World Laureates Forum begins, gathering award-winning science leaders in Shanghai

Photo taken on Nov. 1, 2021 shows the opening ceremony of the 4th World Laureates Forum in east China's Shanghai. The 4th World Laureates Forum kicked off Monday in Shanghai, gathering more than 130 decorated scientists, including 68 Nobel Prize winners, to attend the three-day forum. Centering on the theme "Open science: build an open innovation ecosystem," this year's forum will host nearly 100 conferences and activities in 14 sections, covering a number of basic disciplines such as chemistry, physics, life science and mathematics. (Xinhua/Yang Youzong)

SHANGHAI, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 4th World Laureates Forum kicked off Monday in Shanghai, gathering more than 130 decorated scientists, including 68 Nobel Prize winners, to attend the three-day forum.

Centering on the theme "Open science: build an open innovation ecosystem," this year's forum will host nearly 100 conferences and activities in 14 sections, covering a number of basic disciplines such as chemistry, physics, life science and mathematics.

Michael Levitt, 2013 Nobel laureate in chemistry and vice chairman of World Laureates Association (WLA), published the initiative with the same title as that of the forum at the opening ceremony, which advocates open science and encourages actions in support of open science.

The organizers also announced the establishment of the WLA Prize, which will be officially launched in 2022, with two individual awards each having a 10-million-yuan reward (about 1.56 million U.S. dollars).

The WLA Prize will focus on supporting original basic research and encouraging scientists to better participate in and serve the common well-being of all humankind, according to Roger Kornberg, WLA chairman and 2006 Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry.

Co-organized by the WLA and the China Association for Science and Technology, the forum aims to build a platform for high-level dialogue in the international scientific community.