The USERN Congress 2016
USERN Prize Awarding Festival
November 8th-10th, 2016
Hosted by Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Brief Introduction of the 1st Outstanding Achievement of a New Initiation
Bearing in mind the main goal of “Science without Boarders”, the 1st USERN Congress was hosted by Tehran University of Medical Sciences on November 8 to 10 2016. The congress was held in an interdisciplinary confab, with more than 1200 participants and 14 scholars who were all among the top 1% international scientists and 20 Iranian scholars who presented their lectures in different topics from Galaxy to Genome including genetics, medical sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, psychology, stem cells, vitality, relativity in science, creativity, and spiritual aspects of humankind in three days.
The program committee was a fabulous program on 1st day of the congress, ranging from the infinity in the universe to infinity inside body, covering the subjects on conception, evolution, and voyage to a new home in the universe, climate change and global warming, earth, the origins of the genes, and regenerative medicine and genetic engineering. In the first day, Professor John Gurdon, the NOBEL Prize Laureate 2012 in Physiology & Medicine from England gave an outstanding speech about “the induced stem cells and unclear reprogramming as a route to cell replacement therapy”.
The 2nd day focused on development of sciences in different fields from the past to the future. In addition to presentation on recent advances on sciences, big data and strategic planning were also discussed. The second day was started with a virtual of Professor Louis Nirenberg, the winner of Able Prize in Mathematics.
The 3rd day of the congress was dedicated to different dimensions of human, where keynote lectures on physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of human were presented. In addition to keynote lectures, there were specific parallel focus discussion sections, where only few delegates were allowed to attend, based on their field of interest and the time of registration.
In addition, the Focused Group Discussions FGD, was also conducted by 9 international speakers which made the congress more interactive for juniors. Interestingly, the last program for students and junior researchers was scheduled as USERN Junior Talk in order to make the juniors play active roles in the congress.
And eventually, the congress was concluded on November 10th, the Global Day of science for Peace and Development with awarding the USERN Prizes to the top 5 young scholars under 40 years of age.
Scientific program of the 1st USERN Congress
Day 1: | |
| 7:30 – 8:30 | Registration |
| Main Hall | |
| 8:30 – 9:30 | Opening Session |
| 8:30 – 8:40 | Holy Quran and Iranian National Anthem |
| 8:40 – 9:10 | Opening talks by Sadollah Nasiri Gheydari [Secretary-General, Iranian National Commission for UNESCO] Ali Jafarian [Chancellor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences] |
| 9:10 – 9:30 | USERN: a new horizon for science. Nima Rezaei (Iran) [USERN Congress Chair] |
| 9:30 – 10:15 | USERN Nobel Talk (UNT) |
| 9:30 – 9:35 | Cell replacement therapy: Introduction/Performance |
| 9:35 – 10:15 | Nuclear reprogramming as a route to cell replacement therapy. John Gurdon (UK) [Nobel Laureate 2012] |
| 10:15 – 10:40 | Coffee break |
| 10:40 – 13:00 | USERN Keynote Lectures (UKL) Moderators: Ali Akbar Moosavi-Movahedi, Sadollah Nasiri Gheydari, Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Roja Rahimi |
| 10:40 – 10:45 | Origins of the genes: Introduction/Performance |
| 10:45 – 11:15 | UKL 01: What the genes tell us about our origins, evolutionary history and our current health. Francesco Cucca (Italy) |
| 11:15 – 11:20 | Climate change: Introduction/Performance |
| 11:20 – 11:50 | UKL 02: Uncertainty in life: Climate change and global warming. Tamsin Edwards (UK) |
