ESOF2010 Newsletter #1

Our first newsletter

Enrico Predazzi - ESOF2010 Champion

Dear Friends,
On behalf of the ESOF2010 Team, I welcome you on board! This is an exciting adventure that we would like to share with as many people as possible.
ESOF2010 is an occasion not to be missed. Important scientific personalities, researchers from various disciplines, politicians and industrialists, teachers, students, journalists, and a large public with a passion for science will get together and explore the latest frontiers in science and technology. We will discuss the relationships between science and society, debate the policies for supporting research, and tackle important issues in science communication. There will also be plenty of events to interest the public at large (Science in the City) and activities specifically dedicated to young researchers (Career Programme), potential entrepreneurs and investors in highly innovative businesses (Science to Business), and science communicators (Science to Media).
Even those who cannot actually be in Torino will be able to participate in the work at ESOF2010 via the Internet, thanks to free streaming technology.
Organising such a complex event is an honour and a great challenge, and we need everybody’s support to help us make ESOF2010 a memorable gathering. Thank you for joining us.

Answer the Call for Proposals

Adopting a bottom-up approach is vital for the success of ESOF2010, so last December we launched a Call for Proposals for our Scientific Programme. On February 16, 2009 we are opening the Call to the other programmes: Career, Science to Business and Science in the City. Everyone is welcome to apply: simply fill out the form on the site www.esof2010.org following the specified guidelines. The deadline is set on June 15, 2009 for the Scientific Programme, and September 15, 2009 for Career, Science in the City, and Science to Business Programmes.
We are committed to address a wide range of themes and to hear as many qualified voices as possible, so please circulate this invitation to your colleagues and friends. Feel free to forward it to email lists, Internet sources, or other institutions that might be interested.

Keynote and plenary sessions: first list of speakers

Sixteen major scientific personalities have so far accepted our preliminary invitation, and they will be part of ESOF2010:

Sam Auinger
Angelika Brandt
Elena Cattaneo
Carlos Duarte
Ernst Fehr
Julia Fischer
Tecumseh Fitch
Raghavendra Gadagkar
Mohamed Hassan
Sheila Jasanoff
Tom Kirkwood
Vladimir Kutcherov
Svante Paabo
Leena Peltonen
Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson
Anton Zeilinger

ESOF2010 at the AAAS annual meeting in Chicago

A delegation of the ESOF2010 Team attended the annual AAAS meeting, held in Chicago on 12-16 February 2009 and gave a 20-minute presentation to the press.

Euroscience, the ESOF founder

Euroscience is a grass-roots organisation open to research professionals, science administrators, policy-makers, teachers, PhD students, post-docs, engineers, industrialists, and in general to any citizen interested in science and technology and its links with society. It was founded in 1997 in order to

Provide an open forum for debate on science and technology in Europe
Strengthen the links between science and society
Contribute to the creation of an integrated space for science and technology in Europe
Influence science and technology policies

What is ESOF2010 made of?

The Scientific Programme is the heart of ESOF2010: the Lingotto Conference Centre will host many talks, seminars, workshops and debates in various fields of knowledge, focusing on the problems of scientific communication and the relationship between science and society. The Scientific Committee has chosen ten themes for the focus of discussion for this edition:

Sustainable living and moving
Evolution, development and adaptation of organisms
Moving into and up from our quantum world
Responding to global needs
Frontiers in energy research
Science, knowledge and belief
Memory and learning in organisms, social and artificial systems
Languages, cultures and variability
Integrating science with health care
Policy – what follows?

Career Programme

The Career Programme is dedicated to young researchers, who will be given an important opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and experiences, and to learn about the different international career opportunities in the academic and in the industrial world. Thanks to the Pizza with the Prof gatherings, young people will be able to meet important figures from the world of research face to face, to chat about a wide range of topics in a pleasant and informal environment.

Science to Business

In the Science to Business programme, ESOF2010 will offer a series of appointments dedicated to business and potential entrepreneurs, with a special focus on applied research and opportunities for development of new highly innovative businesses. The brand new event Science Speed Dating will provide for a series of relaxed and brief interviews to match supply and demand, thus facilitating the exchange of ideas between young researchers and institutions, and between those with new ideas and those who might be able to put them to practical use.

Science to Media

Thanks to the Science to Media programme, a specific agenda will be dedicated to discussion on science communication, featuring meetings with journalists, researchers, and science writers. Special appointments will be organised exclusively for the press, with major scientific personalities attending ESOF2010.

Science comes to the city

ESOF 2010, with its strong emphasis on communication, will draw in the entire city of Torino and the surrounding area. The programme Science in the City will set the city centre in motion, hosting exhibits, meetings and various forms of entertainment for the general public. Streets and squares will be brought to life until late in the evening. Moreover, numerous side events (conferences, prizes, gatherings, etc.) will be hosted in various parts of the city.

WebESOF: Accessible Science

WebESOF will bring the event closer to those who cannot participate in person. It will be possible to attend conferences in real streaming, participate in video, and download the contents of the various talks from the site www.esof2010.org.