1Y E A R 2 0 0 1JA N - M A R

VOL .13 NO.1

newsletterTWAST H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E T H I R D W O R L D A C A D E M Y O F S C I E N C E S

Published with the support of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences

CONTENTS 2EDITORIAL 4 IAP AND THE TRIESTE SYSTEM 7PATHWAYS OF

HOPE 12ENTREPRENEURIAL SCIENCE 18TO THE LAST DROP 23OBITUARIES

26PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS

TWAS NEWSLETTER

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY WITH

THE SUPPORT OF THE KUWAIT

FOUNDATION FOR THE

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCES (KFAS)

BY THE THIRD WORLD

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (TWAS)

C/O THE ABDUS SALAM

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE

FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS

STRADA COSTIERA 11

34014 TRIESTE, ITALY

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TELEX: 460392 ICTP I

E-MAIL: INFO@TWAS-ONLINE.ORG

WEBSITE: WWW.TWAS-ONLINE.ORG

EDITOR

DANIEL SCHAFFER

ASSISTANT EDITOR/SET UP

GISELA ISTEN

TWAS SUPPORT STAFF

HELEN GRANT, HELEN MARTIN,

LEENA MUNGAPEN,

SANDRA RAVALICO

DESIGN & ART DIRECTION

SANDRA ZORZETTI, RADO JAGODIC

(LINK, TRIESTE)

PRINTING

MOSETTI TECNICHE GRAFICHE

UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED,

THE TEXT OF THIS NEWSLETTER

IS WRITTEN BY ITS EDITOR AND MAY

BE REPRODUCED FREELY WITH DUE

CREDIT TO THE SOURCE

W ater is a fundamental constituent of life and the environment. Its use and con-

servation affects all aspects of sustainable socio-economic development. And, as

we are often reminded by the tragic effects of drought and flooding, it is a cru-

cial natural resource.

At the dawn of the third millennium, water has also become a strategic commodity, as pro-

viding good quality freshwater to all at an acceptable cost becomes increasingly difficult. Even

in regions with high precipitation rates and in major river basins, overuse and mismanage-

ment of water resources have constrained supplies. Much of this stress is experienced in de-

veloping countries where adjustments in living conditions due to interruptions in water sup-

plies are usually more severe.

During the past century, several severe droughts often affecting developing countries were

interspersed with years marked by above normal rainfall levels. Recall, for example,

widespread and recurrent droughts

during the past four decades in

Africa, where several sub-regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, experienced periodic

droughts on an annual basis. Sharp drops in precipitation adversely affected freshwater re-

source management and contributed to enormous human suffering and economic loss due to

reductions in crop yields and the generation of hydroelectric power.

Meanwhile, several Third World countries, such as Bangladesh, China, Mexico and

Somalia, experienced periods of overly abundant rainfall leading to major floods and land-

slides with significant socio-economic impacts. Excessive rainfall not only caused major loss of

human and animal life, spread of water-borne diseases, agricultural destruction, and infras-

tructure damage, but posed grave risks to hydrological facilities and the ability to provide

clean and safe fresh water.

Water and Development

EDITORIAL

[CONTINUED PAGE 3]

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1The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) believes that a better understanding of

the scientific, technological, economic and institutional factors shaping our hydrological sys-

tems play a vital role in devising strategies for the sustainable use and management of water

resources. WMO is convinced that research initiatives should be promoted and enhanced, par-

ticularly those related to the potential impact of climate change on freshwater resources, both

globally and regionally. The scientific community, moreover, must ensure that their findings

are translated into action-oriented recommendations that can be used in national and inter-

national policy evaluation, formulation, and planning.

An integrated approach to freshwater management offers a means of reconciling compet-

ing demands with dwindling supplies, as well as a framework for effective regional and in-

ternational co-operation. In this regard, the exchange of experiences and

adoption of the best practices will be indispensable for countries to suc-

cessfully manage their water resources.

That is why WMO has joined the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in supporting the Third

World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO) project, “Promoting

Best Practices for Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use of

Water Resources in the South.” The project not only aims to identify and

disseminate best practices for conserving and improving the quality and

quantity of water resources in the Third World, but also to promote col-

laboration between centres of excellence with expertise in hydrology and

water resources management.

Such an undertaking presents an opportunity for the South to embrace

best practices for sustainable water development by enabling it to find in-

digenous solutions to problems rather than embracing applications of

questionable utility from the North. Indeed we expect the TWNSO project to increase access

to information on best practices for the conservation and sustainable use of water resources

in the Third World as well as to encourage partnerships and co-operation among all institu-

tions of excellence in the South devoted to water resource management issues. ■

> Mohamed TawfikScientific Officer

World Meteorological OrganizationGeneva, Switzerland

S ince the end of World War II,the Italian government hasdedicated an increasing

amount of resources to the promo-tion of global peace and progressthrough support for institutionsthat nurture scientific and culturalexchange among nations.

No effort is more exemplarythan the Italian government’ssponsorship of a cluster of inter-national centres of scientific ex-cellence that have been built overthe past 35 years in Trieste, a city

of some

250,000 residents tucked away inthe northeast corner of Italy on theshores of the Adriatic Sea near theborder with Slovenia. In fact, thesuccess of our efforts have helpedtransform Trieste’s image of a cityknown for ship-building and cof-fee processing to one known as adistinctive science centre dedicat-ed to helping scientists and scien-tific institutions in the developingworld.

Among the key institutionsforming part of what has come tobe called the Trieste System are theAbdus Salam International Centerfor Theoretical Physics (ICTP),founded in 1964; the Third WorldAcademy of Sciences (TWAS),founded in 1983; the InternationalCentre for Genetic Engineering

and Biotechnology (ICGEB),founded in 1987; and the In-

ternational Center for Science andHigh Technology (ICS), foundedin 1988.

These institutions, which re-ceive most of their funding from theItalian government, have been cre-

ated to promote international coop-eration and exchange in the fieldsof physics, mathematics, genetic en-gineering and biotechnology.

A key goal of the system is toassist developing countries instrengthening their scientific andtechnological capabilities. Togetherwith the University of Trieste andother scientific institutions, such asthe Elettra synchrotron radiationlight source laboratory and theItalian National Research Council(CNR), the Italian Commission forNew Technologies, Energy and theEnvironment (ENEA), and the Ita-lian National Institute for NuclearPhysics (INFN) (all of which haveregional offices in Trieste’s AREAScience Park), ICTP, TWAS, ICGEBand ICS form part of a significantgroup of institutions that haveearned a worldwide reputation, es-pecially for their strong and endur-ing partnerships with scientists andscientific institutions from develop-ing countries.

With the end of the ideologicaldivisions that defined the Cold War,

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IAP AND THETRIESTE SYSTEM

COMMENTARY

globalization of markets and cul-ture has become one of the drivingforces in a world that seems to bemoving both closer together andfarther apart at the same time.Technology, and the science thatpropels it, are key ingredients inthe paradoxical situation in whichthe global community finds itselfduring the first years of the newmillennium.

New information technologiesin particular have generated agreat deal of hope that the gnaw-ing gap in material well-being be-tween the North and South can beclosed by the rapid diffusion of da-ta and information. But thatpromise has been tainted by anequally compelling portrait of re-ality, which reveals that one-thirdof the world’s population — some2 billion people — are excludednot only from the benefits of dis-tant technological innovations butalso from local technologies sim-ply because they do not have theknowledge or skills to take advan-tage of even relatively basic scien-

tific and technical information. Forthese “technologically dispos-sessed,” it is not a matter of lan-guishing below a certain level ofeconomic well-being; rather, it is acase of being left out of the eco-nomic arena all together.

Innovation, especially the high-technology-driven innovation ofthe new millennium, tends tofavour those who are already suc-cessfully involved in the develop-ment of new technologies. Ideasfoster new ideas and existing tech-nologies push towards new techno-logical boundaries. That’s why ourera is filled with such paradox. Theforces that offer such hope for im-provement in the developing worldare the same forces accounting forincreasing disparities between therich and poor.

This is not the place to examinethe factors that both describe andexplain the wide-ranging gaps thatcurrently exist between the Northand South — for example, in gov-ernance, education, public health,food production and energy use.

