This month saw us celebrate our 10-year anniversary Annual General Meeting (AGM) and International Conference of Young Scientists in Halle (Germany). We were delighted to welcome members, alumni, and many from among our partners both within Germany and from all across the globe. We took time not only to reconnect to our origins, but also the evolving role of academies, especially young academies like ours, in a rapidly evolving world.
We were also delighted to welcome 43 new members and say goodbye to the outgoing members. The GYA also elected new leaders, and as a clear indication of our diversity in action, the new EC is made up of members from 5 continents, a majority of whom are women. As Co-Chairs for the upcoming year, members chose Connie Nshemereirwe (Uganda) and Koen Vermeir (France). Connie and Koen were both re-elected – last year Connie was a Co-Chair, while Koen was a member of the EC. The other EC members are as follows: Nova Ahmed (Bangladesh), Anindita Bhadra (India), Maral Dadvar (Germany), Robert Lepenies (Germany), Sandra Lopez-Verges (Panama), Marian Nkansah (Ghana), Anina Rich (Australia), Michael Saliba (Switzerland) and Yoko Shimpuku (Japan). Both Anina and Yoko were re-elected.
Going forward, the GYA is set to build on our ten years of existence to consolidate our achievements, but also carry out a deliberate horizon-scanning so as to identify areas of potential new action, collaboration, and impact. Our hope is that each of you will be ready and willing to share your wisdom and energy towards this effort.
GYA International Conference and Anniversary Annual General Meeting
The Anniversary Annual General Meeting and International Conference of Young Scientists of the Global Young Academy - 'Re-Enlightenment: Truth, reason and science in a global world' - took place from 29 April - 3 May in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The meeting celebrated 10 years of the GYA. Altogether 113 GYA members and 24 GYA alumni attended, as well as over 100 international and local speakers and guests, including policy makers and senior representatives of the international science management and policy community.
Below you will find a selection of stories that include our pre-conference workshops and events, our new members, our new leadership, science education outreach activities, and much more.
While a full report is forthcoming, a more detailed news item is available here.
New Executive Committee and Co-Chairs elected at AGM 2019
To represent and lead them through the upcoming year, GYA members elected leaders hailing from 5 continents - a majority of whom are women - to the Executive Committee. As Co-Chairs for the upcoming year, members chose Connie Nshemereirwe (Uganda) and Koen Vermeir (France).
From 28-29 April, 35 GYA members took part in the second pre-conference science leadership workshop, which brought together over 30 new GYA members to develop communicative leadership skills for their careers and their work with the GYA.
On 29 April, over 30 GYA members, early-career researchers from the Halle Institute of Economic Research (IWH) and the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg took part in a workshop on science advice, co-organised by the International Network of Government Science Advice, the GYA Science Advice working group and the IWH.
The Global Young Academy is pleased to welcome 43 new members to its ranks. All new members were inaugurated at the opening of the GYA Anniversary International Conference of Young Scientists and Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Halle, Germany on 30 April 2019.
The 2019 new GYA members represent more than 20 countries, among them our first members from Croatia, Iraq and New Zealand. Moreover, this year’s members are comprised of 20 females and 23 males, which pushes the gender balance of the GYA membership to 55% male and 45% female. Including alumni, the GYA has members in 86 countries.
Following the AGM and Conference week, on Saturday, 4 May, the GYA co-organised two events in the context of the international March for Science on the same day in cities around the world:
1. a science history walk through the city
2. an arts-science workshop put together by the Art-Sci Nexus group.
Save the date - AGM 2020 in Mysore, India
The GYA’s 2020 Annual General Meeting and International Conference of Young Scientists on the topic ‘Heal the Earth’ will take place from 8-12 June 2020 in India. The meeting’s proposed location is Mysore, India.
GYA member contributes to International Union for Conservation of Nature assessment document
On 9 May 2019 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) launched the publication 'Genetic frontiers for conservation An assessment of synthetic biology and biodiversity conservation Synthesis and key messages', available here. A Technical Assessment accompanied the synthesis document, and is available here.
GYA members contribute to the G7 academies meeting in Paris, France
On 24-26 March, the Group of Seven (G7) Academies Meeting was held in Paris, France to finalise the joint statements that will be submitted for recommendation to the governments of the G7 nations, which will meet in Biarritz, France, in late summer 2019.
The Science Council of Japan dispatched young scientists from the Young Academy of Japan, including GYA members Wataru Iwasaki (Japan) and Yoko Shimpuku (Japan), as two of the four delegates.
Member represents the GYA at the Global Research Council annual meeting
GYA member Egle Sumskiene (Vilnius University, Lithuania) represented the GYA at the Global Research Council (GRC) annual meeting earlier this month. Together with other partnering organizations she had an opportunity to present the work of the Global Young Academy to the heads of science and engineering funding agencies from all around the world.
The GYA Media Office rolled out four new publications recently:
2019 Quarterly Bulletin I, featuring news about the GYA being made a full member of the InterAcademy Partnership, as well as a member of the World Science Forum Academy’s Steering Committee.
GYA connections 2019. This year’s edition features sections on ‘Inclusiveness’, GYA in Memories, and a section presenting our 2019 New Members.
2018 Yearly Report. This year’s report highlights GYA capacity-building activities, mentoring and outreach activities, and our 10-year self-assessment.
The GYA pamphlet has been updated and features a new look. Can you guess what the cover image is?
Readings of interest
Europe is a top destination for many researchers
GYA members Maral Dadvar (Germany), Anna Harris (Netherlands), and Clarissa Rios (Peru) appear in a recent Nature article exploring the challenges and rewards of being a researcher in Europe.
