Science summit deemed success

Bridges can be built through science

By Kifah Arif in Abu Dhabi

A summit of Arab and US scientists has taken place in Abu Dhabi.

The meeting in the United Arab Emirates capital was part of an ongoing effort to improve relations between the Arab world and the West in the wake of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

The language of science is a global language even if we are different

Dr Norman Neureiter

The sense of urgency was reflected in the list of participants, which included more than 50 high-level representatives from Arab and American scientific organisations.

The US Secretary of State Colin Powell sent his chief science and technology adviser, Dr Norman Neureiter.

Dr Neureiter told the meeting: "I believe so strongly in the powers of science and technology co-operation to break barriers to communication between countries."

'Political will'

To illustrate this point, Dr Neureiter added: "Electrons all travel in the same direction and have the same charge, no matter where they are in the world. And the language of science is a global language even if we are different."

He expressed the wish that participants should emerge from the meeting "with the same concrete ideas, even plans, for expanding science and technology co-operation between the Arab and the Western worlds.

"We all live on the same globe, even if our history and culture may be very different," he concluded.

A few months ago, Dr Neureiter told BBC News Online that he doubted whether such co-operation could be achieved. "When you listen to some of the messianic fundamentalism, you wonder whether dialogue can work," he had said.

But when asked after the Abu Dhabi gathering whether he now thought Arab-American dialogue could work, he replied more positively. "Yes it can work," he said, "if both sides have the political will to make it happen."

Funding proposal

Financing scientific research programmes and initiatives, persuading Arab governments about the important role science could play in society and the best way to deal with the brain drain (a problem rife in the Arab world) were among the many issues discussed in Abu Dhabi.

Dr Norman Neureiter (centre): More optimistic about the future

The main organiser of the meeting was the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), a coalition of Arab scientists - those working in the Arab world and expatriates.

The ASTF was established two years ago to stimulate scientific research in the region and hopes to become a grant-giving body for science and technology, modelling itself on the US National Foundation of Science.

The head of ASTF, Dr Abdalla Alnajjar, was keen to emphasize in his opening remarks that the dialogue at the meeting should focus on "science and technology and nothing else".

Regular talks

John Boright, the executive director of international affairs at the US National Academy of Science (NAS), said it should not be forgotten that some dialogue had taken place before 11 September.

He said the NAS held regular meetings with Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli and Egyptian scientists on a number of topics such as the state of water resources, telehealth and the environment.

Other participants at the meeting included Osman Shinaishin, a director with the US National Science Foundation; Farouk El-Baz, director of the Remote Sensing Center at Boston University and a member of the Apollo space programme team during the 1970s; Abdul Hamid Halab, a special adviser to the Ruler of Sharjah on higher education; and the Libyan scientific research minister Maatouk Maatouk.

The meeting was held on the eve of what Nature magazine recently described as an historic seminar: a gathering in Sharjah of more than 500 Arab scientists from across the region and beyond.

The Second Symposium on Scientific Research Outlook in the Arab World runs until 27 March.