Nina Fedoroff Champions a Global Knowledge Society. (February 3, 2012)

Nina V. Fedoroff is the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Distinguished Professor of Biosciences at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and an Evan Pugh Professor at The Pennsylvania State University. With the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver scheduled for 16 to 22 February whose theme will be "Building the global knowledge society" Professor Fedoroff  has written the February 3 editorial for Science.

In the editorial she notes the important roll scientists can play in bringing rapprochement among the world's different nationalities and cultures. So, for example, she writes: "Presaging the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, U.S. Presidential Science Advisor Frank Press travelled to China in 1978 to negotiate an Agreement for Cooperation in Science and Technology, signed by President Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping."

And during the current Obama administration Professor Federoff adds:

"science envoys" have been sent to Muslim-majority nations. Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, former National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni, and former National Academy of Sciences President Bruce Alberts, now the Editor-in-Chief of Science, served ably as the inaugural envoys. Although there is value in sending abroad representatives of the scientific community... it is increasingly important to create a global knowledge society. The array of challenges facing humanity in the 21^st century is daunting... these challenges are global in their scope, profoundly interconnected, and dependent on scientific and technological input.

Today's communications technologies make it possible to teach and collaborate with anyone anywhere. Online educational resources and organizations devoted to creating partnerships and networks among scientists, engineers, and educators continue to proliferate. But in the end, the task of creating a truly global knowledge society, of knitting together the scientific and technical communities of nations to solve humanity's common problems, falls to each and all of us.