Session T15: Esther Hoffman Beller Lectureship (2022): Scientists Helping to Advance Science and Sustainable Development Globally

APS as a welcoming global hub for physicists

With the globalization of physics, APS recognizes the need to enhance its connections with the international physics community in a way that transcends national boundaries and reduces economic barriers.  The APS has developed a roadmap for engaging the physics community as a welcoming global hub.  APS does not aspire to be the "world's physics society," but instead, to offer a community where the world's physicists can connect with each other.  The hub will enhance opportunities for physicists from all cultures and communities, regardless of race, gender, levels of achievement or prosperity, to build and strengthen relationships within the global physics community.    

Esther Hoffman Beller Lectureship (2022): Sustainable Development and Scientific Capacity-Building: using research analytics to assess progress

We analyze characteristics of scientific publications related to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using data from from SCOPUS, a bibliometric database containing more than 83 million publications. The analysisfocuses the role of research funding and research performing organizations. We observe that, while the majority of the publications on SDGs come from countries in the Global North (GN), countries in the Global South (GS) tend to display a higher share of their publications covering the SDGs. Research collaboration between the GN and the GS does not appear to be more intense than in other topics not related to the SDGs. On the other hand, the data shows opportunities for increasing South-South research collaborations to accelerate the advance of the SDG agenda.   

Advancing Scientific Discovery for Global Sustainable Development

The world's grand challenges, from pandemics to climate change to sustainable development, will require scientists coming together globally to drive significant scientific breakthroughs. Scientists around the world are working on exciting areas such as development of new materials and processes to capture CO2, replicate nature's ability to convert nitrogen in the soil into nitrate-rich fertilizer, discovery of new materials for environmentally friendly batteries capable of supporting a renewable-based energy grids, and analysis of real-world medical evidence to suggest new candidates for drug repurposing and speed clinical trials. An important dimension is also the partnership between scientists across the global north and south, and a well thought out skills development that enables young scientists to work on global challenges. These research and development efforts will benefit from the acceleration of scientific discovery, which is becoming feasible thanks to the convergence of technologies such as cloud, AI, and quantum. This talk will explore how these technologies hold the promise to further advance scientific discoveries, thereby enabling scientists to collaborate on global sustainable development.