World Laureates Forum to return to Shanghai

The sixth edition of the World Laureates Forum will take place from Nov 6 to 8 in Shanghai and feature the largest number of prominent global scientists since the forum was conceived in 2018, the organizer announced on Monday.

Themed "Science Leads Transformation", this year's forum will focus on promoting high-level dialogue between scientists and advocating for scientific and technological innovation as a means of exploring future development strategies, said Yu Licheng, secretary general of the WLA Shanghai Center.

The forum will be held at the permanent site of the WLA Forum in Lin-gang Special Area, Shanghai.

More than 300 global scientists from 25 countries and regions, including 27 Nobel laureates, more than 100 leading international scientists and more than 40 Chinese academicians have confirmed their participation in the forum, Yu said.

"This year's forum will be the largest ever in terms of both the number of participating scientists and the scale of events involved," said Yu. "It has attracted both 'old-timers' and 'new faces'."

Among the nearly 100 leading scientists who will participate in the forum for the first time are world-renowned chemist Makoto Fujita, winner of the 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and top scientists like Michael Gratzel, winner of the Einstein World Science Prize, and Gregory Stephanopoulos, winner of the 2011 Eni Prize, among others.

The five winners of the 2023 WLA Prize will also participate in the forum for the first time and take part in lectures and round-table discussions besides attending the award ceremony on Nov 6.

The forum will again feature three sub-forums on life science, intelligent science and carbon, along with 21 other major events. It will also for the first time hold lectures regarding cutting-edge research results in more than 10 fields including physics, chemistry, biology, and intelligent science.

In addition, the forum will feature an academic exchange hub for 120 leading young scientists as well as a Young Scientists Conference that will drive discussions on the training and development of young scientists.

As one of the world's largest science and technology forums, the WLA forum is aimed at promoting basic science, advocating international cooperation and supporting young generations of scientists.

Over the past years, the event has become an important means to connect the world's top scientists and a significant high-level dialogue platform in the global scientific community.