Falling Walls Conference 2013: Poverty and Resource Scarcity are Key Challenges for Science

Berlin, 25 June 2013. Leading international scientists will present their current breakthroughs within 15 minutes at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin. They will showcase solutions that help to tackle important problems facing our society, such as ​​poverty and food security.

While poverty is indeed one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, according to Jagdish Bhagwati it is not an insoluble problem. In his recent book Why Growth Matters, the leading international economist and professor at Columbia University in New York explains how we can lift millions of people out of poverty. For Bhagwati, India is one of the greatest wonders of the world’s economic history and can serve as a positive example to many developing countries. He argues that many NGOs and poverty activists have to learn that good intentions alone will not help. Poverty, according to Bhagwati, can only be eliminated through healthy economic growth, driven by the markets and promoted by politicians. Bhagwati will be presenting his approach to poverty reduction at the Falling Walls Conference 2013.

Food shortage is a daily existential threat for about two billion people who live in the most arid regions of the world. Professor Jill Farrant from the University of Cape Town works on the investigation of so-called resurrection plants that can survive for long periods of time without water or in areas of extreme drought. The molecular biologist is researching the activation of genes that are present in every plant and that are responsible for drought resistance. Her goal is the development of drought-resistant crops and harvests. Farrant was awarded the 2012 L’Oreal UNESCO AWARD and will present her latest research findings in November 2013 in Berlin.

 

About the Falling Walls FOundation

The first Falling Walls Conference took place in 2009 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and has since developed into a highly acclaimed platform for international research. The conference is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and numerous other academic institutions, foundations and corporations

For any preliminary reports or interview requests, please contact our press officers.

For more information on the Falling Walls Conference on 9 November 2013, please visit www.falling-walls.com.

 

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