The International Science Council (ISC) organized a Global Knowledge Dialogue for Latin America and the Caribbean (GKD-LAC) in Santiago de Chile on April 9-11. Héctor Ramírez (HR), professor at the University of Chile and director of the Centro de Modelamiento Matematico, and who participated in the last ICIAM Board meeting as representative of SMAIS-Chile, attended the GKD-LAC on behalf of ICIAM.
It was a high-level meeting that allowed to review the reality of Latin America and the Caribbean, explore its opportunities and challenges, and create new relationships between the participants (networking), who came from the most varied countries and institutions in the region.
The event itself was preceded by the organization of discussion panels that were held in parallel, one where the challenges of young researchers were discussed and another one on freedom and responsibility in science. HR actively participated in the latter. There was a broad agreement that the main concern for scientists in the region is the lack of resources to do science, a situation which is already disparate among the countries of the region. This is because talents have difficulty to emerge. However, other problems that plague the scientists in LAC were also detected: lack of access to data, often due to institutional issues or lack of order and clarity in the source of that data; lack of determination and clarity to address complex global problems that must have a local and regional perspective, mentioning two as examples: climate change and gender gap in science; and, finally, the instability of scientific policies in the region’s countries, where often the allocation of resources and plans are strongly affected by political changes in governments. It was also believed that the above could be addressed through regional collaborative programs where both the knowledge generated in each country regarding the creation and monitoring of policies, as well as good local practices, would be shared. Also, aim to generate standards that in turn would allow stability of the scientific policy of the region. The above identified directions could be strongly supported by ISC, promoting regional agreements at the LAC level, always highlighting the relevance of the policies for the country and the region. The first day closed with a cocktail, an excellent opportunity for networking, where the Society of Women for Science in Developing Countries (OWSD) also showed videos with stories of women scientists.
The event itself was opened by Chilean authorities, including the Chilean Minister of Science and Technology, and the active participation of science academies in the region, as well as other organizations with regional presence. Then, there was a good opportunity to get to know the ISC through a presentation of its CEO. Later, the day was completed with forums on science and diplomacy, and on the difficulties of science in the region, in particular the threat to its autonomy, a necessary condition to develop high-level science. This day continued with an enriching discussion about the future of evaluations and publications in the context of open science, and closed with a dinner organized by Frontiers Planet Prize.
About the Author
Héctor Ramírez is full professor in the Department of Mathematical Engineering at Universidad de Chile and the Director of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (www.cmm.uchile.cl). He obtained his degree in Mathematical Engineering from Universidad de Chile in 2002 and his PhD in Applied Mathematics from École Polytechnique (France) in 2005. His research focuses on continuous optimization theory, particularly on the stability analysis of conic programming, and on the applications of optimal control, optimization and IA techniques in health management related problems. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the Charles Broyden Prize in 2010.
Héctor has delivered keynote talks at numerous institutions and conferences and has served on the program committees of several international conferences dedicated to optimization, digital health, and other related fields. Since 2017, he has been the Chief Editor of the Continuous Optimization area of the journal Operations Research Letters and serves as associate editor in many optimization and engineering journals. Additionally, he regularly serves on divers Chilean advisory councils and has led numerous R&D projects with industry and the public sector.