Neither is it the place to explorethe lessons from past experiencesthat governments and internation-al aid agencies might apply to fu-ture development policies.

But I do think that it is worthnoting with subdued pride (sub-dued because the task is immenseand we all know that we should bedoing much more than we actuallydo) that in Trieste hundreds ofscientists are working in institu-tions dedicated to helping ThirdWorld countries adopt and em-brace advanced technology. Theirultimate goal is to narrow the gapbetween slower and faster innovat-ing regions around the globe.

New ideas are often generatedby revamping existing ones. As aresult, environments rich in ideasoften spark a chain reaction of in-novations.

The Italian government be-lieves that the InterAcademy Panel(IAP) has a fundamental role toplay in this respect: Its task isnothing less than helping to pro-mote a more equitable world at a

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[CONTINUED PAGE 6]

time when concerned citizensthroughout the globe concur thatinequality in innovation and in thesharing of technology are at thecore of a North-South divide madeeven more intractable by global-ization.

It is easy to prophesize that theindustrialized world’s rapid scien-tific and technological progressduring the past century will contin-ue at an even swifter pace in theyears ahead. It is also easy toprophesize that global problems af-fecting welfare and even the sur-vival of humanity will increaseboth in number and intensity.International organizations likethe United Nations, regional orga-nizations like the European Union,and national governments, whichhave had to face similar problemsin the past, will need the most up-to-date and unbiased scientific da-ta and information to confrontthese challenges in the future.

Last year, the Italian govern-ment gave its active diplomatic

support to TWAS to serve IAP’s sec-retariat. The Italian governmentnow reaffirms its commitment byannouncing that it will make anannual contribution of half a mil-lion Euro to help fund IAP pro-grammatic initiatives both in 2001and 2002.

A great Iranian poet, OmarKhayyam, wrote:

There was a veil past which I could not see

There was a door to which I found no key

Critics of science contend thatscience only provides temporaryresults that require continuous up-dating and, moreover, that scienceonly offers a series of possiblescenarios on the future conditionof the Earth that we inhabit andwhose natural bounty we dependon for well-being and survival.

The truth is, however, that sci-ence gives us a key to a door thatcould open a world free of want,ignorance and hostility — a worldthat is made better for all of us and

not just those fortunate enough tobe born in the right place and atthe right time.

Such are the bright expecta-tions that the Italian governmenthas harboured for science sinceWorld War II and such are the ex-pectations it now extends to theIAP, which we are honoured to wel-come as the newest member of theTrieste System. On behalf of mygovernment, I wish IAP every suc-cess in meeting the challengingtasks it faces in seeking to buildscientific capacity and to expandthe role of science in decision-mak-ing throughout the globe, particu-larly in the developing world. ■

> Gianfranco Facco BonettiDirector General for Promotion

of Cultural CooperationItalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Rome, Italy

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Just a decade ago, it was not un-usual for one of every three villagersin parts of Burkina Faso, Ghana,Nigeria, and other nations in sub-Saharan Africa to be afflicted by river blindness each year.Today, virtually no one is. The progress that has been madein combating this disease, which has been most prevalentin Africa and Central and South America, represents one ofthe most triumphant public health campaigns ever wagedin the developing world.

But will this success continue? Nobody’s sure. Thereason for concern is that the parasites causing the dis-ease are likely to build resistance over time to the suc-cessful drug therapies that have been put into practice.For this reason, TWAS Fellow (1997) Thomas G. Egwangand his colleagues at the Medical BiotechnologyLaboratories at Makerere University in Kampala,Uganda, are seeking alternative treatments based on themedical community’s rapidly advancing knowledge ofmolecular biology and, more specifically, biochemicalpathways.

Such knowledge could helpresearchers devise carefully target-ed strategies designed to disruptthe disease-carrying parasites’

basic molecular functions. That, in turn, could serve asthe basis for undermining the parasites’ vitality anddisrupting their reproductive cycles.

To assist Egwang in his efforts, the Howard HughesMedical Institute, the largest non-profit medicalresearch organization in the United States, has award-ed him a 5-year, US$250,000 grant. Egwang was oneof 45 scientists, all experts in infectious and parasiticdiseases working outside the United States, to receivesupport. Neuroscientists, immunologists, cellular andstructural biologists, as well as geneticists, were amongthe grant recipients.

It’s difficult to believe that such a small, insignifi-cant organism could cause such a large problem. Butnematode parasites, or what most people call roundworms, have brought about one of the developing

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FEATURE

PATHWAYS OF HOPE

PROGRAMMES TO COMBAT RIVER BLINDNESS PROVIDE

BOTH A SUCCESS STORY AND CAUTIONARY TALE.

[CONTINUED PAGE 8]

world’s most troublesome public health problems:river blindness. Medical experts estimate that between18 and 20 million people, most living in Africa andCentral and South America, have been afflicted withthe ailment and that 300,000 of the victims have suf-fered from its most devastating effect: onchocerciasis,an acute inflammation of the eyes, which can causeblindness.

“River blindness,” explains TWAS Fellow (1997)Thomas Egwang, director general of the MedicalBiotechnology Laboratories in Kampala, Uganda, “is thecommon name given to the affliction caused by a nema-tode parasite or round worm (onchocerva volvulvus).

Blindness is the most acute and debilitating effect.But other problems include skin lesions, which areassociated with unbearable itching; loss of black pig-ment, which creates unseemly skin patches amongblacks victimized by the disease; and abnormal elastic-ity, which causes skin to hang loosely from the armsand other extremities. “It’s both a physically and psy-chologically devastating disease,” notes Egwang, “thathas ruined the lives of millions of people, many ofwhom are among the world’s poorest and most vul-nerable citizens.”

Fortunately, recent breakthroughs in medicalresearch have reduced the impact of river blindnessthat is transmitted by the bite of the black fly. As aresult, we are now largely living with the legacy of itsdevastation. While Egwang applauds the progress thathas been made, he is also leery about the long-termsustainability of the current drug treatments.

He explains the situation this way: “Ivermectin isthe only drug currently available that successfullystymies the disease. Over the past decade, the globaldrug company Merck has distributed ivermectin free-of-charge to heavily infected areas in Africa and Centraland South America.” Wide distribution of the drug,combined with effective vector control (aerial spraying

to kill flies that transmit the parasites)account for the dramatic decline

in annual rates of infection. Toaid in this effort, Helen KellerInternational’s Onchocercia-sis Division, established in1991, has worked closelywith African ministries of

health and nongovernmental organizations to raisepublic awareness about the disease and to help ensurethat effective community networks are created forinvermectin distribution.

“The problem,” Egwang continues, “is that iver-mectin only kills the parasites in their larval, not adult,stage, and adult worms can live within infected indi-viduals for 15 to 20 years. In fact, the parasites often

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MULTIPLE IMPACTS. River blindness derives itsname from the fact that scientists first identifiedconcentrations of the disease along fertile, oftensoggy, lands surrounding fast-flowing rivers.These lands serve as ideal environments for thebreeding of black flies that transmit the disease.But the disease is also present in drier savannaenvironments, for example, in Yemen and otherArabian countries. Scientists don’t know why,but river blindness found in humid environ-ments can ultimately lead to blindness whileafflictions of the disease in drier savanna envi-ronments do not. Under any circumstances,river blindness is a problem of enormous humanconsequence. Not only is it the third leadingcause of blindness in Africa, but even its lesserhealth impacts — lesions, itching, discoloration— take an enormous toll. A recent case study inEthiopia, for instance, concluded that workerson the nation’s second largest coffee plantationinfected with the disease were 15 percent lessproductive than uninfected workers, and thatwhen the head of a household suffered fromacute river blindness, the risk of a child leavingschool became twice as high than in familieswhere the head of household does not sufferfrom the disease. Simply put, the human andpsychological costs of river blindness often carryuntold social and economic costs as well.

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lie buried within skin nodules or lumps that are symp-tomatic of the disease.”

Research on round worm infestation in animalsindicates that parasites are building increasing resis-tance to existing therapies.Although such ominous trendshave yet to surface among thehuman population, Egwang andhis colleagues are convincedthat it is just a matter of time.“The challenge,” he says, “is touncover alternative therapiesbefore drug-defying parasitesbecome prevalent.”

