Sessions close-up: Plenary sessions

Encuentros Evening

There is no doubt that Encuentros offers a unique opportunity for networking, cooperation and exchanging new ideas. The Encuentros Evening aims to kick-start two and a half days of talks, poster sessions, plenary sessions, workshops, round tables, and social activities. This special open evening session runs on a dynamic program, outstanding guests and a friendly but insightful discussion. Here you will get a primer on several topics that are relevant to the Big Picture that this year’s Encuentros Conference is focusing on: Knowledge for Social and Economic Development.

The session entails a plenary lecture on how Chile (as a brand) is perceived worldwide and a round table on some of the challenges and opportunities faced by a new generation of Chileans that wish to contribute to our country’s development while living as an expatriate in a foreign nation. To finish off, we invite you to open your minds and hearts and engage in a thoughtful and honest conversation with Pablo Simonetti, renowned writer, columnist and president of Fundación Iguales, where we will address matters ranging from literature to diversity rights including current affairs, politics and culture.

Round Table “Connecting Chile”

This activity is the only one in the program to be conducted in Spanish. Its goal is to open a dialogue through a round- table discussion about a number of initiatives led by motivated Chileans who are looking to connect entrepreneurs, businessmen and Chilean researchers with the world. The panel is composed of, Mario Rosemblatt (Fundación Cien- cia & Vida), Manuel Tuñon de Lara (Bordeaux Segalen University), Ana María Lennon ( Institut Curie).

Many Master students and PhD candidates have the same question: what happens after graduating? With this in mind we developed two special sessions focused on the “What´s next?” issue. The first session, “Brain Gain: return of skills and human capital”, will function as a sort of “field recognition” in order to make one aware of the challenges and opportunities one faces when evaluating a possible return to ones home country. Is the return the only possibility?, or is it possible to contribute to your country’s research and development system while living as an expatriate in a foreign nation?, how should we approach this issue?, is there any previous experience available from which we can learn? These are some of the questions this session seeks to answer.

The “Science and Entrepreneurship” special session is the second approach to the “What´s next?” issue, which has been planned as a “mind opener” for those with the entrepreneurial spirit but still bear doubts and fears about making the leap forward. This session will run on a dynamic program, outstanding guests and a friendly but insightful discussion.

Both sessions will offer a set of tools and first hand advice to the participants, exploring different possibilities that would help us face our next step in good shape.

Brain Gain: return of skills and human capital

This session aims to discuss and reflect on the challenges and opportunities, which Latin American -particularly Chilean- researchers, students and young professional -with international training- face in the professional and academic field at the moment of returning back to their home country. During this session the speakers will share practical information, tips, advices and recommendations on the return of knowledge and skills acquired abroad back into Chile, as well as for the return of human capital.

In this sense we have prepared a dynamic panel, contrasting personal experiences with institutional perspectives, and the point of view of senior and emergent researchers from the fields of natural and social sciences. The confirmed speakers for this session are: Dr. Mario Rosemblatt, Executive Director of Fundación Ciencia para la Vida; Dr. María José Navarrete, postdoctoral fellow at Universidad Austral de Chile, who will share some insider’s tips in the process of returning to Chile; Dr. Patrice Vermeren, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris 8, Executive Director of the Argentine Franco Studies of the University of Buenos Aires; and Dr. Molly Pollack, Executive Director of ChileGlobal, a network of talented Chilean professionals in support of innovation.

The session is coordinated by Alejandra Sánchez and Patricia Cerda, both Erasmus Mundus Masters in Media Engineering for Education. Dr. Daniel Almonacid, postdoctoral scholar at University of California San Francisco will moderate the discussion.

Science and Entrepreneurship

The special “Science and Entrepreneurship” session aims to get the most out of highly qualified “brains” that will share their entrepreneurial ideas and experiences in order to help you move your business projects forward. Through the session we aim to cover all the relevant topics needed to bootstrap you project or idea so you can venture into your science-based business fully aware of the risks and rewards. To finish off, a round table conversation with our guest speakers will allow us to go deeper into what it is like to be an entrepreneur and scientist at the same time, and will give us the opportunity to listen to their recommendations in order to successfully survive this journey.

We are delighted to announce that our senior guest speakers will be Prof. Dr. Pablo Valenzuela, Founder and Director of Fundación Ciencia para la Vida, and Prof. Dr. Rainer Fischer, Department head of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology Senior Executive director of the Fraunhofer Institute. Both are renowned scientists and entrepreneurs who have made remarkable contributions from the private sector and academia. Needless to say, their experiences and stories will fire-up the hall and most likely inspire many of those who have not even considered starting an entrepreneurial project.

We will also be accompanied by Dr. Luis Pablo Herve, a Chilean postdoctoral fellow who has recently created his start-up company in Valdivia, Chile, after a promising academic career both in the US and Europe. Dr Herve will share the real challenges and satisfactions a “scientist-next-door” may face when they follow their intuition and jump into the reality and cruelty of the business world in Chile. In addition, there will be a series of multimedia resources available to access, in the most didactic way possible, the basic knowledge you require to ignite the entrepreneurial flame we all have inside.

A purely multidisciplinary team composed by Dr. Álvaro Bustos, PhD(c) in Natural Sciences; Cristián Hernández, Master in Bioscience Enterprise and Juan Pablo Hontavilla, Journalist and Historian, are coordinating the session.

Click on these links to find out more about other sessions, and to know the organizers and our confirmed speakers. Encuentros PARIS 2012

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