On day three of the Nobel Prize Summit our partners will be hosting events that put our discussion themes into practice. Separate registration is required. See below for more information.

For information on the summit’s Main Stage programme click here.

Transformational Economics – Valuing Our Future

Hosted by The Club of Rome
28 April, 08:00-10:00 EDT: Watch the event

Humanity is now the largest driver of change on Earth. To minimise risk of climate change and biodiversity loss, this next decade must see the fastest economic transformation in history and at a global scale. How does economic thinking accommodate these facts? How do economists make sense of this new responsibility for our planet? Ultimately, if we are to value our future we need to value resilience in societies and in nature. This Solution Session will explore new economic thinking that will contribute to building fairer, resilient societies on a resilient planet, introduce the EarthForAll project and discuss the role of philanthropy in funding the change we need. In two parts, speakers will discuss transformational economic thinking and transformational leadership.

Speakers:

• Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President, Club of Rome
• Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
• Andrew Steer, President and CEO, Bezos Earth Fund
• Per Espen Stoknes, Director, Centre for Green Growth, Norwegian Business School
• Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation
• Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Ilona Otto, Professor, Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz
• Carlota Perez, Honorary Professor, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London
• Jennifer Hinton, Researcher, Stockholm Resilience Centre
• Leslie Johnston, CEO, Laudes Foundation
• Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director, Global Wallace Fund
• Felicitas von Peter, Managing Partner, Active Philanthropy
• Tom Steinbach, Executive Director, Sea Change Foundation

Roots of Change: Empathy as a Collective Responsibility

Hosted by DICCE, GenZGirlGang, and ProjectLets
28 April, 9:30-11:30 EDT: Watch the event

We are in an empathy crisis. In a world defined by political ideology, race, and economic status, there seem to be more that divides us than unites us. And this polarisation creates barriers, both for mutual understanding and societal problem-solving. Citigroup estimates that the United States economy has lost $16 trillion from racism against African Americans over the past twenty years. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a measure of wellbeing, has been stagnant. In order to move forward, we must acknowledge our collective responsibility in addressing the empathy crisis. In this discussion, we will explore the scientific impact of empathy and how we can embed empathy into our science, systems, and individual lives. We will hear from leading cognitive behavioral scientists on the sociobiological basis of empathy and from incredible thought leaders and psychologists on how to ground ourselves in revolutionary empathy. In this youth-led session, we will explore new ways of measuring social progress and help you explore your own empathy and active listening through some fun speed-friending activities!

Moderators:

• Phoebe Omonira, Director of Community Outreach at Gen Z Girl Gang
• Lyne Odhiambo
• Zoe Jenkins, Founder of DICCE

Speakers:

• Julie Fratantoni, Head of Operations, The BrainHealth Project, Center for BrainHealth, University of Texas at Dallas
• Gary A. Hoover, Executive Director of the Murphy Institute and Professor of Economics, Tulane University
• Robert Biswas-Diener, Managing Director, Positive Acorn

Our Planet – From Human Impact to Climate Action and Sustainable Industry Solutions

Hosted by Embassy of Sweden to the U.S.
28 April, 10:00-11:30 EDT: Watch the event

The human impact on nature is undeniable. The never-ending demand for limited natural resources leaves lasting effects on the environment and risks the loss of biological diversity. With a foundation in science, industry is a vital part of the solution by creating efficient resource utilisation aiming to reduce the negative impact on the environment. What does science tell us about the human impact on nature and loss of biodiversity? How can science contribute to industries’ ongoing sustainability efforts? How do companies incorporate science in developing strategies and plans for a smaller environmental footprint? How can science and industry inspire and innovate sustainable solutions? This event will address these issues with a foundation in the findings from the Nobel Prize Summit and in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Speakers:

• H. E. Karin Olofsdotter, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States
• Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
• Carl Folke, Director, Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and Chair, Stockholm Resilience Center
• Cristian Samper,  President and CEO Wildlife Conservation Society
• Emma Nehrenheim, Chief Environmental Officer, Northvolt
• Florian Schattenmann, CTO and VP of R&D and Innovation, Cargill
• Tuula Teeri, President, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
• Gayle Schueller, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, 3M
• Theodor Swedjemark, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer, ABB
• Heather Johnson, VP Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson
• Lena Hök, Senior Vice Prsident Sustainability, Skanska Group
• Anna Sjöström-Douagi, Program Director, Nobel Prize Summit

The Future of Sustainability Education

Hosted by the NASEM Science and Technology for Sustainability Program, and the NASEM Board on Higher Education and Workforce
28 April, 10:00-11:30 EDT: Watch the event

This event will highlight the findings and recommendations from the recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report, Strengthening Sustainability Programs and Curricula at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels with a focus on the future of sustainability education. The report provides expert insights for strengthening the emerging discipline of sustainability in higher education in the United States. Presentations and facilitated discussion will examine the role of universities in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital learning opportunities and student engagement, and the critical need to build a K-12 pipeline to higher education.