The first step in dealing withthis potential problem is to identify suitable biochemi-cal drug targets within the cells of the parasite. “That’snot as easy to do as it might appear,” says Egwang. “Wemay know that the targets are out there but we don’tknow whether they constitute an Achilles heel. There’salways the possibility that we won’t be able to identifythe markers until the resistant mechanisms are geneti-cally coded within large segments of the parasite popu-lation. As is true in all efforts of this kind, the crucialstep in our drug development strategy is validation.”The problem is that, while such efforts go on, addition-al people will contract the disease and those that dowill find it more difficult to receive effective treatment.

Once the biochemical targets are identified and val-idated, the second step is to develop effective

inhibitors. The key is to locatemetabolic pathways so unique to theparasite that selective inhibitors have noadverse effects on human cells. Again this is eas-

ier said than done because hostsand parasites share manymetabolic pathways.

With funding from boththe World Health Organization(WHO) and the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA),the Medical Biotechnology La-boratories in Kampala, Uganda,which Egwang has directed since1995, has focused much of its

research on such “pathway” strategies. The laboratory’sstaff, consisting of 10 scientists, also studies molecularmarkers of drug resistance.

“We have operated on an annual budget ofUS$250,000 a year, which has come exclusively fromoutside sources,” says Egwang. “That’s why we were soencouraged when an e-mail message arrived inautumn 1999 asking us to submit a grant applicationto the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s internation-al research programme. It was an opportunity that wewere not about to let slip by.”

Eight months later, when Egwang received noticethat his grant proposal had been approved, he remem-bers “breaking into a grin and punching the air indelight.”

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[CONTINUED PAGE 10]

Medical experts estimate thatbetween 18 and 20 millionpeople, most living in Africa

and in Central and SouthAmerica, have been afflicted

with river blindness.

The Hughes grant offers agreat deal of latitude on how

recipients may spend the money.As Jill Conley, the institute’s senior

programme officer who is overseeing theEgwang grant, explains: “Funds can be used to coverany of a number of expenses that a researcher is likelyto incur in pursuing his or her research agenda, includ-ing the purchase of laboratory equipment and sup-plies, travel, publications, and stipends and salaries forscientists, students and technicians.”

Egwang intends to invest the grant money hereceives from Hughes on local training programmesthat will teach young African scientists about state-of-the-art molecular techniques. “Issues related to riverblindness will be our primary focus,” he notes. “Butwhat participants will learn can also be applied to thestudy and treatment of other parasitic diseases, includ-ing malaria. That’s what makes the learning process sovaluable. Once the skills are acquired, researchers willhave many opportunities to contribute to improve-ments in public health.”

“African scientists must become more proactive insetting the agenda for studies and applications ofmolecular biology,” Egwang adds. “We can no longerafford to remain passive recipients in efforts to advancethis new promising technology because, if we remainon the sidelines, it’s unlikely that the technology will beused to address medical issues of importance to thedeveloping world.” One way to increase the prospectsfor developing-world participation, Egwang observes, isto nurture centres of excellence in the South. And nocontinent is in more need of these centres than Africa.

Egwang contends that African scientists will happi-ly stay at home to pursue their careers if they can beassured of reasonable working conditions and pay.Those prerequisites can only be fulfilled through largesustainable investments in scientific personnel andfacilities.

“Unfortunately, the money that has been invested ininstitutes like mine, however welcome and valuable theresources have been, has come almost exclusively fromexternal sources. In most cases, we have yet to convinceour own governments about the value of our work and

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the impact that our findings could have on the futuresocial and economic well-being of our people.”

That’s why Egwang believes that scientists in Africaand elsewhere in the developing world must shoulderthe additional responsibility of serving as ambassadorsfor science who are willing to work the political corri-dors of their nation’s capitals to ensure that theirresearch efforts and those of their colleagues receiveadequate financial support.

Officials at Hughes recognizethe enormous obstacles faced byscientists in the South, particularlythose living and working in themost impoverished regions. “Ourefforts,” explains Conley, “repre-sent a modest attempt to helpscientists improve the classroomand laboratory environments inwhich they work. Since the institute’s internationalresearch scholars programme was launched in 1991,we have provided some US$50 million to 177 researchscientists working in 19 countries. The majority of ourrecipients have not only gone on to do excellentresearch but have also gained increasing visibilitywithin their countries.”

“The ultimate goal,” Conley says, “is to increase theresearch capacities within developing countries in

ways that gain both scientists and scientific institutionsthe recognition that they need to wage effective cam-paigns for funding from their own governments.” AsThomas Egwang observes, such “recognition is likelyto determine the sustainability of our efforts over thelong term.”

That helps to explains why Conley is so pleased bythe willingness of the Ugandan government to forego

custom fees on equipment andsupplies that Egwang will pur-chase from his grant funds. Inaddition, the government hasagreed to support two graduatestudents who will work in his lab-oratory.

“These actions,” says Conley,“are welcomed indications that theUganda government wants to

invigorate scientific research and is serious aboutsolidifying the nation’s infrastructure in science” — allencouraging signs that the Hughes grant funds maynot only help advance the research agenda of individ-ual scientists but help boost governmental commit-ments to science as well. ■

For more information about Medical BiotechnologyLaboratories’ research on river blindness

and other parasitic diseases, please contact > Thomas Egwang, Director General,

Makerere University, Medical BiotechnologyLaboratory, PO Box 9364, Kampala, Uganda;

phone: +256 41 268251/266445; fax: +256 41 268 251; e-mail: egwang@imul.com.

For more information about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, contact

> Jill G. Conley, Senior Program Officer,International and Research Resources Programs,

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones BridgeRoad, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, USA;

phone: +301 215 8873; fax: +301 347 3035; e-mail: conleyj@hhmi.org.

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Egwang believes thatscientists in Africa and

elsewhere in the developingworld must serve as

ambassadors for science.

As recent international tests assessingstudent achievement show, over thepast few decades many nations in thedeveloping world have made notewor-thy strides in the promotion of scienceand mathematics education. In fact,students in such developing countries as China, Iran andKorea now routinely outscore students in such developedcountries as Australia, Italy and the United States ininternational mathematics and science tests that aredesigned to measure and compare the knowledge andskills of students worldwide.

Where developing nations have fallen short is in theirefforts to devise strategies for applying the skills andtalents of their home-grown scientists and technologiststo real-world issues in ways that would have concreteeconomic payoffs in our increasingly global society.

That’s the gap that participants in the “Workshop onNew Economy and Entrepreneurial Business Creation

in Mediterranean Countries” soughtto address during discussions thattook place from 2-4 December, on thecampus of the Abdus Salam Interna-tional Centre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP). Some 30 individuals from 14

nations, including Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Morocco, and Tunisia, took part in the event.

The gathering was significant not only because itclosely examined an issue of critical importance to thefuture of the developing world but also because itmarked the first time in the history of the internation-al scientific community in Trieste that the ICTP, theThird World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and theInternational Centre for Science and High Technology(ICS) joined forces to co-sponsor an activity.

As Gallieno Denardo, former head of ICTP’s Officeof External Activities who spearheaded the effort toorganize the workshop, notes: “The three Trieste-based scientific institutions have common roots, are

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FEATURE

ENTREPRENEURIALSCIENCE

THREE TRIESTE-BASED INSTITUTIONS — ICTP, TWAS AND ICS —

RECENTLY CO-SPONSORED A WORKSHOP TO PROMOTE

ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION,

PARTICULARLY AMONG DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

located near to one another, and pursue complimenta-ry areas of expertise that should make them naturalpartners in cooperative ventures like this.”

All three institutions, for example, are adminis-tered by United Nations organizations: ICTP by theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO) and theInternational Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA); TWAS by UNESCO; and ICSby the United Nations IndustrialDevelopment Organization (UNIDO).And all three institutions receive themajority of their funding from theItalian government.

ICTP’s admirable track record inthe organization of training andresearch activities in the basic sciences for researchersfrom the developing world, TWAS’s access to a world-wide network of eminent scientists from the develop-ing world who have been elected members of theAcademy, and ICS’s focus on the promotion of sus-tainable development in the South through effectivestrategies for technology transfer collectively providea wide range of capacities that could be put to gooduse in workshops, seminars and schools whichscientists and administrators throughout the Southwould find extremely valuable. That’s why Denardohopes the December workshop on entrepreneurialbusiness creation will mark the first of many joint ven-tures in the future.

