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News from ICTP 111 - Commentary
The John Templeton Foundation has launched an awards programme for scientists and scholars examining the relationship between Islamic culture and modern science. ICTP will oversee the effort.
Templeton Foundation Prizes
The John Templeton Foundation,
headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, has announced
that it will fund five new awards designed to recognise and assist
young 'scholar-leaders' who have vigorously examined the 'creative
interface' between traditional Islamic culture and modern science.
ICTP has been asked to administer the programme. Each prize will
carry a cash award of US$20,000.
"In these difficult times," says Charles Harper, the
John Templeton Foundation's executive director and senior vice
president, "we are pleased to sponsor a series of prizes
that we hope will help promising young scholar-leaders better
establish themselves as opinion makers within their own countries
and regions. We also hope our efforts will help these young scholar-leaders
build ties with their peers worldwide."
"Our aim," adds Barnaby Marsh, who directs the Foundation's
Venture Philanthropy Strategy and New Programs Development, "is
to support scientists engaged in exploring the important challenges
posed by the intersection of the worlds of science and religion
in a critical part of the world."
The five prizes, to be given annually, include the:
-- Abdus Salam Prize for Leadership in Islamic Thought and
the Physical Sciences.
-- ICTP Prizes (2) for Leadership in Islamic Thought and the Applied
Sciences.
-- Ahmed Zewail Prize for Leadership in Islamic Thought and the
Biological and Chemical Sciences.
-- Ahmed Zewail Prize for Leadership in Science and Islamic Life.
Pakistani-born Salam, founding director of ICTP, and Egyptian-born
Zewail, professor of chemistry at the California Institute of
Technology, are the only two scientists from the Islamic world
to have won the Nobel Prize.
"We are delighted that the Templeton Foundation has decided
to launch this initiative," says ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan,
"and we are happy that it has chosen the Centre to implement
the programme. The goals of the initiative fit well with the Centre's
expanding agenda to not only assist individual scientists, which
it has done so well over the past 40 years, but also to improve
the environment for research in their home countries. The ultimate
aim is to ensure that science becomes an integral part of the
larger agenda for economic and social development not only in
the Islamic world but throughout the developing world."
Candidates will be selected for their 'demonstrated' ability to
insightfully and sensitively examine the relationship between
Islamic culture and modern science both in scholarly and popular
writings. The hope is that recipients of the prize will have displayed---and
will continue to display---the talent and drive necessary to engage
their colleagues and the larger public in exploring this complex
issue, especially their colleagues and the public in the Islamic
world.
"This initiative," says Harper, "builds upon several
exploratory workshops and conferences convened by the John Templeton
Foundation in France and Morocco over the past few years that
have focused on religion and science in the Islamic world. Our
ultimate objective is to develop a core group of scholars and
scientists who can emerge as experts and intellectual trend-setters
both within their own countries and regions and throughout the
world."
For additional information about the John Templeton Foundation's
Prizes for Leadership in Science and Public Life programme, see
www.ictp.it or www.templeton.org.