ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung

08.10.2019 | The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) was part of a Leibniz Association delegation at the annual conference of the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum in Kyoto. It’s the third time in as many years that the institute was represented at this high-level meeting under the honorary chairmanship of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This year's conference with stakeholders from politics, business and science was attended by Prof. Dr. Hildegard Westphal, ZMT’s Scientific Director, and Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Head of the the Social Sciences department.

The Leibniz delegation, headed by President Prof. Dr.-Ing.Matthias Kleiner also included the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS), the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (HKI) and the Heinrich Pette Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology (HPI). All were actively involved in the worldwide exchange between representatives from politics, business and science. 

ZMT Director Hildegard Westphal gave a talk on climate change and regional adaptation as part of the Regional Action on Climate Change (RACC11) programme and spoke at the session on "Marine Environment for Sustainable Society". Meanwhile, Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge's lecture "Materialisations and Negotiations of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative", held at the University of Kyoto, dealt with the Chinese expansion with regard to the use of marine biological resources in West Africa.

This year's STS Forum conference was dedicated to an interdisciplinary and cross-border exchange on the opportunities and risks of technological progress and called for more collaborative action to address the global challenges for the future of humanity. 

For ZMT, the STS Forum is an important platform to initiate and maintain international contacts and to instigate scientific cooperation projects in this important region of the world. The programme and further information on the STS Forum can be found at https://www.stsforum.org/