Employment and the discussion of concepts related to probability have gradually occupied a prominent position in the contemporary philosophical debate. In particular, it became difficult to understand contributions from areas such as epistemology and philosophy of science without minimally knowing definitions and results of probability theory. From this scenario, an interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophers and other investigators, such as mathematicians, physicists, statisticians, and computer scientists, has emerged internationally.

This Colloquium aims to contribute to the formation of an interdisciplinary working group on Philosophy and Probability in Brazil. Therefore, it seeks not only to gather and promote research in this area, but also to instrumentalize and prepare students interested in initiating research in it. Thus, the initiative encourages both a basic training in Philosophy and Probability, and research on related topics.

Target audience

Undergraduate and graduate students in Philosophy, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, and related fields.

Submission of communications

Proposers of communications must register their work using the form below. They will be selected according to the following criteria: expository clarity, argumentative rigor, and thematic pertinence to the interdisciplinary discussion on probability theory. In this sense, submissions related to probability theory and its applications in the areas of philosophy, physics, and mathematics are welcome. The deadline is September 6.

The abstract must contain 400 to 500 words in Portuguese or English, including the title, the proposer's institutional affiliation, and electronic address. Allowed file formats: DOC, DOCX, TEX. Required font: Times New Roman size 12, with single spacing.

The abstracts will be sent to a member of the Scientific Committee, who will prepare an opinion on the merits of the work, according to the previously presented criteria.

The Organizing Committee will notify the authors of the evaluation's result by September 27. The communications will be grouped into sessions with five of them. There will be 20 minutes available for presentations and additional 20 minutes for discussion.

Registration

Registration is free. Register here.

Those who just wish to attend the conferences may apply soon.

Organizing committee

Prof. Dr. Pablo Rubén Mariconda (USP) – Coordinator

André Neiva – PhD student in Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS)

Diana Taschetto – PhD student in Philosophy at USP)

Pedro Bravo de Souza – PhD student in Philosophy at USP

Scientific committee

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Teixeira Landi (USP)

Prof. Dr. Juliana Bueno (University of Campinas - UNICAMP)

Prof. Dr. Marcos Antonio Alves (São Paulo State University - UNESP)

Prof. Dr. Osvaldo Frota Pessoa Jr. (USP)

Prof. Dr. Pablo Rubén Mariconda (USP)

M.Sc.  Thales Borrely dos Santos (USP)

Prof. Dr. Rafael Rabelo (UNICAMP)

Prof. Dr. Ricardo Correa da Silva (Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar)

Programme

• The morning activities (communications) will be held in the Department of Philosophy of USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH-USP), while the afternoon activities (conferences) will take place at IEA's Auditorium.
• Only the conferences will have online streaming.

October 8

9:00 am – 12:20 pm: Communications session 1

9:00 – 9:40: Communication 1

9:40 – 10:20: Communication 2

10:20 – 11:00: Communication 3

11:00 – 11:40: Communication 4

11:40 – 12:20: Communication 5

2:00 pm – 6:45 pm: Conferences 1

2:00: OPENING – Organizing committee

2:00 – 3:15: Conference 1

Probability and Mathematics

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Julio Michael Stern (USP)

3:15 – 4:30: Conference 2

Quantum Correlations and the Time Arrow

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Gabriel Teixeira Landi (USP)

4:30 – 5:00: Coffee Break

5:00 – 6:45: Conference 3

Fine-tuning and Free Parameters

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Richard Dawid (Stockholm University)

October 9

9:00 am – 12:20 pm: Communications session 2

9:00 – 9:40: Communication 6

9:40 – 10:20: Communication 7

10:20 – 11:00: Communication 8

11:00 – 11:40: Communication 9

11:40 – 12:20: Communication 10

2:00 pm – 6:00: Conferences 2

2:00 – 3:45: Conference 4

Normative Epistemic Modeling

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Michael Titelbaum (UW-Madison)

3:45 – 4:15: Coffee Break

4:15 – 6:00: Conference 5

In Defense of Probabilistic Pluralism: the Striking Connection Between Logical Pluralism and Alternative Theories of Probability

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Juliana Bueno (UNICAMP)

October 10

9:00 am – 12:20 pm: Communications session 3

9:00 – 9:40: Communication 11

9:40 – 10:20: Communication 12

10:20 – 11:00: Communication 13

11:00 – 11:40: Communication 14

11:40 – 12:20: Communication 15

2:00 pm – 6:00: Conferences 3

2:00 – 3:45: Conference 6

Philosophy, Probability, Risks, and Uncertainties

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Pablo Rubén Mariconda (USP)

3:45 – 4:15: Coffee Break

4:15 – 6:00: Conference 7

The Model of the Probabilistic Tram: What Does Philosophy Have (and Does Not Have) to Say About Autonomous Vehicles?

