The 2009 YES congress comes a step closer to reality, reports Adler deWind
Geoscientist Online 17 December 2008
In October 2008 we reported on the initiative to hold a Young Earth Scientists’ congress in 2009. The leaders of the project are Dr Luca Micucci, Dr David Govoni (Italy) and Ms Eylvin Nkhonjera (University of Malawi – picture), and the initiative grew out of the IYPE opening ceremony in UNESCO and the highly successful student writing competition that went with it.
Young Earth Scientists believe they as a generation face a unique challenge, and now have a great opportunity to rise to it. Micucci explains: “The problems facing us on this planet require long-term, largely geoscientific solutions. This generation is going to have to find those solutions, and put them into effect. We cannot afford to wait until we are in our fifties before we start to engage with politicians, social scientists and economists, whose help we will need. We need to start young. We need to start now.”
So, just as they themselves will one day be grand professors and survey directors and IGC presidents, the Young Earth Scientists aim to build bridges with those who will become the opinion-forming politicians and economists of the future. Micucci: “Cultural change is what is needed, and this takes decades. We in Earth science know that an end point to progress - as it used to be defined at least - has been reached. The change in outlook within society will also require a change in science and the way it relates to politics.”
In August this year the organisers announced that the event would be held at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), and the latest development is the launching of an event website. The Congress will run from the 25 – 28 October 2009 and a call for abstracts has been issued.
The congress will include contributed oral sessions, poster sessions, and roundtable discussions of the ten themes of the IYPE. Accepted abstracts will be published in the meeting program booklet.
The deadline for abstract submissions is 30 March 2009.