Tag: eusja

  • ESOF opens call for 40 media travel grants

    logoThe organisers of Europe’s largest general science event, EuroScience Open Forum, invite journalists from around the world to apply for media travel grants. It is expected that 250 media representatives will be at the science forum in Copenhagen from 21-26 June 2014.

    The slogan of EuroScience Open Forum 2014 in Copenhagen is ‘Science Building Bridges’. One of the main objectives of the event is to build links between the media and the research community by providing a platform where journalists can discuss and report on the latest scientific developments.
    EuroScience Open Forum 2014 (ESOF2014) will offer an extensive media programme for journalists, editors, bloggers and social media operators with six days of activities in The Carlsberg City District, where both the science forum and the festival Science in the City take place.
    To secure that journalists from a broad range of news organisations take part, ESOF2014 has announced a Media Travel Grant Scheme. The call for applications for the grant has now opened – to read more please go to http://esof2014.org/media-room/media-travel-grant.

    About EuroScience Open Forum 2014 in Copenhagen
    · EuroScience Open Forum 2014 takes place from 21- 26 June.
    · The event consists of a forum with numerous scientific sessions and a science festival.
    · The Science in the City Festival is a free-admission event open to the public.
    · Journalists can apply for free media accreditation.
    · Both the forum and the festival will take place in The Carlsberg City District.
    The programme at EuroScience Open Forum 2014
    · 405 speakers from 39 countries are confirmed for the forum (February 2014)
    · 41 percent of the speakers are female (February 2014)
    · The Nobel Laureates Serge Haroche, Collège de France, Brian Schmidt, Australian National University, Ada Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, will be among the speakers.
    About EuroScience Open Forum
    EuroScience Open Forum is a biannual event, which was first held in Stockholm in 2004. Since then, it has been held in Munich (2006), Barcelona (2008), Torino (2010) and Dublin (2012).

    ESOF was created by Euroscience, the grass-root organisation for science, technology and innovation in Europe.
    Media Accreditation
    http://esof2014.org/media-room/press-accreditation
    For further information, please contact:
    Press Officer Peter Krause, EuroScience Open Forum 2014
    E-mail: pkr@fi.fk
    T: +45 91 33 79 15

  • Top Secret of Abel Prize


    Abelprize committee    It was probably one of the coldest days of last January in St. Petersburg. But it was hot, really hot to a press conference in St. Petersburg University, because journalists tried to get a name, but Professor Nils Christian Stenseth, President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters smiled and promised to announce the name only on March 26. “I do not know yet myself” – he said. Who knew the name for sure – the members of Abel Committee. These five famous mathematicians also attended the press conference, but they just confirmed: the winner of Abel Prize (amounts to NOK 6 million -approximately EUR 800,000 or USD 1 million) will be announced on March, the Abel ceremony itself will be in May. And this was the only information regarding the winner.

    But journalists heard also some intriguing news: Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is giving a grant for Russian science journalist to attend the Abel week in Oslo. This time the honor to name a winner went to Russian members of EUSJA, and they chose their colleague to represent them in Oslo. However this is just the beginning of a prosperous collaboration between EUSJA and Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The collaboration includes not just Abel events in Oslo, but for example also Heidelberg Forum. This annual event has to help young researchers to meet outstanding scientists – Abel and Turing prize winners, Fields medalists. Last September the number of EUSJA members attended Heidelberg Forum (see the post of Olga Baklitskaya-Kameneva “Indian Summer 2013 in Heidelberg” to our web page -https://www.eusja.org/indian-summer-2013-in-heidelberg-5/). We expect science journalists will participate the next meetings in Heidelberg.

    Hopefully they will meet also a new Abel Prize winner who is a top secret for the moment. Why St. Petersburg has been chosen by Abel Committee for its important meeting? This is no secret. Since the prize is international, the Committee usually meets in different cities. St. Petersburg is a mother land of numerous mathematicians: Russian winner of Abel Prize Michael Gromov for example or Professor Stanislav Smirnov, one of the five Abel Committee members. On behalf of the Committee and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters the St. Petersburg State University and the St. Petersburg Department of Stecklov Institute of Mathematics RAS were hosting a one-day conference.

    Later the scientists and science journalists were invited to the Norwegian Consulate General in St. Petersburg. You see on the picture (photographer Leidolv Magelssen) Consul General Heidi Olufsen (the third from left to right) with the members of Abel Committee Gang Tian (Princeton University, USA, School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing University, China), Ragni Piene (University of Oslo, Norway, chair), Cédric Villani (Institut Henri Poincaré og Université de Lyon, France), Maria J. Esteban (CEREMADE, Paris, France), Stanislav Smirnov (University of Geneva, Switzerland).
    These five will keep the secret of Abel Prize till March. No chance to get it earlier. But there is a chance for science journalists to be involved in fascinated ceremony. Only one grant for this May, but there will be much more slots for September to meet famous mathematicians. Visit our page: EUSJA will keep you updated.

  • Study trip to Barcelona

    Barcelona skyline, Spain

    EUSJA with the help of the European network CommHERE (http://www.commhere.eu ) is organizing study trip to Barcelona (May 19 -22, 2014), the city, which hosts cutting-edge research facilities that join forces on many common projects to understand the complexity of life – from the genome to the cell to a whole organism, and the mechanisms that underlie genetic diseases. This study trip will take the journalists on a journey to explore these four complementary research institutions in Barcelona, one of the research hot spots in Europe:

    The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG – http://pasteur.crg.es/portal/page/portal/Internet/ ) is one of the leading fundamental research institutions in Europe at the moment: researchers benefit from world-class facilities to dive more deeply into the mechanisms that regulate the genome, and how it influences human development, and human health.