Alexander Birbrair (Brazil) is among the first grantee researchers to receive renewed support of up to 1 million Brazilian Real each from Serrapilheira, a private non-profit institution that promotes science in Brazil. More information is available here.
Joy Wolfram (United States) and her work on nanotechnologies were recently featured on a television broadcast called 'Digging Deeper'. The segment is available here.
Felix Moronta (Italy) recently published a blog on his experience at this year's AGM and Conference in Halle (Saale).
Shima Taheri (Australia) has been invited to be the Guest Editor of a special issue in the Journal of Antibiotics. More information is available here.
Meghnath Dhimal (India) co-authored a paper titled ‘Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults' that was published in Nature. A shareable link for the paper is here, and visualisations of the paper’s results are available here.
Maral Dadvar (Germany) established and coordinates the 500 Women in Science Frankfurt Pod. You can join the Frankfurt Pod here. For more information on 500 Women Scientists, or to learn about the benefits of establishing a Pod in your own city, visit the 500 Women in Science website.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan recently commissioned GYA alumnus Mitsunobu Kano (Japan) as a Science and Technology Co-Advisor to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Since September 2015, Dr. Teruo Kishi, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, had served as the sole Science and Technology Advisor. Mitsunobu adds that, "I personally wish to contribute to the global society by creating new values through bridging differences between norms and disciplines." More information is available here. Leave your thoughts on News from our members here
GYA working group releases new book on integration processes in Western Europe and North America
Refugee and migrant integration is one of the most contentious topics in the news and has become a pressing issue, particularly in Western Europe and North America. Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration’, a new book edited by Global Migration and Human Rights working group members S. Karly Kehoe (Canada), Eva Alisic (Australia) and Jan-Christoph Heilinger (Germany) focuses on the complex nature of integration in European countries and Canada. The book was released on 1 May during a ceremony at the Halle (Saale) City Hall in connection with the GYA’s Annual General Meeting and Conference.
Young Academies from all over Europe met in Helsinki, Finland, on 17-18 May 2019. The meeting, organised by the Young Academy Finland, brought together more than 25 participants representing 16 young academies and academy initiatives. The GYA was represented by its Co-Chair Connie Nshemereirwe (Uganda), members Gergely Toldi (for the Hungarian Young Academy) and Udi Sommer (for the Israel Young Academy), as well as GYA Project Officer Anna-Maria Gramatté.
Congratulations to the newly-launched Hungarian Young Academy!
The launch of the Hungarian Young Academy (HYA) was announced on 7 May 2019 during the Annual General Meeting of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) in Budapest, Hungary. Preparations to establish the HYA had already started in 2017, with GYA member Gergely Toldi (UK) engaged in the work of the ad-hoc committee of the HAS from the beginning. The HYA joins a growing worldwide network of young academies, becoming the 40th young academy to be established.
The third day of the GYA’s Annual General Meeting in Halle, Germany, featured a meeting of representatives from 27 national young academies (NYAs), similar bodies and networks and NYA Initiatives, including from countries such as India, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Panama, and South Africa, among others.
Meeting participants welcomed the recently established Spanish Young Academy and the newly establishing Hungarian National Young Academy and Bangladesh National Young Academy into the global NYA network.
Germany’s Die Junge Akademie admitted ten new members at its annual celebration on the evening of 25 May 2019. For these outstanding scholars and artists, the date marked the beginning of a five-year membership in the academy. The newly-selected members come from a broad range of disciplines: biology/geography, history, Islamic studies, art history, mathematics, medicine, sociology, and linguistics/philology. The new members also include an architect and a performance artist.
Storytelling and networking initiatives launched by U.S. New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
The U.S. New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently launched storytelling and networking initiatives. The storytelling initiative aims to help bridge the gap between the public and scientists, while the networking initiative aims to help young scientists leverage their expertise, energy, and ability to influence change.
GYA organises panel on Enlightenment at ALLEA 25th anniversary conference
From 8-10 May 2019, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) held its 25th anniversary conference in Bern, Switzerland. Three representatives of the GYA, Co-Chairs Connie Nshemereirwe (Uganda) and Koen Vermeir (France) and Executive Committee member Michael Saliba (Switzerland) discussed this year’s GYA’s International Conference of Young Scientists on ‘Re-Enlightenment? Truth, Reason and Science in a Global World’ during a panel discussion organised by the GYA.
A call to action on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for young academies
A new report from the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) – the global network of over 140 science, engineering and medical academies – is designed to mobilise its members and the growing number of young academies around the world to engage with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more effectively. The report is the culmination of a three-year project, Improving Scientific Input to Global Policymaking with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This project has explored some of the pathways for feeding science into the SDGs and ways in which IAP and its members can contribute more effectively at global, regional and national levels.
GYA members are invited to attend the SILBERSALZ Science and Media Festival, Halle, Germany, 20-23 June 2019.
The GYA successfully nominated 3 participants to the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting - Physics, Lindau, Germany, 30 June to 5 July 2019.
Through its cooperation with the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth, the GYA will provide input at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, New York, USA, July 9-18 2019.
The 4th Worldwide Meeting of Young Academies (WWMYA) will take place from 31 July – 2 August 2019 in Da Nang, Vietnam, hosted by the Vietnam Young Academy (VYA) and co-organised by the GYA.
The GYA‘s host academy, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, is holding its Annual Meeting in Halle, Germany, 20-21 September 2019.
GYA members will participate in the World Health Summit, Berlin, Germany, 27-29 October 2019.
The GYA is planning to hold a Science Leadership Workshop at the World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary, from 20-23 November 2019. As a member of the Steering Committee of this conference, the GYA is involved in the selection of early-career researchers as presenters in every main session.
