countries and regions, including 27 Nobel laureates, over 100 domestic and overseas top scientists, and over 40 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Chen Jining, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, and Wan Gang, president of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), addressed the event. Chen Zhu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and president of the Red Cross Society of China, and Roger Kornberg, Chair of the World Laureates Association (WLA) and 2006 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, jointly presented awards to the winners of the 2023 WLA Prizes in “Computer Science or Mathematics” and “Life Science or Medicine”.
Enhancing mutual trust and cooperation for the benefit of mankind
Chen Jining said in his remarks that science and technology is an important driver of the development of human society, and the era has seen an irresistible trend — integrating into the global innovation network and expanding international innovation collaboration. Shanghai is pushing forward the construction of an international sci-tech innovation center, accelerating the construction of an open sci-tech- driven innovation system of global influence, and striving to build an important node in the global innovation network.
Shanghai will continue to uphold the principle of openness and inclusiveness, and enhance mutual trust and cooperation with the world's top scientists and international sci-tech organizations, in a bid to further benefit mankind. Concerted efforts should be made to strengthen basic research, build an open innovation ecosystem, establish a "Global Science and Technology Partnership Program", and to promote the growth of young scientific and technological talents, Chen added.
Providing young scientists with the opportunity to express and exchange ideas
According to Wan Gang, the WLA Forum has become an important platform that connects the world's top scientists and promotes high-end dialogues in the international scientific community.
Wan expressed his hope that the global scientific community will use the Forum as a bond to build consensus, enhance cooperation, promote sci-tech innovation and talent growth, and enhance the resilience of global development through science and technology.
Joint efforts should be made to prevent and resolve underlying risks in sci-tech innovation activities on the basis of following the development law of frontier science and technology. An open science ecosystem should be established to enhance the public's understanding of science; and a platform should be built for inter-generational exchanges and trans-boundary cooperation, to stimulate young people's thirst for knowledge, Wan noted.
Make WLA Forum dazzle in sci-tech innovation with deepened exchanges and cooperation
Roger Kornberg said that it is of great significance that the WLA Forum has resumed the offline organization and continues to provide a platform to address the current challenges in the development of basic sciences and the growth of young talent. The WLA has become a multifaceted international organization that has pioneered a series of featured programs, including 200 winners of some of the world’s major prizes.
The Association established the WLA Prize in 2021, and will recruit and support outstanding young scientists in launching independent research globally through the WLA International Joint Laboratories (WLA Labs). All stakeholders will actively promote scientific exchanges and cooperation, with the WLA Forum eventually developing into a "jewel in the crown" of sci-tech innovation, Roger added.
Arkadi Nemirovski, professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, and Yurii Nesterov, professor at the Center for Operations Research & Econometrics and the Mathematical Engineering Department at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, were awarded the 2023 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics "for their seminal work in convex optimization theory".
The WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine went to Karolin Luger, professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, Daniela Rhodes from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, and Timothy J. Richmond, professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
Arkadi Nemirovski and Yurii Nesterov receive the 2023 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics at the Award Ceremony of the 2023 WLA Prize in Shanghai, Nov 6, 2023.
Karolin Luger, Daniela Rhodes, and Timothy J. Richmond receive the 2023 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine at the Award Ceremony of the 2023 WLA Prize in Shanghai, Nov 6, 2023.
Source: VOC
