MIT Portugal Featured at Ciência 2019
The MIT Portugal Partnership (MPP2030) was featured at Ciência 2019 on July 8-10th at the Centro de Congressos in Lisbon. Ciência is an annual meeting of Portuguese researchers that promotes broad debates on the main topics and challenges of the current scientific agenda. The goal is to stimulate interactions between researchers, the business sector, and the public. Each year the Ciência coordination team invites a guest country and this year that country was the United Kingdom.
2019 marked a special year full of scientific celebrations:
- 100 years since Arthur Eddington’s expedition to Sao Tome and Principe
- 100 years since the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
- 50 years since man’s first landing on the Moon
- 500 years since humanity’s first circumnavigation of Earth
- 150 years since the creation of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. In fact, the United Nations and UNESCO declared 2019 The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements!
On the final day of the conference, MIT Portugal was highlighted in the initiative “GO Portugal” that focused on the new MPP2030 research areas and initiatives. Following the program presentation by Alexandre Ferreira da Silva, there was a panel discussion Moderated by Prof. Pedro Arezes, Director of MIT Portugal, that featured:
- Dava Newman, Director of MIT Portugal—on Oceans and Space
- Nuno Lourenço, CoLab Atlantic—on Oceans and Space
- Doug Hart, Co-Director of MIT Portugal and Prof. António Cunha, CoLab DTx—on Digital Transformation
- Frederico Custódio, CoLab S2ul—on Sustainable Cities
The panel shared their thoughts and perspectives on the emergent challenges in their fields and what they hope to accomplish during this new phase. Audience members posed questions to the panel members and a lively discussion ensued.
Following the session, MPP’s own Co-Director, Prof. Doug Hart was interviewed by the Ciência team and shared his impressions of the event and his hopes for the future of the MPP program. The event was a great success and the MIT Portugal Program looks forward to participating next year. Congratulations to the Ciência 2019 Commissioner and MIT Portugal Co-Director, Prof. Zita Martins and the rest of the planning team!