Moderator: Arun Agrawal (NAS), Samuel Trask Dana Professor, School for the Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Speakers:

• Marcia McNutt (NAS), President, National Academy of Sciences
• Marilu Hastings, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
• Anne Kapuscinski, Director, Coastal Science and Policy Program, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
• Ellen Stofan, Under Secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian Institution
• Dan Higgins, Global Technology Consulting Leader, Ernst & Young Global Ltd.
• Sajitha Bashir, Adviser, Office of the Global Director, Education Practice, The World Bank
• Jeffrey Sachs (NAM), President, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
• Sir Richard Roberts, Chief Scientific Officer, New England BioLabs, Inc. (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993)
• Zohra Yermeche, Program Director, Connect to Learn, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson

Startup Solutions: How Social Enterprises Are Addressing 21st Century Challenges

Hosted by Halcyon and S&R Foundation
28 April, 10:00-11:00 EDT: Watch the event

Startups provide the most nimble, adaptive and fast-paced business solutions to many of the most pressing 21st century environmental and sustainability challenges.  In concert with governments, large industry and engaged leadership, social enterprises have a critical role to play.  This event will feature three remarkable social enterprise founders who have integrated both profit and purpose into their business models in order to maximize their impact.  Learn the story behind some of the most innovative social ventures in the world and how these enterprises will help to create a brighter future for humans and our planet.

Moderator: Joshua Mandell, Chief Operating Officer, Halcyon
Speakers:

• Svanika Balasubramanian, CEO, RePurpose Global
• Sam Teicher, CEO, Coral Vita
• Phil Wong, CEO, Misfit Foods
• Sandhya Murali, COO, Solstice

From Results in the Lab to Results on the Ground

Hosted by Global Solutions Summit
28 April, 11:00-12:30 EDT: Watch the event

How can we ensure that cutting edge scientific results enhance sustainability and lead to concrete improvements in peoples’ lives?  To accomplish these objectives, scientific knowledge has to be embedded in products and organizations that meet three criteria: (1) financial, operational, and environmental sustainability; (2) accessibility to the billions of people at the lower/est strata of the income pyramid rather than serving only the economic elites; (3) deployed at scale to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people in dozens of countries in thousands of communities around the world. The panelists will explain that this daunting task is eminently worth pursuing, but will require some changes to business-as-usual procedures in the scientific community and elsewhere.

Moderator: Alfred Watkins, Chairman, Global Solutions Summit
Speakers:

• Theresa Kotanchek, Chief Executive Officer of Evolved Analytics
• Ramesh Mashelkar (NAS/NAE), Former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Former President of Indian National Science Academy
• Maurizio Vecchione, Co-founder of AdAstral and President and CEO of Washington Global Health Alliance

Online Disinformation and Human Rights

Hosted by the NASEM Committee on Human Rights
28 April, 11:30 EDT: Watch the event

This fireside chat examines the role of digital disinformation and media manipulation in entrenching societal inequalities, driving polarization, and eroding public trust.  The panelists will discuss possible human rights-based approaches to countering disinformation online.

Moderator: Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS

Speakers:

• Safiya Noble, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2)
• Kate Starbird, Associate Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington

Smart Cities and New Green Solutions

Hosted by Embassy of Italy to the United States
28 April, 12:00-13:15 EDT: Watch the event

Inspired by the motto of the G20 Italian Presidency in 2021, ‘People, Planet, Prosperity’, and on the triple special occasion of the 160th anniversary of Italy-U.S. diplomatic relations, the Italian co-presidency of COP26, and the Italian Research Day in the World, the Embassy of Italy to the U.S. organizes, in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences, a high visibility event on April 28. The theme will be Urban Sustainability, with a panel of top-notch experts from both sides of the Atlantic, to discuss the global challenge of developing smart, people-oriented and resilient cities that could improve the long-term health of the planet’s human and ecological systems.

