Great works for the 21st century

Abstract

As we enter the 21st century, there can be no doubt that our world faces an enormous range of social, technological, and political challenges. For example, with almost 3 billion people on the planet earning less than $2/day, over one billion people still lack access to clean drinking water. If we want to stabilize global warming at 2oC, we will need the ability to produce 30-60 terawatts of carbon-free power by 2050 -- the equivalent of a large, carbon-free power plant every day between now and the year 2050. As daunting as these challenges seem, we must remember that individuals, governments, and foundations are capable of great works that lead to economic and social progress and improvements in our quality of life. Examples in the 20th century include Andrew Carnegie's decision to fund public libraries, the GI Bill, the Marshall Plan, the eradication of smallpox, and the Green Revolution.Throughout history, the major research universities in the world have played a leading role in informing public debate, identifying key issues, performing basic research that has led to many of the major developments of our age and, last but not least, educating our global leaders. Today, a growing number of faculty at major research universities throughout the world are interested in pursuing research, education and service that addresses the major domestic and global challenges we all face. As an example at Berkeley, this is reflected in multidisciplinary initiatives such as our Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). Obviously, such an agenda does not supplant the need for continued excellence in individual disciplines and for basic, curiosity-driven research.In this presentation I will describe a set of candidate Great Works for the 21st Century and will sketch an outline of how the world's leading research universities could collaborate to determine a global research agenda, to identify and prioritize the problems we face, and to develop an international public-private partnership to tackle them.