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World Laureates Forum and “WLA Scientific Community”

According to China’s official newspaper China Daily, in November 2017, Roger Kornberg and six other Nobel laureates, including Michael Levitt and Ada Yonath, founded the World Laureates Association (WLA), also known as the Global Nobel Prize Scientists Association.  The association’s purpose is to “enhance innovative creativity and foster the development of future Nobel Prize winners” for the benefit of the world.

On October 29, the WLA hosted the World Laureates Forum at Dishui Lake in the Lingang Area of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai. The theme was “Science and technology for the common destiny of mankind.” Over 30 of the world’s top scientists, including 26 Nobel laureates, and winners of the Wolf Prize, the Lasker Award, the Turing Award, the MacArthur Fellows Program, and Chinese scientists attended the forum.

The forum focused on building Shanghai as a science and technology innovation center with global influence. The three-day event included topics such as photonic science, life sciences, innovative drug research, brain science, and artificial intelligence.

Around that time, the “WLA Scientific Community” was launched in Lingang.

According to Chinese media, the community aims to “break the imaginary boundaries of Silicon Valley and Optics Valley and create a ‘Science Valley.’” The “original inhabitants” of Science Valley are the world’s top scientists such as the winners of the Nobel Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Lasker Award, and the Turing Award. The community will be tailored to their diverse needs and for human being’s best brains to create a poetic dwelling for independent innovation.

On May 11, Roger Kornberg represented the WLA and signed a tripartite “Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation” with the Shanghai Lingang District Development and Construction Management Committee and the Shanghai Lingang Economic Development (Group) Co., Ltd. Kornberg stated, “We also hope to establish a number of open, cooperative and shared future technology communities in several Chinese cities such as Shanghai. The world’s top scientists, covering Nobel Prize scientists’ laboratories, studios, and international intellectual property services will lead them.

The “WLA Science Community” consists of three major platforms: the ideological platform, the laboratory platform, and the technology transformation platform. The ideological platform includes the scientific work area, an exchange center, and the release of scientists. It is the birthplace of original ideas. The laboratory platform includes the scientists’ incubator center and the scientists’ laboratory. It is a technology incubator to transform ideas into technology. The technology transformation platform covers a science community technology bank, and the science community fund. It will transform technology into applications.

Source: The Paper, October 29, 2018
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2575508
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