Jordan Times
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Second Nobel laureates conference to be held in Petra
AMMAN (JT) — Nobel laureates and national and
religious leaders will convene in Petra in June to discuss and define their
roles in responding to global crises.
The King Abdullah II Fund for Development and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity have invited the conferees for the second Petra Conference of Nobel
Laureates.
“For more than 100 years, Nobel laureates have represented excellence in the
pursuit of humanity's advancement,” said His Majesty King Abdullah.
“Elie Wiesel and I have invited this distinguished group, along with a number of
leaders from different disciplines to convene once again in Petra and carry
forward our promise to this and future generations to address the inequalities,
asymmetries and threats to peace that abound,” the King added.
During the two-day conference, participants are expected to discuss challenges
to global security and development, the strategies and activities of the Nobel
Laureates Initiative launched last year, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
and other regional issues.
“It is both humbling and awe-inspiring to work among fellow Nobel laureates,
leaders and His Majesty King Abdullah to explore the most critical problems of
our time. Last year in Petra, we launched the Nobel Laureates Initiative to
deepen cooperation and foster regular communications between laureates. This
year, we will report advancements made by the initiative, as well as define a
role for Nobel laureates in response to humanitarian emergencies,” said Wiesel,
founder of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and the 1986 recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize.
Nobel laureates from the six fields in which the Nobel Prize is awarded each
year — peace, economics, literature, physics, chemistry, and physiology and
medicine — are expected to attend.
These include Peter Agre, Aaron Ciechanover, Johann Deisenhofer, Avram Hershko
and Yuan T. Lee in chemistry; Richard Axel, Baruch S. Blumberg, Christian de
Duve and Eric R. Kandel in medicine; Georges Charpak, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji,
Val Fitch and Donald A. Glaser in physics; Finn E. Kydland and Robert A. Mundell
in economics; Wole Soyinka in literature; and Frederik W. de Klerk, Jose Ramos-Horta
and the Dalai Lama in peace.
They will be joined by world-renowned leaders from the public and private
sectors, as well as from civil society, including former US ambassador to the UN
Richard C. Holbrooke, founder of Medecins sans Frontiers Bernard Kouchner,
former US surgeon general David Satcher, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
Sathirathai Surakiart, entertainment executive and actor Michael Douglas, the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund representative Stephen Heintz, and Library of
Alexandria representative Ismail Serageldin.
Participants will congregate in the ancient city of Petra, a monument of human
ingenuity and creativity, reflected in the symbiosis of the built and natural
environments.