Abstract

The Vancouver Olympics reveal stark differences between the worlds of sports and science. In both, young people from around the world try to surpass all previous accomplishments in pursuit of world records or scientific discoveries. Selected entirely on merit, athletes receive honor just for participating in the games, spurring the next generation of young people in each nation to excel. And as star athletes age, they often support their sport in other ways, serving as advocates, mentors, or coaches. In contrast, in too many nations, the selection and promotion processes in science involve considerations other than merit. Senior scientists receive most of the resources available for scientific research, and young scientists rarely receive societal recognition for their work. This situation is growing worse as life expectancies and retirement ages increase, along with the average age for attaining scientific independence. * Perhaps as one consequence, science is typically not a top career choice. How many exceptional scientists around the world thereby go unrecognized, their talents allowed to wither away untapped? In an attempt to reverse such trends, a nascent “young national academies” movement has begun across the globe, and a new international group has recently been established to promote this cause.

Highlights

  • This effort is modeled on the formation of national young academies, only a few of which have been established so far

  • Weiss is a professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine, and founding co-chair of the Global Young Academy (GYA)

  • More than 100 young scientists from 40 countries have created an organization called the Global Young Academy (GYA), with the encouragement and support of senior scientists through the InterAcademy Panel for International Issues (IAP).** The GYA will unite talented young scientists from around the world: those around the age of 35 who are nominated by senior scientists in their own nations as likely future leaders

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Summary

Introduction

This effort is modeled on the formation of national young academies, only a few of which have been established so far. T. Brück is head of the Department of International Economics at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), professor of Development Economics at Humboldt-University of Berlin, and Chair of the Board of Die Junge Akademie. H. Hilgenkamp is a professor in Physics at the University of Twente, Enschede, and at Leiden University in the Netherlands and a member of the Young Academy of the Netherlands.

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