Overview

Founded in 1993 by Jean Tran Thanh Van, the association Rencontres du Vietnam, a non-profit organization and an official partner of UNESCO, has as its objective the promotion of international exchanges between Vietnam and the international community, particularly in the areas of science and education. It also aims at the encouragement and integration of Vietnamese scientists into the international scientific community and at supporting the role of education and science by encouraging scientific awareness and stimulating passion for science in the younger generation. The Rencontres du Vietnam lies within the scope of two series of scientific meetings created by Jean Tran Thanh Van : the Rencontres de Moriond in 1966 and the Rencontres de Blois in 1989.

The creation of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science Education (ICISE) in the city of Quy Nhon (Central Vietnam) has the ambitious objective to focus on developing Science and Education by fostering exchanges between Asia-Pacific scientists and colleagues from other parts of the world.

XVIth 16th Rencontres du Vietnam
“Science, Ethics and Human Development”

April 8 – 9, 2020, Quy Nhon, Vietnam

An international conference on the theme “Science, Ethics and Human Development” will take place in Vietnam on 8 and 9 April, 2020. The event will be hosted at the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE) in Quy Nhơn, Bình Định Province (http://www.icisequynhon.com ).

This initiative is the third in a series of international conferences on the role of fundamental science for society organised in the framework of the Rencontres du Vietnam (http://vietnam.in2p3.fr ). The series started in 2016 with the “Fundamental Science and Society” conference, which was followed in 2018 by the “Science for Development” conference. Both events were organised under the high patronage of the Presidents of Vietnam and France, the patronage of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam and of the Province of Bình Định, and in collaboration with CERN, UNESCO and the International Solvay Institute.

The events have seen the participation of many international scientists, diplomats, policy-makers, representatives from governmental and non-governmental international organizations as well as several Nobel Laureates. The conferences have proven to be an ideal crossroad for experts from many different fields to discuss the role of fundamental science in society as well as the potential of science as an element for intercultural dialogue, peaceful international cooperation and development. The success of the events has been testified by the very positive coverage it received in the media and the appreciation shown by the international partners.

The conference planned for 2020 will discuss the benefits that a more ethics-aware science can bring to the sustainable development of society. A more ethical approach to research can limit the risks related to a possible bad usage of derived technologies. Ethics in science and technology triggers questions that inevitably lead to the necessity of finding the right balance between the need to pursue the research for the benefit of society and the respect of the ethical boundary conditions accepted by society. These discussions necessarily concern many different stakeholders and have implications in different fields. The conference will bring together experts from a variety of different disciplines and backgrounds, who will reflect on the issues and will try to find viable solutions by looking at them from different perspectives.

The main theme of the conference will be developed in seven roundtables where panelists will discuss the role of ethical science in topics such as health and gene manipulation, environment, sustainable development, scientific education, emergent technologies including artificial intelligence, peace and disarmament.

Like the previous two events, the conference “Science, Ethics and Human Development” is by invitation only, and is supported – among other countries and institutions – by the Government of Vietnam, which looks at the Rencontres du Vietnam conferences as an important element of its strategy to integrate further the country in the scientific international community.

List of Round tables :
Health and manipulating living organisms
Environment and biodiversity
Sustainability and resources
Science Education : Challenges, Opportunities and Ethics
Artificial Intelligence and augmented mankind
Emergent technologies, nanotech, biotech
Science, Peace and Disarmament