As Rustam Lalkaka, who was given the task of orga-nizing the workshop, observes: “A primary goal ofdeveloping countries should be to encourage theirscientists to become entrepreneurs who are moredirectly involved in real-world change.” A native ofIndia and for many years a high-level official with

UNIDO and UNDP, Lalkaka nowheads his own global technologyconsulting firm headquartered inNew York City.

“Science and technology,” henotes, “have been importantdrivers of economic developmentsince the industrial revolution.During the past decade, however,technological innovation and

entrepreneurship have become two of the most indis-pensable agents of the new economy, whichhas been dominated by unprece-dented advances in informationtechnology.

“The United States, and to alesser degree western Europe,”Lalkaka adds, “have beenat the centre ofthe new econo-my. The freeflow of in-formation,an uncom-

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Developing countries must solve the problems of the old economy whileconcurrently hitching up

to the new economy.

[CONTINUED PAGE 14]

promising emphasis on competition, and the carefulnurturing of an economic environment that encouragesand then rewards risk all have helped fuel the unprece-dented science-based economic growth that has takenplace in these two regions duringthe past decade.”

Lalkaka acknowledges thatthe developing world has beensaddled with problems that havemade it difficult for countries inthe South to keep pace with thedramatic end-of-the-millenniumadvances in science and technol-ogy that have benefited countriesin the North.

“Developing countries,” he states, “are in the unen-viable position of having to solve the problems of theold economy (for example, political instability, insuffi-cient capital, chronic poverty, inadequate and anti-quated communication systems, and legal and regula-tory uncertainties) while concurrently hitching up tothe new economy.” Yet for Lalkaka and many observers

of current global technology and economic trends, theone undeniable fact is that if developing countries failto address the challenges of both the old and neweconomy at the same time, the low living standards

found in many countries of theSouth are likely to sink evenlower than those in the North inthe years ahead.

While the challenges facingdeveloping countries are largelyrooted in economic and politicalproblems, Lalkaka maintains thatthey are also bound to the way inwhich people in the South viewthe world. Whereas information

is exchanged freely in the North, it often moves “fromthe top down” in the South; whereas competition isthe hallmark of economic activity in the North, manyeconomies in the South (despite recent reforms)remain constrained by government bureaucracies orlong-standing patterns of ownership that place eco-nomic power in the hands of a few elite families or

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If developing countries fail to address the challenges ofboth the old and the new

economy at the same time,their low living standards are

likely to sink even lower.

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institutions; and while risk-taking is accepted as a wayof life in the North, security and tradition are morehighly valued in the majority of countries in the devel-oping world.

When it comes to the new economy, however, thenews is not all bad for developing countries. In fact,Lalkaka believes that “the centre of gravity of the neweconomy could well shift to the developing world inthe years ahead, especially in regions like theMediterranean.”

“Not only do developing nations have a growingnumber of well-trained scientists who (under the rightcircumstances) could be put to good use in efforts topromote science-based economic development, butthey also are home to the world’s most rapidly grow-ing populations,” which present the potential fortremendous market growth in the future. At the sametime, the economies in many developing countries,particularly in Asia and South America, have displayedencouraging, if not always steady, annual rates of eco-nomic growth (often ranging from 5 to 10 percent)that have lured increasing amounts of capital frominvestors.

Recent surveys indicate that some 375 million peo-ple worldwide are on-line and that more than one-thirdof all internet users live and work in the United States.By 2005 conservative estimates envisage that morethan 1 billion people will be on-line and that much ofthe increase will take place in the developing world.For example, China, with a population of 1.3 billion,currently has 10 million internet users; within 5 yearsthat number will likely soar to 80 million; meanwhile,the Arab world, with an estimated population of 280million people, now has 2 million internet users, anumber that is expected to surge to 40 million by 2005.

GET STARTED, KEEP GOING As Wissam El Solh readily admits, “friends, fools andfamily” have been the primary source of capital for hisstart-up company “Netakeoff.com,” which he and threeassociates hope to build into the Arab world’s leadinginnovation centre for the development of communica-tions-based technologies.

El Solh, who founded the centre about a year agoand now serves as its chief executive officer, has deviseda business plan that calls on the centre to support some36 projects over the next 5 years. To fully realize thesegoals, he anticipates that his company will need toattract between US$1.5 million and US$2.5 million incapital investment. His primary task over the next 18months is to convince potential financiers that his com-pany is worth investing in.

“Our revenues will be derived from three majorsources of income: the return on the investment in thestart-up companies that we assist; tenant fees fromfirms that rent space in our innovation centre; and con-sultant fees for the services and advice that we render.”

El Solh, who holds a master in business of adminis-tration from George Washington University in the UnitedStates and a doctorate in economics from the Institutd’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciencepo) in France, spokeabout his experience as a young entrepreneur in the Arabworld at the joint ICTP/TWAS/ICS workshop on businesscreation held in Trieste in December.

He acknowledges that he faces a host of obstacles ingetting his “start-up, start-up company” off the ground.Political instability and a lack of government supportfor such initiatives present serious problems — as doweak laws protecting intellectual property rights andequity-starved stock markets that are too small and too

Similar 10- and 20-fold increases are expected to takeplace in countries throughout the South.

Yet, increased participation of developing coun-tries in the internet — and, more generally, in the neweconomy — is by no means guaranteed. Encouragingtrends in education, innovation and investment willnot translate into success, Lalkaka asserts, unlessmeasures are also taken to instill and reward “a spir-it of entrepreneurism” among the people. That’swhere the role of “incubators” or “innovation centres”come into play.

“Innovation and incubation centres,” Lalkakanotes, “are not new.” In fact, the concept dates back tothe 1970s. Over the past few decades, however, thecentres have evolved from places providing “afford-able space and shared facilities into full-service incu-bation firms designed to provide fledgling entre-preneurs with the tools that they need to succeed inthe global economy.”

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cautious to provide capital to promising but riskyenterprises. Firms in the Arab world, El Solh adds,often behave in ways that are not fully transparent(and therefore not fully accountable), and entre-preneurs working in the region are often skeptical ofthe value of incubators, fearing that these innovationcentres “will steal their ideas.”

Nevertheless, El Solh is optimistic that firms likeNetakeoff.com represent the wave of the future in boththe North and South. “I would not have quit my steadywell-paying job with an international oil field suppliescompany if I didn’t believe this could work.”

El Solh’s faith in his future is based in part onpromising demographic and economic trends withinthe Arab world. “The annual growth rate in the num-ber of internet users in the Arab,” he notes, “is expect-ed to rise at least 80 percent a year for the next 3 yearsand reach some 40 million by 2005. That representstremendous growth but with a population that willnear 300 million, the market should continue to growrapidly throughout the remainder of the decade andbeyond.”

At the same time, El Solh notes that young Western-trained university graduates are filtering back homeeager to contribute to the economic future of theircountries. He cites his educational background as wellas those of his associates who received advanceddegrees at the University of Pennsylvania’s WhartonSchool and the University of Michigan’s BusinessSchool in the United States and Insead in France.

Finally, El Solh points to the emergence of invest-ment houses in the Arab world that have shown anincreasing willingness to invest capital in start-upfirms like his. Indeed The Investment House, head-quartered in Beirut, Lebanon, has begun to assessNetakeoff.com’s long-term prospects for profitabilitywith an eye towards supplying the company with awelcome infusion of capital. Maher Cheaito, a repre-sentative from The Investment House, attended theTrieste workshop to speak about his firm’s growinginterest in providing the “financial fuel” that will benecessary to ignite entrepreneurialism in the Arabworld. As he noted, the region is not without potentialsources of capital. “Arab nationals,” he notes, “haveoverseas investment portfolios that collectively exceedUS$1 trillion. The challenge is to bring that money

home by providingattractive invest-ment opportuni-ties within theArab region.”

That’s what ElSolh hopes to ac-complish through thegrowth of Netakeoff.com:Nurture the development ofhigh-tech start-up companies built by regional entre-preneurs and nourished by regional financiers.

