__________________________________________________

The Online Newsletter of the
Board on International Scientific Organizations

Issue #9, April 2004

This issue of BISO News comes just as we completed our fourth meeting for the chairs of the national committees in BISO’s network. Every 18 months, representatives from each of our national committees convene to share information. These meetings foster interaction and increase communication among the committees and across disciplinary boundaries, introduce chairs to several key issues in international science that might be of interest to their committees, provide a venue for chairs to discuss the relevance of these issues to their committees, and encourage chairs to bring ideas and issues of concern to the attention of other chairs and to BISO. The major themes for this meeting were:

• Barriers to conduct of science across borders,
• The crisis in scholarly publishing in developed and developing countries, and
• Capacity building.

Guest speakers included George Atkinson, S&T Advisor to the Secretary of State; Carol Corillon, Director of The National Academies Committee on Human Rights; Carol Priestley, Director of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP); and Jane Lubchenco, President of ICSU. There is an article about INASP in this issue of BISO News; additional information about the National Committee Chairs meeting is available from BISO staff.

Wendy D. White
Director, BISO

Grand Opening of the Marian Koshland Science Museum
April marks the opening of the Marian Koshland Science Museum located at the National Academies building. The museum has state of the art, interactive exhibits that address current and controversial topics such as global warming and the applications of DNA sequencing. A distinguished group of museum advisors, including experts in the fields of biology, geoscience, climatology, genomics, medicine, astronomy, physics, environmental sciences, and science education, have participated in exhibit development to ensure scientific accuracy and objectivity. The museum is named after Marian Koshland, an immunologist and molecular biologist who conducted groundbreaking research in the behavior of antibodies.

Back to top

Free Scientific Information Available to Developing Nations
The National Academies is now offering free online access to reports from the National Academies Press (NAP), as well as journal articles from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Through free access to scientific information, this initiative aims to help over 100 developing countries tackle challenges such as disease, hunger, and economic transition with enhanced scientific knowledge. NAP allows readers in developing countries to obtain reports from Academies in portable document format (PDF). PNAS, a multidisciplinary journal, is printed weekly and publishes new content online each business day covering the biological, physical, and social sciences.

Back to top

INASP Director Speaks at BISO Chairs Meeting
Carol Priestley, Director of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), spoke at the U.S. National Committee Chairs meeting on April 30. INASP, an interdisciplinary body of ICSU, is a cooperative network of over 3,000 partners and 950 programs worldwide that addresses issues of access to information and knowledge. Priestley discussed the predicament in scholarly publishing in the developing world stemming from small research communities, under-funded research, and lack of adequate publishing opportunities. Through networks of researchers, institutions, and libraries, INASP has been able to assist in disseminating national and regional research; enhance information and communication technology skills; strengthen local publishing; and support programs featuring journals online. African Journals OnLine (AJOL) is one such project that was facilitated by INASP. AJOL now has 181 titles available representing 21 countries providing access to African published research. Priestly concluded by noting that INASP programs such as AJOL are making a real impact, but that quality is still a challenge and providing access is only the first step.

Back to top

NAS Foreign Secretary and ICSU Executive Director Address IUSS
At the April 26 plenary session of the Inter-Congress meeting of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), Thomas Rosswall, Executive Director of ICSU, spoke on science in service of society. He described how ICSU has worked on such issues as global change, addressing how the scientific community must work with each other and also inform policymakers and society. He also discussed how unions can interact within ICSU and how unions might work with ICSU’s new regional offices both to define priorities for the regions and to reach out to its disciplinary community within the regions.

Michael Clegg, National Academy of Sciences Foreign Secretary, followed Rosswall, speaking to the role of national academies in international science policy. Clegg informed the soil science community of how the national academies of the world are working together to inform policymakers, both at the national and international levels, of scientific information that might affect policy. He also described how the national academies are working together in networks such as the InterAcademy Panel and InterAcademy Council to develop such ability to inform policy at each academy’s national level. Clegg described the relationship of these networks to ICSU and the unions as complementary.

During the second half of the plenary, two speakers addressed the theme of the upcoming 18th World Congress of Soil Science (2006 in Philadelphia) - "Frontiers of Soil Science: Technology and the Information Age". Ken Kemner of Argonne National Laboratory discussed the use of synchrotron-based techniques to address geoscience research and Marc Imhoff of NASA described how the Earth Observing System can be used for earth science research.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES

Sustainability Projects in the Geological Sciences

The national committee for the geological sciences (USNC/IUGS) has targeted sustainability an area of concern through two new initiatives. The USNC/IUGS has developed, in collaboration with the Committee on Earth Resources of the National Academies, an upcoming study on the role of non-renewable mineral resources in a sustainable society. The USNC/IUGS is participating in the development of the prospectus, the plan of action, and the statement of task. In addition, a member of the USNC/IUGS will serve as a liaison to the study committee.

