World Laureates Forum(WLF), began on Sunday in Shanghai, East China, with 60 of the world's top researchers participating both in person and online. This is the fifth World Laureates Forum conference since it started in 2018. The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and China media are among the organizers this year, in addition to the World Laureates Association (WLA), who founded it (CMG).
At the forum's opening ceremony, Chen Jining, the recently appointed secretary of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee, stated that collaboration and openness are unavoidable trends. Shanghai will develop a platform for innovation that is of a higher caliber and will provide scientists traveling from all over the world with comfortable services. The head of the World Laureates Association, Roger Kornberg, said that as the world changes, science is what will enable us to meet and overcome problems. The forum is genuinely a science gala where people get together to discuss important global issues and novel solutions to these concerns.
Since October 29, some meetings and events, including the WLA Zero Carbon Forum, WLA SHE Forum, and the just-established WLA Laboratories Forum, have been conducted before its official opening. An international R&D community and notable guests unveiled the WLA Forum's permanent location on November 4 in the Lingang district.
The launching ceremony on Sunday showed that there is much more to come. During the ceremony, the WLA investors Guidance and Creative Group, the WLA high school league, and the WLA University President advisory and collaborative committee were also established. The 13 best high schools, comprising Shanghai High School, Shenzhen Middle School, and the high school affiliated with the Renmin University of China, founded the high school league.
It aims to provide students with access to eminent scientists. Visits to Shanghai High School and No.2 High School of East China Normal University have been made by Michael Levitt, holder of the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and Efim Zelmanov, holder of the 1994 Fields Medal. To improve collaboration amongst prestigious universities, the university committee was organized at a higher level. Three universities, the University of Oxford in the UK, Shanghai's Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have collaborated to cultivate talent, boost student exchange, and do other activities. In addition, the University of Oxford aims to offer the group the opportunity for four post-graduates, two from China and two from the UK to pursue further studies. The WLA Scientific journal and the WLA Documentary Project “ The Luminaries” were both launched at this time. The first season of the program has already started in the U.S. Israel, and other countries. It is planned to include the top 100 scientists from around the world.
At the award ceremony's inaugural presentation, two scientists were given the WLA Prize. Michael I. Jordan, an American computer scientist, won awards in the computer science or mathematics category, and Dirk Gorlich, a German biochemical, achieved the feat the honor in the life science or medicine category. 10 million yuan, or around a 1.4million USD, was awarded to both scientists as a prize.