Conferencist: Prof. Dr. Renato Rodrigues Kinouchi (Federal University of ABC - UFABC)

Related material

Naoshi Sugiyama's conference — March 9, 2016

• The relativity of time

Two main issues were addressed at the final discussion of the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9: the difference between the concept of time in physics and the perception of time by living organisms, and the invariable aspects of time in relativity.

Eliezer Rabinovici

For physicist Eliezer Rabinovici, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the ICA's Senior Committee, whoever speaks the physical-mathematical language clearly sees what it means to add time as an extra dimension and the implications of having four dimensions. "The time dimension has different characteristics, but can be called so as it is a mathematical term. But it becomes confusing to talk about the fourth dimension in ordinary language, so it is best not to use the expression."

Physicist Naoshi Sugiyama, associate director of the Nagoya University's Institute for Advanced Research (IAR), commented that dimensions are numbers required to specify the existence of something. As an analogy to the four dimensions of spacetime, he said that if someone needs to tell a friend how to find them, they will tell them the building address, the correct floor and the time when they will be there.

Naoshi Sugiyama

Taking part in the discussion on the perception of time and the time in physics, physicist Peter Goddard, a researcher and former director of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, said that to relate everyday experiences with what happens beyond can be confusing: "As humans, we can not have the experience of special relativity, because we can not travel at the speed of light."

Another mistake, he said, is to claim that something exists independently of the observer. "In the Newtonian thinking structure, space and time were considered uniform. One can not include relativity in this structure. What does exist at any given time? The answer to that depends on the observer."

Chemist Hisanori Shinohara, Director of the IAR, recalled that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics predicts the increase of entropy in an isolated system and asked if time will still make sense when the entropy of the universe as a whole ceases to increase, with it reaching a perfect state balance and, consequently, dying.

Sugiyama said that one can not predict the temperature and the time of the universe if we think of an infinite future. Moreover, "if there is dark energy, the universe will expand forever and in that sense will never come to an end." On the other hand, "if there is no dark energy and the universe is flat, it will stop expanding at some point, but this will be in an infinite future."

Hisanori Shinohara

Rabinovici has also commented on the issue exposed by Shinohara. He said that, in fact, entropy increases permanently, but it depends on the analyzed system. According to him, even in the universe the existence of long periods of increasing entropy and other ones of decreasing entropy should be considered: "And in a time far, far away, the universe will again be what it once has been. But I say to young students that this kind of issue is very deep and it is best to leave it aside for now and concentrate on simpler ones."

Sugiyama said there is a famous analogy about the return of the universe to a previous condition: "A monkey hits the keys of a typewriter. If it does this for a long, long time, it will evolve to Shakespeatre by chance."

Anthropologist Naoki Nomura, from the Nagoya University, has also participated in the discussion. In his view, the idea of relativity does not belong only to the physics but is also a matter of epistemology. He has even questioned the consistency of the theory of relativity: "When it previews a single nature for time it stops being relative and becomes contradictory."

Naoki Nomura

When responding to the comments by Nomura, Rabinovici said that one of the dangers of this type of workshop "is the use of words because they mean different things to each person." He added that the term relativity was incorporated into the theory's name wrongly: "It is not a theory of relativity but a theory of invariance. In the process of searching for what is not relative, one discovers that many things considered invariable are actually not. Newton thought that some things were absolute, when they are actually relative. But not everything is relative. The order in time (something happening after another), this can not be negotiated. If two things are simultaneous while measuring time or not, this is negotiable, and it depends on certain factors."

Goddard also commented Nomura's statement: "The personal experience of time is one thing and the time in physics is another. The theory of relativity is consistent and has nothing to do with the subjective experience. It is very important to keep these separate."

Peter Goddard

Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA and also a member of the ICA's Senior Committee, wondered whether Goddard finds it impossible to relate time in the way it is thought in physics with the way it is seen by social sciences and humanities.

Goddard said that it is not impossible, but that one has to be careful with the words, as Rabinovici said. In his opinion, the confusion in the use of terms of one area in another one are partly the fault of the physicists who "like to use figurative speech, because metaphors can be quite productive while doing science."

Valtteri Arstila, from the University of Turku, wanted to know the opinion of Goddard about a text on spacetime that has been published at the Stanford University's website. According to the text, the general theory of relativity makes the spacetime less relative than the one in special relativity: "The absolute space and time of Newton are kept. They are merely amalgamated and enriched with the most flexible mathematical skeleton."

Valtteri Arstila

Goddard did not agree with the statement by Stanford. For him, time does not cease to be relative in the general theory of relativity because there is a "symmetry between mass and geometry of spacetime, given that Einstein conceived the intensely related spacetime and matter."

