Niels Stensen Fellowship Conference 2020 - The Sustainability Challenges of the 21st Century
This century is characterized by major challenges to preserve humanity and its planet. The citizens of our society, politicians and future generations have a great need for the knowledge and wisdom of science. What can academia offer them? Do scientists really agree on climate change, resource exploitation and food production or do opinions remain conflicting? And what can the researchers do themselves to deal responsibly with people and the environment?
That is what the Niels Stensen Fellowship Conference is about on 27 August 2020, a special meeting to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Niels Stensen Fellowship.
The conference took place at Antropia in Driebergen, the Netherlands, an event organised by the Porticus the Netherlands Team.
Through Covid-19 a large part of the programme was also possible to attend online - for those who currently were not in the Netherlands, or for those who prefered to stay at home.
The conference began with speeches by Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart, Prof. Dr. Heleen de Coninck and Prof. Dr. Ir. Herman Russchenberg. The speeches formed the prelude and introduction to a plenary discussion on the sustainability challenges of the 21st century, moderated by Prof. Dr. Han van Krieken. Several specialists were invited to participate.
In the afternoon there were several workshops in which people could participate:
- Societal transformations towards sustainability – dr. Heleen de Coninck, Technology, Innovation and Society (TIS) Group, Eindhoven University and dr. Ir. Vincent de Gooyert, Assistant Professor of Research Methodology at Radboud University.
- Should we prepare for failure and consider climate engineering? dr. ir. Herman Russchenberg, Atmospheric Remote Sensing. Director of the TU Delft Climate Institute.
- Energy transition, challenges and solutions – David Peters, Chief Transition Officer/Member of the Board of Stedin Holding N.V.
- Food security and sustainable diets, what is the ecological footprint of your diet? – Hanne van Ballegooijen, Senior Epidemiologist at IQVIA and NSF Fellow and Alessandra Grasso, PhD candidate Faculty of Science, Nutrition and Health at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.
- How can we use CO2 to make useful materials using catalysts? - Charlotte Vogt, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. (This workshop will be provided only online).
- How does a nature-based future for The Netherlands in 2120 look like? Tim van Hattum, Program Leader Green Climate Solutions, Wageningen University.
- Seeing the beauty in waste: urban mining workshop. Josette de Vroeg, founder and director of Nowa and Reinhardt Smit, Supply Chain Director of Closing the Loop.
- Transforming economics education that fosters the skills needed to address 21st century challenges. Marc Beckmann, master student and chair national board of Rethinking Economics and Rosa de Koning, master student and secretary national board Rethinking Economics.
- Rhetoric of Climate Change, design your perfect pitch. dr. Barbara Oomen, Law, Economics and Governance & Chair Sociology of Human Rights, Utrecht University, NSF alumni.
