Representatives from 20 premier universities in Asia and the Middle East are coming to Washington University as part of the International Symposium on Energy and Environment May 4-7. The goals of the symposium are to develop a global network and to focus on challenging issues in the 21st century.
Sponsored by the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, which attracts talented international students to graduate school, the event also hopes to establish long-term bonds for the sake of research.
Fifty faculty members will be coming in all, including 12 university presidents.
“This is the first time a group of premier universities are together in one place anywhere in the world to talk about energy and the environment,” said James Wertsch, director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy. “There are many different research programs that often times don’t know about each other. Part of the issue is getting a world-class group of researchers together and saying, ‘Oh, I never knew you were working on that.'”
In an increasingly globalized world, the University has put emphasis on cementing bonds between international universities.
“Every university president is talking about how to become an international university, but nobody knows exactly what this means or how to do it,” he said. “Sending students abroad is one good thing, and so is opening up campuses in other countries. That’s a way of building ties with other institutions.”
Pratim Biswas, a professor of environmental engineering science, is head of the scientific side of the symposium. Biswas is also working on implementing many ideas to foster these global relationships.
“We will collectively address what are important environmental and energy issues universities face today,” he said. “We will identify what they need to do with regard to education, research, policy and sustainable campuses.”
Biswas identified four central topics to be discussed-aerosol and air quality, water resources, energy and environmental education. He stressed three questions that accompany each topic, including identifying important issues, finding the strengths of each university and figuring out how the universities can form a multilateral team to address these issues.
Key speakers addressing these issues will include former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas R. Pickering, Monsanto Company Chairman Hugh Grant and National Academy of Sciences President Ralph J. Cicerone.
Biswas also discussed his plan to expand an existing environmental and energy education Web site created for the symposium, www.eeed.wustl.edu. The site contains a listing of classes offered by the 20 partner schools of the Academy and groups them by topic. He ultimately wants the courses’ content and professors’ research to be made available to everyone.
“We can then start a discussion group and promote interaction,” he said. “I’m most excited about the educational aspects. Also, what do we do in the future? How do we reach students at other schools? Technology has a big role to play.”
In conjunction with this theme, Biswas hopes to have classrooms with the ability to connect with partner universities via satellite in the new buildings for energy, environment and chemical engineering set to be built.
The McDonnell Academy, founded in 2005, currently has 16 partner universities in Asia and four in the Middle East, including Turkey and Israel. The Academy formed these partnerships based on what made the most sense for the University, according to Wertsch.
However, Wertsch anticipates having 30-35 partnership institutions by next year and moving into other regions like Latin America and Eastern Europe. He also plans on having 30 Academy scholars for next year, increased from the 18 that participated this year.
The sessions and speeches will open for everyone to attend. The full program schedule can found by navigating through www.mcdonnell.wustl.edu.