| 11:50 – 11:55 | The earth: Introduction/Performance |
| 11:55 – 12:25 | UKL 03: Earth: Our ever changing planet? Timothy W. Lyons (USA) |
| 12:25 – 12:30 | The universe: Introduction/Performance |
| 12:30 – 13:00 | UKL 04: The universe: Conception and evolution. Bahram Mobasher (USA) |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | Plenary Panel |
| 14:00 – 14:05 | Science from galaxy to genome: Introduction/Performance |
| 14:05 – 16:00 | Layers of depth: Science from galaxy to genome Moderators: John Gurdon (UK), Francesco Cucca (Italy), Timothy W. Lyons (USA), Bahram Mobasher (USA) Facilitator: Tamsin Edwards (UK) |
| Conference Room 2 | |
| 11:00 – 16:00 | USERN FGDs |
| 11:00 – 13:00 | FGD 01: Network science and engineering: The dawn of a new era. Guanrong Chen (Hong Kong, China) |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | FGD 03: Analytical glance at leadership and problem-solving capabilities. Michael D. Mumford (USA) |
| Conference Room 3 | |
| 11:00 – 13:00 | USERN FGD FGD 02: Social Conception and perception of laughing: Our perception of laughter tells us what laughter is talking about. |
| Niavaran Palace | |
| 18:00 – 22:00 | Social program |
Day 2: | |
| 7:30 – 8:30 | Breakfast Meetings with top scientists (parallel) |
| Main Hall | |
| 8:30 – 9:15 | USERN Able Virtual Talk (UAVT), USERN Keynote Lectures (UKL) Moderators: Parviz Norouzi, Ahmad Reza Dehpour, Mehrdad Hamidi, Farnoush Faridbod |
| 8:30 – 8:35 | Philosophy of science: Introduction/Performance |
| 8:35 – 9:15 | Remarks on mathematics. Louis Nirenberg (Canada) [Abel Laureate 2015] |
| 9:15 – 9:20 | Renewable energy: Introduction/Performance |
| 9:20 – 9:45 | UKL 05: Renewable energy: past, present, future. Jamshid Aghaei (Iran) |
| 9:45 – 9:50 | Human brain: Introduction/Performance |
| 9:50 – 10:15 | UKL 06: An interdisciplinary insight to the human brain: Advances in the third millennium". Alexander Leemans (the Netherlands) |
| 10:15 – 10:40 | Coffee break |
| 10:40 – 13:00 | USERN Keynote Lectures (UKL) Moderators: Reza Majdzadeh, Abolfazl Akbarzadeh, Saied Pakniat, Farzaneh Shemirani |
| 10:40 – 10:45 | Neuroscience today: Introduction/Performance |
| 10:45 – 11:15 | UKL 07: The golden age of neuroscience, neurology and neurotherapeutics has arrived! Olaf Stuve (USA) |
| 11:15 – 11:20 | Measurement of science: Introduction/Performance |
| 11:20 – 11:50 | UKL 08: Measures of science: merits and dangers of rankings in higher education. Michael Schreiber (Germany) |
| 11:50 – 11:55 | Teamwork: Introduction/Performance |
| 11:55 – 12:25 | UKL 10: Future of nanomedicine: impact of teamwork. Morteza Mahmoudi (Iran, USA) |
| 12:25 – 12:30 | Networking: Introduction/Performance |
| 12:30 – 13:00 | UKL 11: How would networking change our lives in the future? Guanrong Chen (Hong Kong, China) |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | Plenary Panel |
| 14:00 – 14:05 | Past, present, and future: Introduction/Performance |
| 14:05 – 16:00 | Timely trends in science Moderators: Michael Schreiber (Germany), Guanrong Chen (Hong Kong, China), Olaf Stuve (USA), Morteza Mahmoudi (Iran, USA), Jamshid Aghaei (Iran), Alexander Leemans (the Netherlands) Facilitators: Laily Mahoozi (Iran) and Afsaneh Shirani (USA) |
| Conference Room 2 | |
| 8:30 – 16:00 | USERN FGDs |
| 8:30 – 10:30 | FGD 04: Resistance to nuclear reprogramming by eggs. John Gurdon (UK) |
| 11:00 – 13:00 | FGD 05: Genetic regulation of the immune system in health and disease. Francesco Cucca (Italy) |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | FGD 07: The evolution of food: what will we eat in the next century? José Alfredo Martínéz (Spain) |
| Conference Room 3 | |
| 11:00 – 13:00 | USERN FGD FGD 06: Uncertainty in earth system modeling. |
| Tehran Milad Tower | |
| 18:00 – 21:00 | USERN Advisory Board Meeting |