Friday, 10 January
5:30 pm
MIT Wong Auditorium
70 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/688195321682031/
The Israeli occupation stifles Palestinian life and science, and deprives the international scientific community from the creativity and experience of the Palestinian scientific community.
Join us for the launch of the International Meeting of Science for Palestine with an evening and discussion including some of the most world’s most prominent scientists, such as MacArthur Fellow Nergis Mavalvala, 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner George Smith, Palestinian innovator and Gaza Return March medic Dr. Tarek Loubani, Palestinian Minister of Education, Marwan Awartani, Political Economist Leila Farsakh, Political Economist, and Public Health expert Danya Qato. For more details on this event, see below.
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The collaborative nature of science makes it a uniting, positive and transformative tool for society- capable of integrating communities and struggles worldwide, despite borders and great distance. In Palestine, however, the 71-year-long Israeli occupation has not only physically fragmented Palestinian communities from each other, but has imposed physical and virtual barriers to Palestinian access to the global science community, blocking access to resources key to developing scientific research, and engaging in acts of violence intended to deprive Palestinians of their right to education and their capacity to integrate in the international scientific community.
Scientists for Palestine will work to bridge this gap between Palestinian science and the international scientific community and will work to strengthen Palestinian capacity to do science.
Our Third International Meeting for Science in Palestine will open Friday evening at Wong Auditorium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a panel and discussion with some of the world’s most prominent scientists alongside Palestinian Minister of Education, Marwan Awartani, Political Economist Leila Farsakh, Political Economist, Physician, Palestinian innovator and Gaza Return March Medic, Dr. Tarek Loubani, MacArthur Fellow Nergis Mavalvala, Public Health expert Danya Qato, and 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner George Smith.
This event will include first-hand accounts on the act of practicing science despite living under an occupation and present a critical assessment of what the scientific community can and should do to facilitate scientific research by and for Palestinians.
Please note that the Saturday and Sunday conference program is now closed but we are accepting requests for seat at [email protected]. Please use as subject: “waiting list”.
———– Friday Launch of Science for Palestine Conference ————
5:45 – 6:15 — Opening statements.
6:15 – 7:45 — Panel
Marwan Awartani – Mathematics, Palestine Education Minister.
Leila Farsakh – Political Economy, UMass Boston.
Tarek Loubani – Medicine & Director of the Gila Project, Gaza Return March Medic, U. of Western Ontario.
Nergis Mavalvala – Astrophysics, MIT.
Danya Qato – Public Health and Health Policy, U. of Maryland
George Smith – 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner, UMass of Missouri.
7:45 – 8:30 — Moderated Q&A and discussion.
