World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development

Durban, South Africa
October 31 – November 2, 2005

SAVE THE DATE!

As part of the celebration of the International Year of Physics, the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "Miraculous Year" in which he published three of his most famous papers, the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development will be held in Durban, South Africa, on October 31-November 2, 2005. Participants from developed and developing nations will join together to examine the contributions that physics has made to society in the past in order to formulate and sharpen action-oriented plans for the contributions that it can and should make in future. This conference will be cosponsored by UNESCO, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Physics (ICTP), the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP).

We hope that you will plan to attend and will encourage others to do so. For additional information, please visit
www.wcpsd.org

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

The World Conference will serve as the first global forum to focus the physics community towards development goals and to create new mechanisms of cooperation towards their achievement. It will be held in conjunction with the 2005 General Assembly of IUPAP and is expected to attract 400-500 participants from across the globe. Four themes have been chosen for the conference: Physics and Economic Development, Physics and Health, Energy and the Environment, and Physics Education. An International Advisory Committee (IAC) comprised of Nobel Laureates and other international science leaders will work with a Planning Committee to prepare the program. In part, the Conference will be a follow up to the UNESCO-ICSU World Conference on Science which was held in June 1999 and sought to strengthen the ties between science and society, as well as to the broader United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development that was held in Johannesburg in the summer of 2002. The Conference is expected to lead to important action items that organizations of physicists, including all of the national physical societies, will join together to implement collectively.