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The debate : 14-16 September 2006, in Crans-Montana Switzerland
3.1. Speakers
This year's dialogue will be organised around two main topics. For each topic, three internationally recognised authorities, either from the natural sciences or from the humanities, have been selected. Each speaker will present the discovery he has made, explain its essential features and describe his perception of its consequences for our world. As a consequence of preparatory meetings earlier in 2006, the speakers will elaborate on points of convergence/divergence with “the other culture”, describe the limits of the implications of their discovery and their domain for the “other culture” and identify areas where they may need help from others.
The speakers will also analyse any misunderstandings that have been identified during their dialogue, and discuss how they could best integrate the knowledge of other fields into their own research.
One half day will be dedicated to each topic and the following debates will entail an active participation of the audience. The debates will be moderated by this year's Foundation’s “scientist in residence”, Dame Julia Higgins. She will also give the closing lecture and help in setting up the “post-Symposium working group”, whose task will be to prepare the 2008 event.
To conclude the debates, a general session will take place in which all the participants are encouraged to share their new knowledge, insights and perception of the convergences and divergences that exist between the natural and humanities/ social sciences. The session will be an opportunity for all those present to help elaborate the new methodologies of understanding for the future and prepare the next Symposium.
3.2. The program (PDF)
Thursday, 14 September
1:00 p.m. |
Registration |
|
3:00 / 3:05 p.m. |
Opening |
André Hurst, President, WKD Foundation |
3:05 / 3:15 p.m. |
Introduction to the Symposium |
Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councillor, Head of the Department of Home Affairs |
3:15 / 3:25 p.m. |
Bridging the Knowledge Cultures in the Age of Innovation |
Jàn Figel’, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism |
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Scientific session 1 |
Chair : Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, President, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan |
3:25 / 3:35 p.m. |
Introduction : ”Two Cultures, one Human Mind” |
Francis Waldvogel, President Emeritus of the Swiss Polytechnical Institutes, Program Director of the WKD |
3:35 / 3:45 p.m. |
Address (video) |
Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino Research Professor in Entomology, Harvard University, USA |
3:45 / 4:00 p.m. |
“The Rules of the Game” of the first Symposium: Objectives and Importance of the Dialogue |
Dame Julia Higgins, Professor of Polymer Sciences at Imperial College, London, Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society, UK |
4:00 / 4:15 p.m. |
Break |
|
4:15 / 5:15 p.m. |
Keynote Lecture I : From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness: how Matter Becomes Imagination |
Gerald M. Edelman, Nobel Laureate, Director of the Neurosciences Institute and President of Neurosciences Research Foundation, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology, The Scripps Research Institute, USA |
5:30 p.m. |
Welcome cocktail and networking |
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Friday, 15 September
9:00 a.m. / 12:15 p.m. |
Scientific session 2 |
Main topic I : New Discoveries Defining Complexity Moderator : Dame Julia Higgins |
9:00 / 9:30 a.m. |
Searching for Simplicity in Complexity; Growth, Innovation, Economies of Scale, and the Pace of Life from Cells to Cities |
Geoffrey West, President and Distinguished Professor, Santa Fe Institute, USA |
9:40 / 10:10 a.m. |
Understanding and Managing Planetary Complexity |
John Schellnhuber, Founding Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, P rofessor at Potsdam and Oxford Universities, Distinguished Science Adviser of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UK |
10:20 / 10:30 a.m. |
Break |
|
10:30 / 11:00 a.m. |
Why Physics is Easy and People are Hard |
Ian Hacking Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Canada; Professeur au Collège de France, Paris, France |
11:00 / 12:15 p.m. |
Discussion and short presentations |
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12:30 / 1:30 p.m. |
Working lunch |
Round Table : 6 short presentations |
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1:30 / 2:30 p.m. |
Keynote Lecture II : “Towards a Neuroscience of the Capable Person : Unity, Diversity and Oneself as Another” |
Jean-Pierre Changeux, Professeur au Collège de France, Professor & Chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, France |
2:30 / 6:00 p.m. |
Scientific session 3 |
Main topic II : Origin and Migrations of Modern Humans Moderator : Dame Julia Higgins |
2:30 / 3:00 p.m. |
Human Migrations in Prehistory – the Cultural Record |
Ofer Bar-Yosef, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard and Curator of Paleolithic Archaeology, Peabody Museum, Harvard, USA |
3:10 / 3:20 p.m. |
Break |
|
3:20 / 3:50 p.m. |
The Origins of Modern Humans: Linguistic Issues |
Bernard Victorri, Director of research CNRS, Lattice Laboratory, France |
4:00 / 4:30 p.m. |
A Genetic View of Human Origins |
Svante Pääbo, Director, Department of Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany |
4:40 / 6:00 p.m. |
Discussion and short presentations |
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7:00 p.m. |
Cultural event and Gala dinner |
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Saturday 16 September
|
Scientific session 4 |
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9:00 / 10:30 a.m. |
Workshops (parallel sessions) |
|
9:00 / 10:30 a.m. |
Workshop 1: Dialogue driven by political instruments and respecting academic autonomy |
Chair : Ruth Dreifuss, Former Swiss Federal Councillor and former President of the Swiss Federal Council |
9:00 / 10:30 a.m. |
Workshop 2: Dialogue driven by academic institutional governance |
Chair : Georges Haddad, Director, Division of Higher Education, UNESCO, Honorary President, University of Paris 1, Panthéon–Sorbonne, Paris, France |
9:00 / 10:30 a.m. |
Workshop 3: Dialogue driven through education |
Chair : Richard R. Ernst, Nobel Laureate, Professor Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich |
10:30 / 10:50 a.m. |
Break |
|
10:50 / 12:05 a.m. |
Feedback from workshops and General Discussion |
|
12:05 / 12:35 p.m. |
Concluding Lecture: What have we learnt and where do we go from here? A perspective for the 2008 Symposium |
Dame Julia Higgins, Professor of Polymer Sciences at Imperial College, London, Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society, UK |
12:35 / 13:30 |
Farewell buffet |
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3.3. Participants and General Organization
The Symposium’s participants have been recruited upon invitation from personalities from around the world holding positions of influence in the academic and scientific fields (Presidents/Rectors/Deans of Universities, Institute Directors etc.) and in the economic and political fields (opinion leaders and policy-makers).
A special effort has been made to provide subsidies for travel fellowships for representatives from developing countries.
A number of selected young scientists, recruited by national/international research agencies, have also been awarded travel grants and special financial conditions for their participation.
A cultural event and gala dinner, to which all the participants are invited, will take place on the evening of September 15. The evening will start with a unique and unforgettable musical experience with Jael: Coline Pellaton, violinist and singer and Thierry Chatelain, accordionist, will take us on a magical journey to explore a melodic dialogue between jazz, classical, tzigan and medieval music. The event will take place in a small chapel within walking distance of the Symposium Hall.
The permanent presence of the participants throughout the symposium is expected, since the meeting is considered to be a workshop platform for all present.
The first “World Knowledge Dialogue” Symposium takes place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
3.4. Registrations
3.5. Accomodation
the region : http://www.matterhornstate.com/fr/welcome.cfm
the resort : http://www.crans-montana.ch