10⁻¹⁸ of a second. With this degree of accuracy a clock would be only one second too early or too late over a period of 30 billion years, more than twice the age of the universe. This is the challenge of a new type of atomic clock in development since 2003: an optical lattice clock.

The cutting edge construction of this type of clock was presented by Masao Takamoto, a researcher at the Quantum Metrology Laboratory of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) during the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9.

At the conference Precision Metrology with Optical Lattice Clocks, Takamoto said that atomic clocks are the reference for accurate measurements with 15 digits (10^-15 of a second) and emphasized their importance to infrastructure sectors as they allow a greater accuracy in services such as systems Global Positioning (GPS) and the synchronization of high speed networks. He added that they are also very important for measurements in physical experiments, such as precision spectroscopy in quantum physics.

The international standard of the second duration was defined in 1967 by cesium atomic clocks. The International Atomic Time (TAI, from the French name Temps Atomique International) is established by the average of such interconnected clocks. According to Takamoto, the best results in terms of accuracy so far have been obtained by cesium clocks of the SYRTE (Space-Time Reference System), in France, and of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), in the USA, which reached 3 x 10^-16 of a second.

The search for an even greater precision and greater stability has motivated researchers to design optical atomic clocks. There are two types of them trying to occupy the role of reference in second measurement, according to Takamoto:

• a single-ion clock in an electric field with ability to achieve a precision of 10^-18 s (proposed by Hans Dehmelt in 1982);
• an optical lattice clock, in which the potential of the optical lattice captures about 1 million atoms in separated "traps". It is able to achieve a precision of 10^-18 s and its stability is provided by the simulation of 1 million single-ion clocks in parallel (proposed by Hidetoshi Katori in 2001).

The RIKEN and the Katori Laboratory of the University of Tokyo's School of Engineering have developed optical lattice clocks. Takamoto is the first researcher and assistant director for research of the laboratory.

The first demonstration of an optical lattice clock took place in 2003. In 2005 one of them had its absolute frequency measured. In 2006 the frequency measurement was made by three groups:. SYRTE, JILA (USA) and the National Metrology Institute of Japan. From these results, a new definition for the second has been proposed, Takamoto said.

In 2008-2009 experiments were carried out to measure the absolute frequency of the strontium optical lattice clock using optical fiber between Tokyo and Tsukuba (an actual distance of 50 km that required 120 km of optical fiber). "This and other international experiments have shown an excellent agreement between the clocks with a degree of accuracy close to 6 x 10^-16 s," according to Takamoto.

In September 2006 the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency (CCTF) adopted four types of optical clocks as "secondary representations of the second," according to the researcher: the strontium optical lattice clock and the single-ion clocks of strontium, mercury and ytterbium.

The Time and Frequency Department of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures - BIPM), which is responsible for the TAI, will discuss criteria for the redefinition of the second in the next 5 to 10 years, Takamoto said. Atomic clocks to serve as a reference shall:

• be fully described and have advanced research available on them;
• be developed by various groups and laboratories;
• be marketed (preferably).

The chemical element and the clock scheme will be chosen from the performance of the various existing types. However, after the second is redefined by a clock with a precision of 10^-18 s it will be necessary to find a way to share time with 18 digits under the influence of the Earth's gravitational potential: "According to theory of general relativity, time goes faster on higher ground. The height difference of 1 cm makes a difference between two clocks with a precision of 10^-18 s. This is a problem from the point of view of a standard establishment."

Among the applications that this type of clock with extreme precision will allow, Takamoto cited:

• the production of precise proof for the gravitational potential by using the Theory of General Relativity;
• the demonstration of relativistic geodesy by comparing clocks connected by very long optical fiber;
• the geopotential mapping for the search for mineral resources;
• the monitoring of the variation in the gravitational potential time due to tidal effects;
• the detection of the Earth's crust movements and of volcanic activity.

For measuring the gravitational potential, research aims at the development of transportable clocks with stable long-term operation and clocks with hollow core photonic crystal fiber.

Physicist Tadashi Takanayagi, from the Kyoto University's Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), said that a good analysis model for these conceptions are black holes, a metaphor for the analyses of 3D-realities from the observable information on 2D-surfaces, with the help of the Holographic Principle. The professor spoke during the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9.

Theoretical physicist Tadashi Takanayagi

He explained that the Standard Model, a traditional approach of particle physics, works perfectly for three forces of matter: electromagnetism, strong interaction (nuclear power) and weak interaction (beta decay, neutrino). But it does not describe the action of the fourth force (gravity). "In the microscopic field, gravity behaves completely different from the other three forces."