The second initiative by the USNC/IUGS will be a symposium at the 2006 meeting of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). By invitation of the SSSA past President, Larry Wilding, the national committee will collaborate with the soil scientists on a topic of interest to both disciplines: “Sustainable Soils and Life on Land.” The committee plans to organize a similar symposium for the 2006 meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Back to top

Travel Grants to Attend the International Congress of Psychology
The national committee for the International Union of Psychological Science is administering travel grants to graduate students and early-career scientists (within 7 years of Ph.D.), to participate at the XXVIII International Congress of Psychology in Beijing China, August 8-13, 2004. The travel grant is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and offers partial support to young scientists attending the Congress. This opportunity will enable young U.S. scientists to participate in the scientific events of the Congress and gain and understanding of the workings of the Union. Preference will be given to individuals who are presenting papers at the Congress. Application forms are available by contacting Ms. Amy Franklin at afranklin@nas.edu or (202) 334-3787. The deadline for applications is June 1, 2004.

Back to top

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a new educational center in Cape Town, South Africa, supported by ICSU. The goals of AIMS are to promote mathematics and science in Africa; to recruit and train students and teachers; and to build capacity for African initiatives in education, research, and technology.

In April 2004, a workshop on Capacity Building in the Mathematical Sciences was held at AIMS during the first year of its academic activity. The workshop addressed the problems associated with capacity building in mathematics; the application of mathematics in technology, and the physical and biological sciences; and the manner in which AIMS is approaching these problems. It was also an opportunity to consider the promotion of teaching and research via the Internet in Africa and more widely in the developing world. BISO Member and past-Chair of the national committee for the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM) Hassan Aref, presented a lecture at the workshop on “Marvelous Mathematical Models”. The workshop was sponsored by the International Union of TAM on the basis of a grant awarded by ICSU. The proposal to ICSU was supported by five other Unions.

Back to top

IIASA’s Science Advisory Committee Held Inaugural Meeting
The first meeting of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis’ (IIASA) Science Advisory Committee (SAC), chaired by Academy Foreign Associate Member Bert Bolin, was held March 15-16. BISO Director Wendy White and IIASA Committee Program Director, Maggie Goud Collins both attended the public sessions. Two of the goals discussed were increasing the proportion of the Institute’s work that addresses North-South issues and the U.S. Committee’s aim to strengthen IIASA’s ties to U.S. researchers and policy makers.

At the invitation of Professor Levin, (U.S. Committee Chair), Dr. Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, attended part of the SAC meeting. As a result, the institutes are exploring opportunities for working jointly, with U.S. involvement, on issues of mutual interest.

Back to top

World Summit on the Information Society
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held in Tunis, Tunisia in November 2005. Preparations are already underway and the first preparatory meeting will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia on 24-26 June. CODATA, along with its U.S. National Committee, will continue to play a major role in highlighting the role of science in the Information Society. On 23 March, the USNC/CODATA staff brought together representatives from UNESCO, the State Department, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the scientific community, and the private sector to discuss science and technology for development of the Information Society. The purpose of this public forum was to identify issues and activities related to the WSIS process in which the U.S. science and technology community can play a constructive role in promoting US interests and values.

Back to top

Chinese Open Access and Archiving Workshop
The USNC/CODATA, the CODATA Task Group on Preservation and Archiving of Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries, and the Chinese National CODATA Committee are collaborating to convene a major workshop on Strategies for Preservation of and Open Access to Digital Scientific Information Resources in China: Opportunities and Challenges. The workshop will be held in Beijing, China from 22-24 June 2004. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology are providing local logistical support and assistance in meeting planning. The objectives of the workshop are to provide an interdisciplinary forum and promote a deeper understanding of long-term preservation, archiving, and open access to scientific data in the developing country context. This activity will serve the data archiving and preservation needs in scientific capacity building of developing countries, and will promote networking among scientific data managers, users, and funding agencies.

Back to top

2004 CODATA Conference
Register now for the 19^th International CODATA Conference—The Information Society: New Horizons for Science, which will be held 7-10 November 2004 in Berlin. This event is the first major international conference designed specifically to address all facets of how the Information Society is creating new and unprecedented horizons for science. The conference features keynote talks, plenary lectures, and contributed paper sessions that provide new and important insights about the Information Revolution and its impact on science. The second call for papers has been circulated, and the submission deadline is 1 May.

Back to top

Membership News