To date, Netakeoff.com has identified three nascentcompanies from the 125 business plans that have beensubmitted as part of a larger competitive process forfunds. The companies receiving assistance fromNetakeoff.com include an “amazon.com”-like companyseeking to sell Arabian language books through theinternet; a business-to-business auction internet site forthe trading of surplus Middle East stock; and an inter-net portal that will focus on information concerning e-commerce business strategies.

El Solh admits “Netakeoff.com is pursuing modeststeps to address a deep and complex issue that entails fun-damental changes in a nation’s and region’s institutionsand mindset. Yet what the global economy has shownduring the past decade is that it is virtually impossible tooverestimate the amount of change that can now takeplace in the short term. To paraphrase an often expressedopinion, the only true constant is the ever-more acceler-ating pace of change. That presents both challenges andopportunities not only for entrepreneurs in the developingcountries but the entire population. There is no doubt inmy mind that how we meet these challenges and oppor-tunities will play a major role in our future economic andsocial well-being.” ■

For additional information about Netakeoff.com, please contact > Wissam El Solh, Netakeoff.com,

PO Box 4396, Beirut, Lebanon; phone: +961 17 01336; fax: +961 1 818 755;

e-mail: wsolh@netakeoff.com; internet: www.netakeoff.com.

As Lalkaka also notes, innovation centres are nolonger the sole domain of entrepreneurs in the UnitedStates but have emerged as more prominent aspects ofthe business environment in developing countries aswell. In the mid 1990s, Egypt had just two innovationcentres; today there are more than 15. Over the pastdecade, China has invested more than US$1 billion insuch centres and now has more than 125 in operation,including 85 technology incubators. In 2000, Indianexports in computer software products and servicesexceeded US$6 billion, transforming the nation into amajor “software” player in the global economy. Manyof those involved in India’s burgeoning softwareindustry gained valuable information and experiencefrom India’s innovation centres. Even small nationswith weak unsteady economies have turned to inno-vation centres as prime sources of reform. Thanks to aUS$500,000 UNDP-funded programme, the formerSoviet republic Uzbekistan, which launched three pilotprojects in 1994, has 25 incubators today.

“Innovation centres,” Lalkaka observes, “don’t cre-ate entrepreneurs; they nurture them. These centres,”he adds, “are just one piece of the policy puzzle need-ed to create a healthy business climate in whichentrepreneurs can flourish.”

Nevertheless the bottom line is this: The trainingand support that these centres offer could helpentrepreneurs in the developing world meet many ofthe difficult challenges they face in trying to buildinnovative science and technology firms desperatelyneeded to compete successfully in the new economy ofthe 21st century. ■

For additional information about the Workshop on New Economy and Entrepreneurial Business

Creation in Mediterranean Countries and, more general, the development of innovation

centres in the developing world, please contact > Rustam, Lalkaka, President,

Business and Technology Development Strategies,1441 Third Ave Suite 5A, New York, NY 10028, USA,

phone: 212 452 1678; fax: 212 535 0338; e-mail: rlalkaka@earthlink.net.

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Last November, a dozen expertsin water management, includingleading spokespersons on the issuefrom the World Meteorological Or-ganization (WMO) and the UnitedNations Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (UNESCO), met in Trieste to dis-cuss major concerns surrounding one of the world’s mostprecious natural resources: water. The workshop,“Promoting Best Practices for the Conservation,Management and Sustainable Use of Water Resources inthe South,” was supported by a grant from WMO.Experts from Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico,Nepal, Pakistan, and Tunisia participated in the two-dayevent on 27-28 November.

This “water gathering” is part of a larger effortspearheaded by the Third World Network of ScientificOrganization (TWNSO) to create a series of institu-tional networks devoted to science-based developmentissues of particular concern to the developing world.Other TWNSO networks have been established for theexchange of information on the sustainable use of

indigenous plants and the devel-opment of strategies for the cre-ation of high-technology innova-tion centres in the South.

“There is no more importantresource than water,” says

Mohammed Tawfik, WMO’s Scientific Officer, WaterResources Division, Hydrology and Water Resources.“That’s by no means surprising news. But the com-plexity of the issue is often overlooked in discussionsabout the future quantity and quality of the world’sfreshwater.”

“This is not just an issue for people living on aridlands that receive insufficient rainfall; nor is it simplya natural resource issue largely confined to those whoare concerned with the environment. Growing popula-tions and rising demand for water, combined with theincreased risks posed by pollution, make water man-agement an issue that reaches into each and everylocality and across all national borders.”

For WMO, which is mandated to examine globaltrends in the world’s weather and climate, waterresearch and management have emerged as a prima-

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FEATURE

TO THE LASTDROP

WATER EXPERTS ARGUE WATER IS NOT JUST ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL

BUT IT ’S A PRIME FACTOR BEHIND ECONOMIC WELL-BEING AS WELL.

ry focus of its activities. “Global and regional cli-mate,” notes Tawfik, “clearly have an impact on theworld’s water resources. What the public often over-looks, however, is that water resources — ourstreams, rivers, lakes and oceans —directly affect both climate andweather on local, regional and glob-al scales. Atmospheric and terrestri-al ecological systems, in fact, areintricately connected in ways we areonly beginning to understand.”

“Effective water management,”adds A. Salih, UNESCO’s DeputySecretary, International Hydrological ProgrammeDivision of Water Sciences, “is a key factor behind eco-nomic development. Inadequate or polluted water sup-plies often limit growth in many regions of the world,particularly in the South.”

UNESCO’s focus on this vital issue dates back to1965 with the inauguration of the InternationalHydrological Decade. That was followed by the cre-

ation of International Hydrological Programme in1975. However, recent water-management trends,including the increased competition for waterresources, the growing importance of regional and

multidisciplinary issues, the presenceof new players (including multina-tional corporations), and the risingvoice of grassroots organizationshave prompted UNESCO to re-evalu-ate its long-standing efforts. “Theresult,” explains Salih, “is a reneweddedication to the creation of net-works where the exchange of

information is possible. This strategy has proven one ofthe most effective ways for institutions in the South tolearn from one another’s experiences.”

“This workshop and the subsequent activities thatwe hope to launch through the network,” explainsMohamed H.A. Hassan, Secretary General of TWNSO,“form part of a larger effort by TWNSO to mobilize thebest of science in the developing world to address

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[CONTINUED PAGE 20]

Effective watermanagement is a key

factor behind economicdevelopment.

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practical problems. Specifically, we hope networks likethis will help promote the sharing of experiences,encourage future research collaboration and strength-en efforts for the training of young scientists eager toaddress real-world issues.”

The November workshop concluded with a declara-tion calling on the 12 founding institutional members ofthe TWNSO/WMO/UNESCO network to establish crite-ria for additional membership and to devise a broad-ranging strategy to promote the sharing of informationon successful experiences in the management of waterresources. The network’s initial activities will includethe publication of a monograph based on the case stud-

ies presented at the workshop and the launching of awebsite that will serve as the electronic hub for com-munications among all network members. ■

For additional information on the TWNSO/WMO/UNESCOnetwork on “Promoting Best Practices for the

Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use ofWater Resources in the South,” please contact

> Helen Martin, TWNSO Secretariat, c/o the Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics

(ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy, phone: +39 040 2240 386; fax: +39 040 224 559;

or e-mail: info@twnso.org.

HIGH AND DRY

When people think of the majesticHimalayan Mountains blanketed bythick layers of snow for months onend, a parched environment is thelast image that comes to mind. But aparched environment is exactly whatmany people throughout the remoteHindu Kush-Himalayan region faceas they go about their daily lives inwhat Suresh R. Chalise describes as a“cold desert environment.”

Chalise is a water resource spe-cialist associated with the Interna-tional Centre for Integrated Moun-tain Development (ICIMOD), whichis headquartered in Kathmandu,

Nepal. He was one of a dozen expertsfrom the developing world participat-ing in the TWNSO/WMO/UNESCOworkshop on “Promoting Best Prac-tices for the Conservation, Manage-ment and Sustainable Use of WaterResources in the South,” held inTrieste in late November 2000.

The 3,500 kilometer long HinduKush-Himalayan mountains, stretch-ing from Afghanistan in the west toMyanmar in the east, is home tosome 140 million people. For outsideobservers, the breathtaking naturalbeauty of the environment, whichincludes the world’s highest moun-tains, often masks the difficult livesexperienced by many of the people

who live there. These rugged-moun-tain people usually depend on theregion’s fragile resources and inhos-pitable, sometimes brutal, environ-ment for their well-being and liveli-hood.

