President ECOSF attended the US Congressional Briefing on Science Diplomacy online
Go Back
Virtual United States Congressional Briefing on Science Diplomacy co-hosted by the offices of Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in partnership with University of Delaware on May 14, 2021. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Saleem Ali, Professor of Energy and the Environment, University of Delaware. President ECOSF, Prof. Manzoor H. Soomro attended the webinar and participated in Q&A. Discussion explored the role of science on the global stage and how the geopolitical factors influence the interpretation and use of scientific information.
Distinguished Panellists included:
- Dr. Alan Garber, Provost, Harvard University
- Dr. Tong Shijun, Chancellor, New York University, Shanghai- China
- Dr. Peter Daszak, President, EcoHealth Alliance, NY
- Dr. Tolullah Oni, Clinical Senior Research Associate, Cambridge University
- Dr. Drew Shindell, Professor of Climate Sciences, Duke University
- Dr. Marga Gual Soler, Founder, SciDipGLOBAL
- Jake Parker, Senior Vice President, US-China Business Council
- Martin Loken, Minister for Political Affairs, Embassy of Canada
Dr. Alan Garber highlighted the importance of cross border collaboration in the field of science amongst the allies and competitors. He concluded his remarks with a potent quotation from Louis Pasteur “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the world”.
Dr. Tong Shijun said in his statement that Science and human endeavour is benefitted by mutual understanding among countries, including the US & China".
Dr. Peter Daszak pointed out that Pandemic treaty is the good first step in building scientific trust and collaboration in an increasingly fragmented world to deal with the universal diseases and pandemics like Covid-19.
Dr. Tolullah Oni said we need to build public trust on science and for that we need an effective communication on science. For this youth can play a vital role in science communication.
Dr. Drew Shindell said we need global cooperation to study the climate crisis & identify benefits of mitigation. We need to follow the pattern of insurance companies. They do risk analysis of every situation, similarly we also need to do risk analysis for climate change.
Dr. Marga Gual said science and global health diplomacy are key to establishing a trusting and productive relationships based on mutual and global benefits despite the political divides. Science is one of the few channels of dialogue in collaboration that always remain open particularly through non-governmental channels.
Jake Parker said there is a growing understanding of Intellectual Property enforcement in China, we need regular IP dialogs among US & China
Martin Loken said science is an important thread running through the Roadmap for renewed Canada-US relationship for example Building critical mineral supply chains for battery development for zero emission vehicles and for renewable energy storage.
The recording of the webinar is open for the public and can be viewed at: https://cutt.ly/ib8jhGA