Symposium initiated by Gates scholars attracts world's leading thinkers.
Former world leaders, leading academics and social entrepreneurs are to take part in a major conference of overseas scholars initiated by Gates Cambridge scholars.
The Global Scholars’ Symposium (GSS) takes place at Rhodes House, Oxford, on 6 and 7 May and speakers include Professor Joseph Nye, former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University [via videolink] and Dr Mo Ibrahim, the pioneering African entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The focus this year is on global challenges in health and medicine, environment and energy, poverty and development, technology and communications, and governance and security.
The GSS was initiated by Gates Scholars in Cambridge in 2008, and aims to generate dialogue between prominent global leaders in their fields and scholars from many countries.
Other speakers taking part either in person or by videolink include: Dr John Hardman, the president of the Carter Center; The Rt. Hon. Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada; President Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana and current Rhodes Trustee; Professor Frances Stewart, director of Oxford’s Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity; Professor Ngaire Woods, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme in Oxford; Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford; Dominic Barton, the global managing director of McKinsey; and Professor Margaret MacMillan, acclaimed international historian and Rhodes Trustee.
The GSS will also feature student exhibits showcasing visual or interactive pieces of work from any field that are engaging, educational and global in their scope – from a project illustrating contagion effect (the spread of an idea through networks), to a novel discovery that could lead to the development of HIV-1 vaccines and a video art piece entitled ‘100 Flowers Campaign’ depicting a hundred images of artwork by various western artists.
The GSS organising committee includes Gates scholar Lindsay Chura [2008], the 2010 conference co-chair.
As well as strong support from Rhodes House and from the Gates and Clarendon scholarships, the Global Scholars’ Symposium is generously underwritten by the McCall MacBain Foundation.
For more information about the event, click here.
Picture credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net and Danilo Rizzuti.