“When it comes to water,” saysChalise, “inhabitants often have toomuch or too little.” In fact, this is anoasis-type environment where watermay be plentiful nearby rivers orlakes or by the edge of retreatingglaciers during late summer. But theresource is often in scarce supply in‘river-less’ or ‘lake-less’ parts of theregion or, in winter, when the frozentundra makes fresh water hard tocome by. “Indeed water created by

glacial retreats,” he notes, “is often‘powerful’ water that is difficult tocollect and store.”

Chalise, based on research con-ducted with his colleague UmeshParajuli, also points out that histor-ically the region’s community struc-tures developed effective systems of“water governance” that minimizedpotential conflicts by assuring resi-dents an equitable share of availablefreshwater supplies. He cites theexperience of those living in theGhyakhar Khola micro-watershedas an example of how the system hasworked.

This 16-square mile region,located in the upper reaches ofMustang District of Nepal near theborder with Tibet, is home to some200 people who not only work theland by growing cereal crops, tend-ing fruit trees and raising livestock(including dzopas, a cross between ayak and a cow), but who also earnoff-farm income through the tradingof wool and medicinal plants andthe transporting of goods from oneplace to another in this difficult-to-navigate environment.

The watershed, in fact, lies in the“rain shadow” of the Himalayas aspart of undulating highland terrainranging between 3000 and 6000metres above sea level. Unpredictable,

highly concentrated water suppliesmake the systematic collection,transport and storage of this vitalresource essential.

“For centuries,” Chalise says,“each inhabitant has been issued“water shares or chyure that haveprovided access to a certain amountof water.” The system, which hasbeen administered by the communi-ty leaders, works like this: Water isdirected via earthen feeder canalsfrom the region’s prime source, theGhyakhar River, to a large reservoirwhere it is stored overnight andreleased the following morning.From there, the water is channeledcloser to the villagers through earth-en distribution canals from whicheach resident receives his or her pre-scribed daily allocation.

While demand for domestic andlivestock use has never exceeded sup-ply, the same cannot be said forwater requirements for irrigation.The system has literally put a lid onthe amount of water that residentscan use for irrigation in a way thatall residents have found reasonable.“Each week,” Chalise notes, “farm-ing residents receive a fair share ofthe available water for irrigation ona ‘turn-by-turn’ basis.”

This traditional method of waterallocation and use, Chalise observes,

has experienced increasing stress asgreater demands have been placed onthe water supply and as the popula-tion has become older making it moredifficult for residents to pursue long-standing methods of water harvestingand transport that often require phys-ical strength and stamina. Residents,after all, must carry the water fromthe distribution points.

To address these concerns, thegovernment of Nepal with CARE-Nepal launched a project in 1994(with funds from Danida, the Danishdevelopment aid organization) thatwas designed to improve the efficien-cy of the water allocation systemwithin the fabric of existing socialand economic institutions.

Part of the project focused on therehabilitation of the porous earthencanals to reduce water loss and toincrease the force of the water flow.And part of the project — indeed themajor focus of the effort — concen-trated on working with communityorganizations to achieve the reformsthat were needed.

“The involvement of communityorganizations,” says Chalise, “meantthat the reforms enjoyed a high levelof credibility. That, in turn, encour-aged residents to actively participatein the process.”

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“The reform strategy,” explainsChalise, “involved moving beyondimprovements in the infrastructureto a series of locally based initiativesthat would promote self-relianceamong the residents and eventuallygive them the confidence that theyneeded to address their water man-agement problems on their own.”

That meant, for example, offer-ing demonstration programmes onwater-saving farm practices. It alsomeant giving residents better infor-mation on health and sanitation,which are intimately connected tothe availability and wise use ofwater.

“Project organizers were particu-larly interested,” Chalise notes, “inproviding women with the knowl-edge and skills they need to becomeinvolved in the local developmentprocess. That was essential becausewomen usually shoulder primaryresponsibility for the collection anduse of water in both households andfarms.”

Most importantly, Chalise main-tains that project organizers helpedlaunch community developmentcommittees in each of the two majorvillages within the micro-watershed— Ghyakhar and Chaile. Each ofthe committees, with members elect-ed by local residents, was responsi-ble for establishing and implement-ing broad-based policies related towater management and develop-

ment. “With such strong communityroots,” explains Chalise, “the com-mittees quickly gained the confi-dence of the people they were in-tended to serve.”

Without exception, the workapproved by the committees involvedlow-tech, low-cost rehabilitationprojects: for example, the reconstruc-tion of weirs and intakes along theGhyakhar River to improve waterflow to the feeder canals, and thereplacement of existing earthencanals with polythene pipes.

“Some observers,” Chalise ack-nowledges, “contend that the projectshould have encouraged the plantingof more tree farms to reduce wateruse and provide an additional sourceof income; or that it should haveintroduced more efficient drip-irriga-tion systems to curb the use of waterfor agriculture. However, such initia-tives would have required extensivere-engineering of existing waterdelivery networks and thereforewould have jeopardized traditional,community-based, procedures forwater collection and control.”

“More advanced technologies maywell offer more efficient methods ofwater management,” Chalise adds.“But ICIMOD is firmly convinced —both as a matter of principle andexperience — that sustainable watermanagement initiatives cannot beachieved without the full and activeparticipation of the local community.”

As history shows and the experi-ence of ICIMOD confirms, indigenouswater systems are an integral part ofthe societies in which they exist. Thechallenge for water experts workingin the developing world is not simplya technical challenge but involves adeep understanding of the culturesand communities that they are seek-ing to aid.

As Chalise cautions: “Attention toissues related to gender inequities,resource management, biodiversityand information exchange count asmuch, if not more so, than our knowl-edge of water flows, earth gradients,surface evaporation and root absorp-tion. The truth is we all have a lot tolearn and much of what we need toknow lies outside of our knowledge ofhydrological systems.” ■

For additional information aboutICIMOD, please contact

> Suresh R. Chalise, ICIMOD,4/80 Jawalakhel, GPO Box 3226,

Kathmandu, Nepal, phone: +977 1525313; fax: +977 1 524509, email: chalise@icimod.org.np;

website: www.icimod.org.sg.

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Johanna Döbereiner was born in 1924 inCzechoslovakia, studied agronomy just after WorldWar II at the University of Munich, West Germany, andemigrated in 1951 to Brazil, where she conductedresearch on soil microbiology at a small laboratory ofthe Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, in Seropédica,near Rio de Janeiro. She became aBrazilian citizen in 1956 and completedher masters of science at the University ofWisconsin, USA, in 1963.

From 1963 to 1969, when few scientistsbelieved that biological nitrogen fixation(BNF) would ever be competitive withchemical fertilisers, Döbereiner led a groupof students in investigating factors that werelimiting BNF in tropical legumes. Sincethen, much of the research in this area in tropicalregions has been influenced or stimulated to somedegree by Döbereiner’s observations and discoveries.

The Brazilian soybean breeding programme,launched in 1964, has also been influenced byDöbereiner’s work. It evolved into a successful pro-gramme based on the belief that all necessary plantnitrogen could be derived from biological nitrogen fix-ation. Today Brazil’s reliance on BNF is estimated tosave the nation’s farmers more than US$ 1 billion peryear in input costs.

The energy crisis of the 1970s renewed interest inBNF research and, by extension, in associations between

grasses/cereals/root crops and nitrogen-fixing bacteria.Döbereiner was at the centre of such studies from thestart (with her discovery of the association ofAzotobacter paspali with the roots of Paspalum nota-tum), and she remained a key player in this field untillate in her career (with her research on the “endophytic”

associations of nitrogen-fixing bacteriawithin the plant tissues of grasses, cerealsand root crops). Her studies led to the dis-covery of nine species of previouslyunknown nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

The most spectacular results relatedto her research took place when somevarieties of sugar cane produced 160tons per hectare as a result of beingtreated with 200 kilograms of nitrogen

derived from nitrogen-fixing bacteria.Largely due to her leadership, the small laboratory

where Döbereiner worked eventually became theNational Centre for Research on Agrobiology(Embrapa Agrobiology Centre), part of the BrazilianAgricultural Research Organization (Embrapa),Ministry of Agriculture. Over a career that spannednearly half a century, Döbereiner published more than300 papers and helped train hundreds of soil microbi-ologists, many of them working directly under hersupervision.

