Currently, every country in the world is actively becoming and creating a low-carbon society and green economy to face contemporary challenges and take advantage of opportunities for global sustainability.
Likewise, Taiwan is sparing no effort in this area. On October 22nd, Academia Sinica, the island’s strategic research base, fulfilled its role as a global citizen by hosting the 2017 International Symposium on Sustainability Science.
President Tsai Ing-wen delivered the opening speech for event and Vice President Chen Chien-jen delivered the closing speech for the event.
Through the international academic exchange, Academia Sinica wished to focus on the two significant international topics of “energy transformation” and “air pollution and health”. It gave experts and scholars from different countries the dual mission of (1) investigating new concepts and new science and technologies and (2) raising potential win-win strategies in order to overcome major issues that human society is currently encountering.
Dr. James C. Liao, the President of Academia Sinica, stated that while “sustainable development” is a well-known term to people in society, the question is: How do we really achieve it in practice?
This puzzle still remains a challenge for many scientists and policy makers. This is also an area where intellectuals seek to apply scientific methods in their effort to find a solution.
Academia Sinica’s main purpose for conducting this symposium was to create an intellectual exchange among the world’s best scholars in order to facilitate an international interdisciplinary cooperation, to broaden the experience and horizon of academic communities in Taiwan, and to reveal Taiwan’s educational concern and commitment towards sustainability science.
The symposium invited the following special guests to conduct four special lectures:
1. Dr. Arun Majumdar, the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University and former director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
2. Dr. Hiroshi Komiyama, Chairman of Mitsubishi Research Institute and president emeritus of the University of Tokyo
3. Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, distinguished professor at the University of California, San Diego and UNESCO professor
4. Dr. John D. Spengler, director of the Center for Health and Global Environment and the Akira Yamaguchi Professor at the School of Public Health at Harvard University
In addition, the symposium made arrangements for domestic and international experts and scholars from relevant domains along with government officials from the Atomic Energy Council, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Environmental Protection Administration, and other agencies to attend and participate in the discussion.
This year almost 500 experts and scholars from a total of ten countries, including America, Japan, Australia, etc., participated in the international symposium. During the afternoon, Puzangalan Children's Choir from Pingtung made a special performance, allowing the esteemed international guests to enjoy the melodious singing voice of Paiwan, a group of indigenous people in Taiwan.
We hope to witness an unprecedented level of proactive concern for human welfare and global sustainability on an international scale in the future.
For more detailed information, please visit the symposium’s official website at https://www.as-2017isss.org.