Speakers:

• Marcia McNutt, President, National Academy of Science, USA
• Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of Italy to the United States
• Maria Cristina Messa, Minister of Universities and Research, Italy
• Stanley Whittingham (NAE), Director, NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Binghamton University (State University of New York) (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2019)
• Chris Greer, Senior Executive for Cyber-Physical Systems, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce
• Debra Lam, Managing Director for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation, Institute for People and Technology, Georgia Tech
• Carlo Ratti, Director of Senseable City Lab, MIT
• Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, Professor of Physical Oceanography, MIT

A Call for an Intergovernmental Panel on the Information Environment

Hosted by PeaceTech Lab
28 April, 12:00 – 13:30 EDT: Watch the event

In response to the existential threat posed by the proliferation of false information across online and offline media, leadership at PeaceTech Lab proposes the consideration of the formation of an Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) equivalent — the Intergovernmental Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) — to analyse the global information environment in order to provide governments with recommendations, based on science, for arriving at objective, transparent standards for a healthy global information environment and the actions needed to achieve it. With expert voices and thought leaders, this panel will explore the practicalities and importance of creating an IPIE in our immediate future.

Moderator: Sheldon Himelfarb, President & CEO, PeaceTech Lab

Speakers:

• Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer and Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist
• Phil Howard, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute
• Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Prize laureate, journalist and human rights activist
• Katherine Maher, Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation and CEO, Wikipedia

Critical Pathway: Implementing Comprehensive Design Models for People & Planet

Hosted by The Peace Department
28 April, 12:00-13:30 EDT: Watch the event

This session will include as a series of talks shedding light on the challenges we face globally, and the solutions the economic, political, and social sectors can bring to a collaborative effort. Our partners will join us in sharing the roles they play in the global development framework, and from this we will focus our discussion on establishing a potential working relationship towards executing the SDG critical pathway: a pathway that includes using sustainably-focused research and scientific theory to craft deployable solutions, aligning philanthropic and investment efforts to build new markets, and integrating new local and international policies that seed and cultivate sustainable change.  By addressing coordination shortfalls and bringing together experts in global economic systems, carbon emissions research, sustainable climate policy, and international development, the session will tackle the challenge and promise of putting innovation and capital to work. Through this panel’s collaborations we begin to bridge the gap between intention and action to accelerate progress on the dual global crises of climate change and systemic inequality.

Speakers:

• James Sternlicht, Co-Founder, Peace Department
• Bobby Kia, Co-Founder, Peace Department
• Pierre Ferrari, CEO, Heifer International
• Martin Wainstein, Founder & Executive Director, Open Earth Foundation
• Zoe Knight, Group Head, Centre for Sustainable Finance, HSBC
• William Sonneborn, Senior Director of Technologies and Funds, the International Finance Corporation
• Aude de Montesquiou, Senior Advisor, Strategy and Digital Innovations, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
• Richard Zimmerman, Partner, WE Family Offices
• The Honorable Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, and founder of Realizing Rights and Climate Justice

Acting Today for an Ambitious Tomorrow

Hosted by 3M
28 April, 12:00-13:00 EDT: Watch the event

Corporations play a crucial role in advancing the health of our planet, protecting its natural resources, and building a better future for its people—and stakeholders increasingly expect them to do so. Addressing our shared global challenges will require more ambitious commitments, action grounded in data, as well as broader cross-sector collaboration. Through the exchange of insights and ideas, this Solution Session will detail how corporate commitments are driving positive impact, the best approaches for leveraging technology and learning from data, and the crucial role of unified action in driving us toward a brighter future.

Speakers:

• Gayle Schueller, 3M Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer
• John Banovetz, 3M Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Environmental Responsibility
• Peter Lacy, Accenture Chief Responsibility Officer and Global Sustainability Services Lead
• Chris Coulter, GlobeScan Chief Executive Officer

The SDGs and International Collaboration

Hosted by the NASEM Science and Technology for Sustainability Program
28 April, 13:00-14:00 EDT: Watch the event

The pandemic has made the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more challenging, with increasing concerns about supply chain disruption, environmental degradation, and persistent inequalities. As the international community slowly adapts to a new normal, the pace of global policy discussions should accelerate to deliver much needed change. This special session will highlight the importance of international collaboration for achieving the SDGs with a timeline of 2030. Presentations and facilitated discussions with Nobel Prize laureates will focus on the role of science, technology, and innovation in support of more effective policies and actions towards sustainability; advancing awareness of the SDGs with a particular focus on the youth, civil society, and the new US administration; and research agendas related to sustainability and the SDGs to inform post-2030 processes.

Moderators:

• Andrew Steer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bezos Earth Fund
• Amanda Ellis, Director, Global Partnerships, Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University

Speakers:

• Tateo Arimoto, Principal Fellow, Japan Science and Technology Agency and Visiting Professor and Deputy Director, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Center, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
• Moira Mcdonald, Environment Program Director, Walton Family Foundation
• Daya Reddy, President, International Science Council and South African Research Chair in Computational Mechanics, University of Cape Town
• Peter Schlosser, Vice President and Vice Provost, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University
• Ada Yonath (NAS), Director, The Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Centre for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly, Weizmann Institute of Science (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2009)