Science under discussion at the university

The Universidade de São Paulo promotes a cycle of annual conferences covering many areas of knowledge.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – The Universidade de São Paulo (USP) started its USP Conferences on August 18. Coordinated by the USP Dean’s Office for Research Studies, the conferences were grouped in ten general topics with some in each area of knowledge, and will be held every year from 2011 until 2013 on the university’s campus.

The specific topic of each of the ten annual conferences will be defined by a coordinating committee and will change every year. Aside from the ten annual conferences, a special annual conference will be held by the USP Dean’s Office once a year, whose topic will not be related to any of the areas of knowledge chosen for the ten regular conferences.

The topic of the 2011 special conference will be “USP Conference on the Sea.” The 2012 and 2013 editions will be “International Conference in Cooperation with the University of Toronto,” slated to be held together with the Canadian university in Brazil in 2012 and in Canada in 2013.

According to Marco Antônio Zago, dean of research at USP, the USP Conferences aim to help the university reassume its central role in the discussion on science and technology, which has today become nearly the exclusive responsibility of scientific associations and professionals.

“With some exceptions, universities in general have backed off a little or haven’t gotten deeply involved in the question most fundamental for them aside from education, which is to promote discussion about science and technology,”  said Zago. 

“This neither excludes nor goes against other initiatives such as congresses, scientific meetings or seminars promoted by institutions like FAPESP, which has promoted a large number of events to discuss scientific questions and that result in important research programs and agreements. But the university also needs to resume this role,” Zago told Agência FAPESP. According to him, the funding for holding the cycle of conferences through 2013 is already guaranteed, and the goal is to transform it into a USP tradition.

The first conference in the cycle, which was on Chemistry and Earth Sciences, was held in the auditorium of the School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU). With the topic “International year of Chemistry for a Better World,” the conference is part of the commemorations of the International Year of Chemistry, established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

The event organizers invited scientists of great renown in the field to lecture at the event and discuss the contribution of Chemistry to the well-being of society. They included Nobel Chemistry Laureates Richard Schrock, Ada Yonath and Kurt Wüthrich.

The three also came to Brazil to participate in the São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences on “Natural Products, Medicinal Chemistry and Organic Synthesis,” held at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) as part of the São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences (ESPCA), a FAPESP project.

“We worked to together with the ESPCA organizers on Chemistry so that some of the researchers that gave master classes during the School, which is a closed forum directed solely at students, could also present plenary conferences to a broader public. This way, we were able to have the participation of three Nobel Chemistry Laureates at the USP Conference,” said Luiz Henrique Catalan, professor at USP’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ) and coordinator of the event.

Among the Brazilian researchers that also participated as lecturers is Sérgio Henrique Ferreira, professor at USP’s Riberão Preto campus, who discovered Bradykinin. The event will also receive researchers from other nations in Latin America.

The theme for the 2012 Chemistry and Earth Sciences Conference will be Geosciences. The next USP Conference will be on September 26. Themed “Challenges of Globalism: the Asymmetries of International Society,” the event will feature Celso Lafer, full professor at the USP School of Law and FAPESP president.

More information: www.inovacao.usp.br/uspconferencias