Although her scientific contributions have beenimmense, these may not be the most distinguishing

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TWAS

TWAS FOUNDING MEMBER JOHANNA DÖBEREINER AND TWAS FELLOW (1999) RENÉ

FAVALORO RECENTLY DIED. THEIR COLLEAGUES SPEAK OF THEIR CONSIDERABLE CONTRI-

BUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND SOCIETY.

TWAS LOSES TWO LATINAMERICAN MEMBERS

[CONTINUED PAGE 24]

Johanna Döbereiner

aspects of her career. Her enthusiasm was even moreimportant, not only for the staff at the EmbrapaAgrobiology Centre but for the many young scientistswho were trained and inspired by her, many of whomnow hold leading positions in the scientific communi-ty of Brazil and throughout Latin America.

Döbereiner’s work has been recognized worldwideas evidenced by her long list of prizes, honours anddistinctions, both national and international: doctorHonoris Causa, the University of Florida, USA, and theUniversidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, thePontifical Academy of Sciences and the Third WorldAcademy of Sciences; Embrapa’s Federico de MenezesVeiga prize; the Organization of American States’(OAS) Bernard Houssay Prize; the UNESCO SciencePrize; the Prize for Science and Technology of Mexico;

Grand Official of the Order of Rio Branco; and theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Above all, those who appreciated her strong per-sonality (especially young women scientists forwhom she served as an important role model) alsoprized her friendship and her capacity to come towork as happy and as enthusiastic as a person goingon holiday.

Johanna was more than a leader; she was a moth-er to many of her students, a great friend and a sym-bol of pride for the Brazilian agriculture researchcommunity. ■

Maria Cristina Prata Neves, a student of JohannaDöbereiner, is a former director of the National Centrefor Research on Agrobiology. She may be contacted at

> mcpneves@cnpab.embrapa br.

René Favaloro was born in 1925 in La Plata, the cap-ital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hegraduated in 1949 from the Faculty of Medicine at theUniversity of La Plata in his hometown and left the fol-lowing year to become a rural doctor in Jacinto Aráuz,La Pampa province, where he remained for the nextdozen years.

His life took a different turn in January 1962 whenhe travelled to the United States for specialized train-ing in thoracic surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. InMay 1967 he performed the world’s first cardiacbypass operation using a vein from the leg of a 51-year-old patient. The procedure circumvented the vas-cular obstruction in the heart vessel by detouringblood around the affected area. A few days later anangiogram revealed the reconstruction of the rightcoronary artery — testimony of a breakthrough incoronary surgery. Favaloro, simply put, deserves credit

for making the coronary bypass partof a cardiovascular surgeon’s tool kit.

In a 1998 article in the JournalAmerican College of Cardiology,“Critical Analysis of Coronary ArteryBypass Graft Surgery: A 30-yearJourney,” Favaloro tells how he real-ized the therapeutic implications ofdistinguishing between two types of heart lesions: dif-fuse and localized. By successfully applying the surgi-cal bypass initially to those clinical cases marked by asingle-vessel, localized disease, he proved that a sim-ple operation could ameliorate myocardial deficiency.This insight changed the history of medicine: Beforethe 1960s, coronary heart disease had been treatedexclusively with medication.

In 1971 Favaloro returned to Argentina, where hebecame the first surgeon to perform successful routine

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René Favaloro

bypass operations and heart transplants. Having a pro-found desire to improve the training of cardiac sur-geons in Argentina, he initially worked towards thisgoal at the Guemes Foundation in Buenos Aires.Drawing on the experience at the Cleveland Clinic, oneof his priorities was to develop an institution dedicatedto medical research and teaching in his home country.

Favaloro began to realize his dream in 1975 withthe establishment of the Favaloro Foundation. Since itsinception, the foundation has been instrumental in theeducation and training of generation-after-generationof cardiovascular surgeons both in Argentina andthroughout Latin America. The foundation has spon-sored more than 400 residents in the last 8 yearsalone. Moreover, more than 20,000 operations and6000 catheterisms have been performed at theInstitute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery, alandmark medical facility in Latin America founded byFavaloro in 1992.

In 1998 the Favaloro Foundation grew to unex-pected dimensions, leading to the creation of theFavaloro University, a private university. A faculty ofmedicine was its first unit; engineering and basic andnatural science units have followed.

Favaloro wrote more than 300 scientific papers,received many academic honours at home and abroad,and was an honorary professor of the University ofBuenos Aires. He belonged to more than 60 scientificand academic societies and was awarded many dis-tinctions, including the John Scott award from the cityof Philadelphia (1979), the Gairdner FoundationAward (1987), the Master of Medicine Prize ofArgentina (1986), the Gifted Teacher Award from theAmerican College of Cardiology (1992), and the PrinceMahidol Prize (1999), which he received from the kingof Thailand. A chair bears his name in Tel AvivUniversity. The American College of Cardiology recent-ly selected an article he wrote in 1971 on the surgicaltreatment of acute myocardial infarction as a seminalmedical publication of the 20th century.

In his last years Favaloro became highly critical ofmedical training in Argentina, and strongly voicedthese criticisms publicly, suggesting that his countryproduced large numbers of medical doctors but thatArgentinian doctors often received insufficient training.

Apart from being a pioneering doctor, Favaloro wasconsulted on a wide range of topics at home andabroad. He displayed a keen interest in history andeducation, and as part of his legacy leaves a convictionthat education is the key to reducing inequalities andenabling the underprivileged to participate fully insociety.

Favaloro’s life represents a portrait of a humanitar-ian who found his most profound triumphs through hisskills as a medical practitioner. Yet, beyond his profes-sional and scientific achievements, Favaloro champi-oned the cause of economic and social equality. He wasprofoundly concerned with the anguish of ordinarypeople and critically discussed pressing issues relatedto the free-market economy and globalization, main-taining that these phenomena were responsible formany of the distresses of the world’s poor, particularlythose in Third World countries. His death represents aprofound loss to the medical community and to caringpeople everywhere. ■

Francisco J. Barrantes, TWAS fellow (1991), is a member of the Latin American Academy of

Sciences, a corresponding member of the BrazilianAcademy of Sciences, and a corresponding member of

the National Academy of Medicine in Argentina. He may be contacted at > rtfjb1@criba.edu.ar

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1ZAKRI ASSUMES DIRECTORSHIP• Abdul Hamid Zakri (TWASFellow 1996) has been namedDirector of the United NationsUniversity (UNU) Institute forAdvanced Studies (IAS) in Tokyo.His tenure began 1 January 2001.Launched in 1996, the UNU/IASconducts research and post-gradu-ate training, focusing on naturaland societal systems, both in-houseand through a global network ofacademic institutions and interna-tional organizations. Zakri, who

hails from Malaysia, had served asDeputy Vice Chancellor at theUniversity Kebangsaan Malaysia(National University of Malaysia)for nearly a decade prior to hisUNU/IAP appointment. From 1997to 1999, he chaired the subsidiarybody on Science, Technology andTechnological Advice of the UnitedNations Convention on BiologicalDiversity. And, for the past year, hehas been the co-chair of theMillennium Ecosystem Assessment,a major undertaking to assess theworld’s ecosystems. Zakri earned adiploma from the College ofAgriculture in Malaysia, a bache-lor's degree in crop science fromLouisiana State University, USA,and master’s and doctorate degreesin genetics and plant breedingfrom Michigan State University,

USA. He is a founding fellow of theMalaysian Academy of Sciencesand a recipient of a Fullbright-Hayes Malaysian Lecturer Award.The Sultan of Pahang granted himthe title of Darjah Indera MahktoaPahang in 1991 and the King ofMalaysia the title of KesastriaMangku Negara in 1993. Zakri’sresearch has focused on geneticsand plant breeding, especially ricegenetics and the genetic variationof indigenous Malaysian timberspecies.

