· Advancing the frontiers of exploration: A well known example
of international scientific collaboration, sixteen nations are partnering
to build and operate the International Space Station (ISS) as a world-class
research center in the unique environment of space. The participating
nations are striving to solve crucial problems in medicine, ecology and
other areas of science. This endeavor will also lay the foundation
for developing space-based commerce and create greater worldwide interest
in space and science related education by cultivating the excitement, wonder
and discovery that the ISS symbolizes. (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/iss/home.html)
· Battling hunger through developing sustainable agriculture:
Sustainable agriculture has been substantially advanced through international
cooperation, enabling the global community to better respond to the interrelated
issues of poverty, hunger, population growth, and environmental degradation.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) produced one of the first
of the modern, high yielding, varieties of rice that helped stave off the
mass famine that was predicted for Asia in the1970s. IRRI is just
one of the sixteen international agricultural research centers that make
up the global network known as the Consultative Group for International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR mobilizes the world's best in
agricultural science on behalf of the world's poor and hungry. (http://www.cgiar.org/)
· Unlocking the roots of disease through the Human Genome Project:
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific effort to map all
of the approximately 100,000 genes on the 23 human chromosomes and to sequence
the 3 billion DNA base pairs that make up the human genome. Through
international collaboration of the countries engaged in these efforts,
the project will help reveal the basis of genetic diseases such as muscular
dystrophy and Alzheimer's. (http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome/home.html)
· Discovering unprecendented information about the origins of
the universe from the Gemini telescope: The Gemini North telescope
in Hawaii was built by an international partnership of seven nations and
is the first of two large telescopes that can explore the entire northern
and southern skies in optical and infrared light. Gemini North and
its twin, Gemini South under construction in northern Chile, are expected
to obtain unprecedented views of stars, galaxies, and the most distant
outposts of the known universe. They will allow today's scientists to collect
data on astronomical events that took place billions of years ago. (http://www.gemini.edu/public/)
· Protecting our planet's ozone layer: Beginning in the early
1980s, hundreds of scientists from around the world worked under the auspices
of the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization
to identify, understand and communicate the seriousness of the threat to
the ozone. The common international scientific understanding provided
by their collaborative efforts led to an international agreement to correct
the threat, by eliminating nearly all production of the offending chemicals
in the industrialized countries, and by working to reduce them in the developing
countries.
· Saving lives from natural disasters. Scientists from
the U.S. Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program and their with counterparts
worldwide have worked together to improve volcano monitoring and eruption
warning schemes. Just prior to the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991,
these systems enabled Philippine authorities to evacuate 60,000 people
from villages in the region of destruction, and the U.S. military to evacuate
18,000 families from Clark Air Force Base before it was covered in ash
and debris. In September 1999, U.S. and Ecuadorian scientists began
monitoring two volcanic crises in Ecuador. As these two volcanoes
could remain active for many months, their collaborative efforts will protect
tens of thousands of people nearby. (http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/)
· Uncovering the Building Blocks of Matter: A good example
of international scientific cooperation is CERN - the European Organization
for Nuclear Research that has 20 European member states and half a dozen
"observer states," including the U.S. It has been a world leader
in particle physics for half a century, and is currently building the world's
biggest particle accelerator, the LHC - "Large Hadron Collider."
The LHC will smash two beams of protons against each other to permit large
detectors to probe the structure of protons, that is to address specific
questions about the fundamental building blocks that make up all matter.
This is something like trying to learn about electronics by smashing Volkswagons
against each other at such high speeds that parts of their radios fly out.
The LHC will have two detectors built by two international collaborations.
One of these, called ATLAS, is being built by a collaboration of over 500
scientists, from over a hundred institutions, from more that 30 countries,
I bet that more than one student here today will do graduate research using
the LHC. For the rest of us, the results will both change our views of
what matter is made out of and shed light on the first instants of the
big bang. (http://www.cern.ch/)
· Preventing the Spread of AIDS: The U.S. Government has
joined the International Partnership Against HIV/AIDS in Africa (IPAA)
to expand and intensify response to the growing AIDS pandemic and its serious
impact. In fiscal year 2000, the U.S. Government is launching the
Leadership and Investment in Fighting an Epidemic (LIFE) initiative with
U.S. support to fourteen countries in Africa and India to help: 1) reduce
HIV transmission through primary prevention of sexual, mother-to-child,
and blood-borne transmission; 2) Improve community and home-based
care and treatment of HIV/AIDS; and 3) strengthen the capacity of countries
to collect and use surveillance data and to manage national HIV/AIDS programs.
(http://www.cdc.gov)
· Stopping the Transmission of Polio -- STOP: In
the past 100 years, we have had many great successes in the area of public
health. For example, because of the invention of vaccines, fewer
and fewer children are getting diseases like measles and mumps, and even
chicken pox! However, since diseases don't recognize country borders,
the need for vaccines continues until a disease has been eradicated from
the world. Small pox was the first disease to be eradicated, and
within the next five years, polio will be next. You may not know
much about polio, but if you ask your parents or grandparents, they'll
probably remember when thousands of kids became crippled from polio each
year. Right now there is an incredible international team effort
to make the world polio-free. This partnership includes health professionals,
scientists, and others from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Rotary International, WHO, and many other individuals and organizations
throughout the world, all working together to vaccinate young children
at risk, find suspected cases of polio, and confirm cases through laboratory
tests. These STOP Teams are assigned to countries where polio is
common and spend approximately three months in the countries working. Currently,
there are 180 countries around the world that have been declared polio
free, but there are still 25 countries where polio is common, infecting
thousands of children each year. Achievement of global polio eradication
will set the stage for tackling other vaccine-preventable diseases, like
measles. (http://www.cdc.gov)
· Promoting Peace: Cooperation in science and technology provides a springboard for economic prosperity and sustainable development when relations between countries are good. Yet, in times of strained international affairs, scientific lines of communication between countries typically remain open even when most other forms of contact have collapsed. Even during the chilliest periods of the Cold War, U.S. scientists maintained ties with their counterparts in the Soviet Union, and these relationships were of substantial value in promoting the transition to warmer relations.
International scientific collaboration with Russia and the countries
of the Former Soviet Union is exemplified by its support of the International
Science and Technology Center (ISTC), an intergovernmental organization
established by the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the
United States, and a counterpart organization, the Science and Technology
Center of Ukraine (STCU). The ISTC and STCU coordinate with governments,
international organizations, and private sector industries to give former
Soviet Union weapons scientists an opportunity to redirect their talents
to peaceful activities, such as cancer research and commercially viable
technologies for use in environmental studies. (http://www.irf.lviv.ua/istc.html
& http://www.irf.lviv.ua/istc.html)