    In addition to the traditional tools used for genomic and cellular biology studies, research at CRG can also use the cutting-edge infrastructure of the neighbouring Institute of photonic Research (ICFO – http://www.icfo.eu/ ). There, innovative technologies allow them to visualise biological processes at unprecedented high resolution and precision.

    However, both genomic research and imaging technologies produce increasingly immense amounts of electronic data that need to be processed, analysed, and stored. The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC – http://www.bsc.es/es ) is providing the research community with powerful computers and resources to help solve this challenge and avoid its limitations.

    Can a good understanding of genomic and cellular biology help us live healthier? We certainly hope so, and scientists at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO – http://www.vhio.net/ ) are actively working to translate the latest knowledge gained in fundamental labs into more efficient treatments and diagnostic tools for their patients.

    20 EUSJA journalists are invited. The participants have to take care of their travelling and the organizers will cover the accommodation for 3 nights (19, 20, 21 of May), the meal and transfers during the trip. The preliminary programme has been sent to EUSJA delegates.
    Applications must be sent via national associations by April 7.

  • Study trip to Switzerland

    Цюрих, Швейцария

    The Swiss Association of Science Journalism has organized the study trip (March 19 – 21, 2014) for 35 EUSJA members. The journalists have to take care for their travel costs and the organizers will cover the accomodation, meal and transportation during the trip. Electric bikes are now more popular traditional pedal-powered bikes, yet the next advance in ebike technology is already here in the form of electric bike with throttle that enable you to travel without pedalling at all. The programme, description and application form has been sent to EUSJA delegates. All applications must be sent via national associations by January 31 to Olivier Dessibourg, president of Swiss association. See below his invitation.

    INVITATION: Science&Technology Study trip to Switzerland
    March 19-21, 2014

    –> Do you want to attend exclusively to a security and technology field test inside the new Gothard tunnel, a 57 km underground track dug under the Alps that will entirely revolutionise the transport network throughout Europe?

    –> Do you want to discover how the animations in the Disney 2D and 3D movies are produced using the latest techniques in modelling informatics, this at the Disney Research Center at the ETHZurich, the only Disney Researche center outside the US?

    –> Do you want to learn out to grow and incube organs or blood vessels?

    –> Do you want to talk to one of the most efficient supercomputers in Europe?

    Then, apply for one of the 35 slots of this study trip, which the Swiss Association of Science Journalists has organised for european active science journalists.

    Pratical details: participants must arrive in Zurich airport no later than 5pm on March 19th. Nights on March 19th, and 20th in Zurich will be paid for by the organisers. The official program officially ends up in Lugano on March 21th in the evening. The following night until March 22nd is also paid for by the organisers. Trains leave Lugano on March 22nd between 7 and 9am, allowing participants to be between 10:15am and 12:30 in Zurich Airport, from where they can take their flight back. Details can be arranged later on.

    Deadline for applications: 31 January 2014.

    The organisation of this study trip has been made possible with the help of:
    Swiss National Science Foundation // Presence Suisse // Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences // Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences // ETHZurich // University of Zurich // City and canton of Zurich // Zurich Tourism // Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) // Bühler // Bombardier Transportation // SBB CFF FFS Swiss Federal Railways // European NanoDiode project // Swiss Association for Science Journalism SASJ”

  • In praise of “incompetence”

    In praise of “incompetence”

     

    ane
    This is a title of the book written by Michel Claessens, a good friend of EUSJA for many years. Michel is currently Head of Communication for the ITER fusion project (France), and the study trip that EUSJA journalists had last spring to Cadarache happened thanks to his great support. By the way, many of us felt his support not once, when he worked as a researcher, scientific journalist and later, when he leaded the science communication department in the European Commission during more than ten years. A master of conferences at the Free University of Brussels, Michel Claessens has published many books. He helped also journalists: my first article written in English has been edited and published by Michel.

    This kind of friendship is always dear and could be a good reason to read your friend’s books. But the matter is that the books of Michel are always interesting and full of paradoxes. One may say the same about his recent publication. In that book Michel Claessens revisits a subject that we should all probably admit to knowing too well: incompetence. Especially as incompetence is probably the first of our competencies – according Michel.

    “Our globalized and technological society generates what I call “systemic incompetence.” These days, we interact with the outside world through a wide set of technological interfaces and tools which we cannot escape and whose detailed modus operandi is largely unknown to us (see for example Google and Facebook). Following recent railway accidents in Europe, national authorities had to wait weeks before establishing the exact causes; competence is now subjugated to technology, and technology evolves every day”, – he says.

    I noticed that Michel was master of paradoxes: his book also shows that incompetence can be creative, just as competence can be destructive. Here is what he says: “Recent examples of scientific research demonstrate how incompetence can help to sort out problems and take decisions—such as video game players who have collaborated with scientists to unravel the tridimensional structure of proteins. In reality, the notions of competence and incompetence need to be redefined. We can all learn from the practical situations described in the book which show that incompetence may become a genuine competency, whether it be at an individual, organisational or societal level. More exactly, what I call “miscompetence,” a subtle mix of tested abilities and recognized ignorance, plays today a central role, in particular in processes of creation and governance”.

    Wow… I wonder if only I would like to dispute with Michel? But one must be careful: be ready to meet another good stock of paradoxes…

    http://www.quae.com/en/r3127-petit-eloge-de-lincompetence.html