News
-25 June: New York City: The InterAcademy Council (IAC)'s report on African agriculture Realizing the promise and potential of African agriculture. Science and technology strategies for improving agricultural productivity and food security in Africa has been officially released on 25 June 2004 at a United Nations Publication Launch at U.N. Headquarters, New York, hosted personally by U.N. Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan. All U.N. ambassadors, their senior staff and the U.N. press corps were invited by the U.N. The IAC study panel Co-Chairs, Ms Speciosa Kazibwe, Uganda; Rudy Rabbinge, the Netherlands; and M.S. Swaminathan, India, presented the report's conclusions and recommendations and responded to questions.
For additional information, http://www.interacademycouncil.net/africareport and the U.N. website at http://www.un.org/events/africanagriculture.
-For the report of the Academy of Athenss' "International Symposium on Universal Values" held In connection with the 2004 Olympics, in May 2004 (announced below), click here to download a word file.
-Caribbean Academy of Sciences has announced a call for papers for its XIV annual meeting and conference devoted to issues related to health sciences research and education in the region. The event, which will take place from 11-14 October 2004, is being held in collaboration with the faculty of medical sciences at the University of the West Indies in Mount Hope. For additional information, contact: wmellowe@eng.uwi.tt.
-National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark the event, the academy is organizing an international conference on the problems of science and education in the newly independent states. The event will be chaired by Askar Akaev, president of the Republic. For more information, contact: koroleva@aknet.kg.
-US National Academy of Sciences has received a 10-year US$20 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost the capacity of three African science academies, especially for health-related issues. Participating academies will be selected through an open competition that will take place this year. For additional information, see: http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/04192004?OpenDocument.
-Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology recently organized a national conference on Science and Technology for the 21st Century: Retrospect and Prospects in Nepal. For more information, contact: info@ronast.org.np
-At an IAP-sponsored meeting hosted by the Chilean Academy of Sciences in Santiago on 5-7 May, 17 academies in the Americas agreed to create the Interamerican Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS). Howard Alper, former president of The Royal Society of Canada, and Hernan Chaimovich, director of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, were elected IANAS's co-chairs. The secretariat will be located at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Participants agreed that the network will initially focus on two themes: water, with the Mexican and Brazilian Academies of Sciences as the lead academies, and science education, with the Chilean Academy of Sciences as the lead academy.