Malta Conference Research Articles

Actions from the June ACS Board of Directors meeting

The American Chemical Society Board of Directors met virtually June 4–5 and took several actions. The following are highlights: On the recommendation of the Women Chemists Committee, the board approved the submission of several scientists’ names to a US Mint program that celebrates the accomplishments of prominent American women with special quarter-dollar coins. The board approved funding to cosponsor the 10th Malta Conference happening Dec. 5–10; authorized the list of Petroleum Research Fund grant recommendations submitted by the PRF Advisory Board; and approved several amendments to ACS regulations presented by the ACS Office of the Secretary and General Counsel. These amendments ensure that ACS regulations conform with the recently approved Petition to Harmonize Committee Structures, which simplified and standardized numerous aspects of the various committees reporting in whole or in part to the counsel. The board also agreed that a $2 million distribution should be used to benefit membership and

Malta X Anniversary and COVID-19

Abstract In December 2021, the Malta X Conference “Frontiers of Science: Innovation, Research and Education in the Middle East—A Bridge to Peace” will mark the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Malta Conferences. The first Malta Conference was held on the island of Malta in 2003 amidst the height of the Second Intifada. Since then, the Malta Conferences Foundation (MCF) has been a pioneer in using science diplomacy as a bridge to peace and sustainable development in the Middle East [1]. MCF uses science diplomacy to advance the following four UN Sustainable Development Goals: 1. Ensure inclusive and quality education for all (Goal 4) 2. Ensure access of Water and Sanitation for all (Goal 6) 3. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern Energy for all (Goal 7), and 4. Promote Peace and Justice, as well as inclusive societies (Goal 16). In 2016, MCF received the UN NOVUS Summit award for Goal 16: Peace and Justice [2]. The Summit was held in the UN General Assembly.

Chemistry for peace

This is a guest editorial by Zafra Lerman, president of the Malta Conferences Foundation, and Emma Zajdela, a PhD student at Northwestern University. Chemistry provides hope for peace and understan...

A chain reaction for peace

This is a guest editorial by Zafra Lerman, president of the Malta Conferences Foundation, and Ben Margolin, a volunteer writer for the Malta Conferences Foundation. Given the tumultuous political situation in the Middle East, it is important—perhaps now more than ever—to foster new grassroots collaborations in the region. Imagine a room with Israeli, Palestinian, and Syrian scientists collaborating on regional issues while also building friendships. For many, this seems impossible. At the Malta Conferences, this is the norm. The eighth Malta Conference (Malta VIII) was held Dec. 10–15, 2017, in Malta. Malta VIII had workshops that focused on chemical, biological, and nuclear security; air and water quality; sustainability of energy and materials resources; medicinal chemistry, organic and biochemistry, biophysics and biotechnology; science and technology education at all levels; and entrepreneurship and innovation. A total of 26 oral and 39 poster presentations were given in the workshop sessions by participants from

Step Malta Conference

Step Malta Conference

The 2014 AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy goes to Zafra M. Lerman

Zafra M. Lerman, creator and advocate for the Biennial Malta Conferences, which promote international scientific cooperation and diplomacy by convening scientists from 15 Middle Eastern nations, has been chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to receive the 2014 Award for Science Diplomacy.

Coleridge, Southey, and Life in a Warm Climate

In July, 1801, three weeks after returning from his second stay in Lisbon, Southey told William Taylor of Norwich that Coleridge was miserably ill & must quit England for warmer or perish (SCL 595; Robberds, 1: 369-70). Even before leaving Lisbon, Southey wrote to Coleridge in March, 1801, commending Portugal for its blessed winter sun & summer paradise of Cintra. He adds that, if ill health should also proceed from English skies, we may perhaps emigrate together at last (SCL, 572; Cabral, 153; LC SL, 1: 254). The importance of Mediterranean experience from 1804 to 1806, first as what he called a son of diplomatic Understrapper to Sir Alexander Ball in Malta (CCL 2: 1146), and then on vacation in Sicily and haft, has long been recognized--in spite of presumed loss of many of reports sent back to Daniel Stuart (CCL 2: 1165). Issues of friend in earl 1810 throw some light on time in Malta, through four instalments of his eulogistic biographical sketch of Ball, who had died in 1809 (friend nos. 21, 22, 26, 27). But in 1976, Donald Sultana's Coleridge in Malta and Italy drew on notebooks to illustrate impact of months spent in Mediterranean--notably on attitude to Catholicism, culminating in his denunciation of Rome as the undoubted Anti-Christ (Sultana, 261). Interest in Mediterranean months was revived in 2010 by Hough and Davies in Laws: 11 Study (y Coleridge in Malta, prefaced by Michael John Kooy's critique of attitude to rule of' law (Hough and Davies, xvi-xxviii). In 2011, at Malta conference, in paper called Coleridge's Light in Malta and Rome, Michael Raiger (see above) spoke of notebook entry for February 12, 1805, when awful Truth of doctrine of Trinity burst upon him. At same Malta conference, Tim Fulford offered shortened and re-worked version of his and Polytheism: Britain's Colonies and Politics (Romanticism 1999: 232-53). Fulford argued plausibly if somewhat paradoxically, that it was encounter with Mediterranean Catholicism that led to his abandonment of Unitarianism. Coleridge, guilt-ridden about his failure to shake off his opium addiction, needed redemptive Trinitarian theology with its emphasis on Atonement--a doctrine denied by Unitarians and seemingly obscured by Catholic teaching on sacrament of Penance and pains of Purgatory. Coleridge famously claimed to have been though Trinitarian in philosophy, yet zealous Unitarian in religion (BL 96-7). Raiger showed twin impact of climate and culture in awakening sense of part sunlight plays in cognition of form. And encounter in Rome with Washington Allston, whom Coleridge calls a Painter born to renew 15th century, enables poet-philosopher (Raiger claims) to find in Allston's imaginative representation of God-created nature the perfect image of aesthetic unity in one and many. Allston can be seen as providing an aesthetic symbolism through which Coleridge can articulate his philosophical trinitarianism--to create unity out of multiplicity. …

Malta Conferences Foundation Established

Malta Conferences Foundation Established