The TWAS General Meeting will take place on the campus of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), home to the Academy's secretariat. TWAS's new executive director, Romain Murenzi, will preside.
Addresses by Romain Murenzi, executive director of TWAS; Fernando Quevedo, director of ICTP; Immacolata Pannone, Representative, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy; and Jacob Palis, TWAS President, will highlight the opening ceremony. The morning session of the first day will also include the awards ceremony for TWAS prize winners and medal winners, and the announcement of the winner of the Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize.
The afternoon sessions on the first day will feature a symposium on food security, emphasizing the challenges that developing countries face in trying to feed their growing populations, as well as presentations by TWAS young affiliates.
The first day will conclude with the induction ceremony for new TWAS members and young affiliates.
The second day will kick off with a lecture by the winner of the Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize, followed by the the presentations of the TWAS Medal Lecture winners.
The afternoon session on the second day will be devoted to presentations by the TWAS prize winners. The talks will range from an examination of the range of molecular diversity in the cotton genome to an analysis of the quantum size effects in low-dimensional nanostructures.
The third day will begin with additional lectures by TWAS young affiliates. Two additional symposia will also be held – one on materials science, examining such issues as organic semiconductors and nanocarbons, and another on chemistry, which is dedicated to the International Year of Chemistry, a year-long global celebration of the role that chemistry has had in advancing social and economic well-being.
TWAS business meetings will be held the day before the general meeting. Informal meetings of the TWAS regional offices, designed to bring together TWAS members and young affiliates, will take place following the closing ceremony.
"TWAS general meetings have become signature events for those interested in the state of science in the developing world," says Romain Murenzi. "This year's meeting will once again highlight the superb scientific research taking place in developing countries and demonstrate the positive impact that this research is having on the lives of people in both the South and North."
Note: TWAS receives support from a variety of sources. The Italian government gives core funding for the Academy. UNESCO oversees the administration of TWAS. The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) provides space for the secretariat. The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) funds the Academy's research grants programmes. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS) supports TWAS's publications programme. The Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology in Morocco gave funding for the conference. The academies of science in Brazil, China, India and Pakistan covered the travel costs for their scientists to come to Trieste to participate in the conference.