TWAS AND ACAL• TWAS has signed a memorandumof understanding with the LatinAmerican Academy of Sciences(ACAL). The official signing ceremo-ny took place on 10 August 2000 atthe TWAS secretariat in Trieste.Hugo Aréchiga, President of ACAL,was visiting the Academy’s head-quarters to explore potential areasof cooperation between the twoorganizations. The memorandumcalls for TWAS and ACAL to worktogether to “foster and promote sci-entific research by individualscientists in Latin America” and topursue activities to “facilitate con-tacts” among Latin Americanscientists “with the world’s scientificcommunity, especially in the ThirdWorld.” Specifically, the agreementwill seek to advance the exchange ofscientific information, includingbooks, journals, proceedings anddatabases; disseminate informationon each other’s programmes andactivities; enable TWAS to support ajoint TWAS/ACAL Prize for YoungScientists in Latin America; andencourage joint regional workshops,symposia and studies on scientific

issues of regional and global con-cern. Founded in 1982, ACAL cur-rently consists of 154 distinguishedscientists from 12 Latin Americancountries. Aréchiga assumed thepresidency of the organization in1999. For additional informationabout ACAL, contact Latin AmericanAcademy of Sciences, c/o Institutode Estudios Avanzados (IDEA),Apartado Postal 17606, Caracas1015A, Venezuela; phone: +582962 1603; fax: +582 976 3490; e-mail: acal@conicit.ve.

PAL RECEIVES AWARD• The Iranian Research Organiza-tion for Science and Technology(IROST) has selected TWAS Fellow(1999) Sankar Pal as a winner ofthe 14th Khwarizimi InternationalAward. The prize ceremony tookplace in Tehran on 5 February2001. The annual award, whichcarries a cash prize of up toUS$5000, affords recognition toscientists who have made signifi-cant contributions to a broad rangeof fields, including agriculture, thebasic sciences, engineering and thehumanities. Pal, a distinguished sci-

entist and head of the machineintelligence unit at the IndianStatistical Institute in Calcutta, isan internationally recognized re-

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1 searcher in the fields of patternrecognition, machine learning andimage processing. His studies haveshed light on the development ofadvanced computer systems andneuro-fuzzy intelligent systems fordiagnoses of skeletal and cancerousgrowth. Pal, who has conductedresearch in India, the United Statesand China, received his undergrad-uate degree in physics fromCalcutta University and his doctor-ate degree from Imperial College inthe United Kingdom.

PALIS PRAISED• Brazilian-born Jacob Palis (TWASSecretary General) has recentlybeen awarded the Carlos ChagasFilho Award from the state of Riode Janeiro in Brazil. The prize isnamed in honour of TWASFounding Fellow Carlos ChagasFilho. He has also been elected tothe Mexican Academy of Sciencesand has been granted an honorarydoctorate from the University ofSantiago de Chile. Palis is theDirector of the Instituto deMatemática Pura e Aplicada(IMPA), Rio de Janeiro, andPresident of the InternationalMathematical Union (1999-2002).He also serves on the ScientificCouncil of the Abdus SalamInternational Centre for TheoreticalPhysics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, andwas Vice President of theInternational Council for Science(ICSU) from 1996-1999. He hasreceived numerous awards, includ-ing the TWAS Mathematics Prize(1988), Brazilian National Prize forScience and Technology (1990),Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit(1994), Interamerican Prize for

Science (1995). Palis’s majorresearch fields are dynamical sys-tems and differential equations.

SPATIAL INFORMATION• TWAS has agreed to become acooperating organization for theupcoming Third International Con-ference on Geospatial Informationin Agriculture and Forestry to beheld in Denver, Colorado, USA,between 5-7 November 2001. Theconference, which is expected toattract more than 250 participantsfrom industry, government andacademy, will focus on applyinggeospatial information technolo-gies to real-world problems in agri-culture and forestry. Among thetopics to be addressed are forestfire prediction and modeling, forestinventory and health, crop model-ing and yield assessment, naturalresource management, multipleuses of forest land, and GIS tech-nology and use. For additionalinformation, please contact VeridanSystems International Conferences,PO Box 134008, Ann Arbor, MI,USA 48113-4008; phone: + 1 734994 1200, ext. 3350; fax + 1 734994 5123, e-mail: wallman@erim-int.com.

C.R. RAO HONOURED AGAIN• TWAS Founding Fellow C.R. Rao,who holds the Eberly Family Chairin Statistics and directs the Centerfor Multivariate Analysis at Penn-sylvania State University, USA, hasreceived the Padma Vibhushanaward in recognition of his excep-tional and distinguished service inthe fields of science, engineeringand statistics. The award is the sec-

ond-highest civilian honour best-owed by India. Harvard University’seminent economist John KennethGalbraith, who is also a former U.S.ambassador to India, was a co-recipient of the award. In addition,Rao recently received the SankhyikiBhushan award from the IndianSociety of Agricultural Statistics andthe Lifetime Achievement Award

from the International Indian Sta-tistical Association. In a long anddistinguished career, Rao is widelyconsidered one of the true pioneersof modern statistical research andhas been internationally recognizedtime and again for his work as amathematician, scientist and teach-er. His contributions to mathematicsand statistical theory and applica-tions have been incorporated as keycomponents of courses in statistics,econometrics, electrical engineeringand many other disciplines and sub-disciplines at universities through-out the world.

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PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS

W H A T ’ S T W A S ?

THE THIRD WORLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (TWAS) IS AN AUTONOMOUS INTER-

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION THAT PROMOTES SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY AND EXCELLENCE

IN THE SOUTH. FOUNDED IN 1983 BY A GROUP OF EMINENT SCIENTISTS UNDER

THE LEADERSHIP OF THE LATE NOBEL LAUREATE ABDUS SALAM OF PAKISTAN,

TWAS WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IN TRIESTE, ITALY, IN 1985 BY THE

SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS.

At present, TWAS has 588 members from 75 countries, 62 of which are devel-

oping countries. A Council of 14 members is responsible for supervising all

Academy affairs. It is assisted in the administration and coordination of pro-

grammes by a small secretariat of 9 persons, headed by the Executive Director.

The secretariat is located on the premises of the Abdus Salam International

Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. UNESCO is responsible for

the administration of TWAS funds and staff. A major portion of TWAS funding is

provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

The main objectives of TWAS are to:

• Recognize, support and promote excellence in scientific research in the South.

• Provide promising scientists in the South with research facilities necessary for

the advancement of their work.

• Facilitate contacts between individual scientists and institutions in the South.

• Encourage South-North cooperation between individuals and centres of schol-

arship.

TWAS was instrumental in the establishment in 1988 of the Third World Network

of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO), a non-governmental alliance of 155 scien-

tific organizations from Third World countries, whose goal is to assist in build-

ing political and scientific leadership for science-based economic development

in the South and to promote sustainable development through broad-based

partnerships in science and technology.

TWAS also played a key role in the establishment of the Third World Organiza-

tion for Women in Science (TWOWS), which was officially launched in Cairo in

1993. TWOWS has a membership of more than 2000 women scientists from 87

Third World countries. Its main objectives are to promote the research efforts

and training opportunities of women scientists in the Third World and to

strengthen their role in the decision-making and development processes. The

secretariat of TWOWS is currently hosted and assisted by TWAS.

TWAS offers scientists in the Third World

a variety of grants and fellowships. To find out

more about these opportunities, check out

the TWAS web-pages! Our main page is at:

www.twas-online.org

Want to spend some time at a research

institution in another developing country?

Investigate the South-South Fellowships:

.../SS-fellowships_form.html

Need funding for your research project?

Take a look at the TWAS Research Grants:

.../RG_form.html

TWNSO runs a similar scheme, for projects

carried out in collaboration with institutions

in other countries in the South:

www.twnso.org

But that’s not all TWAS has to offer.

For instance, do you need a minor spare

part for some of your laboratory equipment,

no big deal, really, but you just can’t get it

anywhere locally? Well, TWAS can help:

.../SP_form.html

Would you like to invite an eminent scholar

to your institution, but need funding for

his/her travel? Examine these pages, then:

.../Lect_form.html

.../Prof.html

You’re organizing a scientific conference

and would like to involve young scientists

from the region? You may find what you

are looking for here:

.../SM_form.html

CONFERENCES

TRAVEL

EQUIPMENT

GRANTS

FELLOWSHIPS

WANT TO KNOW MORE?