This difficulty led to the String Theory, according to Takayanagi. As the strings rapidly vibrate, they give rise to heavy particles. As they vibrate slowly, they produce light particles. "With this approach, the theories on matter are consistent with the unification of the four forces: the open string describes electromagnetism, and the strong and weak interactions; simultaneously, the same string describes gravity when closed."

To check whether the String Theory is true, it is necessary to find a phenomenon that can only be explained by it, Takanayagi said. Some aspects of black holes are good cases for research, especially from the microscopic point of view: "We want to use a theoretical microscope to enlarge a black hole and see what is inside."

He said that this concern eventually resulted in the development of the Holographic Principle, "one of the most important advances in this theoretical field in the last 20 years."

The concept of spacetime is defined by a four-dimensional coordinate system (x, y, and z for space, and t for time). The Einstein's General Theory of Relativity considers this concept. "The question is whether this description system of spacetime is real and if it is the best framework for understanding the universe."

Perhaps the analysis of very microscopic structures indicates that space is emerging, and maybe even time is emerging, warns Takanayagi. For him, this kind of consideration leads to the idea that spacetime is equivalent to the information of matter.

Once that massive objects form a black hole, the information in it is not accessible to outsiders. The amount of non-accessible information is called entropy, explains the physicist, adding that the String Theory can solve the problem by playing the role of a microscope to extract information from the black hole. "Among the massive particles there are open strings and one can extract their behavior information. This makes it possible to explain the entropy of the black hole."

Takayanagi showed the formula that defines the amount of entropy of a black hole, proposed by Jacob Bekenstein and Steven Hawking, and stressed that one of its terms, represented by the letter A, corresponds to the surface area of the black hole.

"This is not common. If we observe any matter agglomerate (gas, liquid or solid), entropy is proportional to the volume, not to the surface. But the information seems to be on the surface of a black hole. This is similar to what happens in an hologram, where a 3D-image is encoded on a 2D-surface, but the mechanism is totally different, just an analogy. "

Takayanagi said that physicists Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind have conjectured that the gravitational theories are equivalent to microscopic theories of "a certain matter" on its border.

According to him, this idea is quite popular and intuitive, but the String Theory proposes something beyond that. He commented that in 1997 Juan Maldacena proposed that the Holographic Principle must be understood as a Gauge / Gravity Duality in the String Theory, meaning that there is an equivalence between gravity (closed strings) and matter (open strings).

At the same time, the Holographic Principle states that spaces can emerge from matter in gravity. Gravity would function as a series of sieves with different frame sizes, allowing the passage of information according to the granulation accepted by each sieve, said Takanayagi.

Toy model

He said that physicists use a toy model to express the hidden information in a black hole: a white dot or a black dot (similar to 0 or 1 in computers). The information unit based on these dots (or "coins") is called one qubit.

For the whole system it must be considered that possibly both the white dot and the black dot are inside and outside the black hole, with a 50% probability for each occurrence. "It follows that if within the black hole there is a white dot then out of it there will always be a white dot (and vice versa). If we can not look inside the black hole, then we can not know the outside of it (hidden information, for example)."

This phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and it is said that "the interior and the exterior are entangled." The amount of "coins" (or qubits) is called entropy of the entanglement (Sent), which measures the amount of hidden information.

Thanks to holography, it appears that the entropy of the black hole is equal to the entropy of the entanglement. In fact, Takanayagi adds, the entropy of the entanglement is equal to the area of any surface, even without any black hole. The formula that Takanayagi proposed with Shinsei Ryu in 2006 implies that spacetime consists of qubits of information.

The Holographic Principle states that the spaces in gravity emerge from matter (or information). In the String Theory, the holography allows us to say that the gravity in the 3D-universe is equal to the matter in the 2D- spacetime. In the gravity of the 3D-Universe spacetime can expand, contract and even be created. Considering the matter in the 2D-spacetime, spacetime is not dynamic, but matter can change and be created.

Sasaki said that the formation of the Earth and the Moon, 4.5 billion years ago, and the influence of the Moon on the planet are the determinants of the length variation of a day and a month throughout the Earth's history.

Planetary scientist Takanori Sasaki

According to him, the most accepted hypothesis to explain the origin of the Moon is the occurrence of a giant impact between a Mars-sized body and what could be called the proto-Earth.

But when did this impact occur exactly? Sasaki explained that to have this question answered researchers analyze the transformation of the isotope hafnium-182 into the isotope tungsten-182. "Hafnium is a lithophile (rock-loving) element and tungsten is a siderophile (iron-loving) element, respectively connected to the mantle and the core of a star.

According to Sasaki, the giant impact has produced a magma ocean on the proto-Earth, which seems to have lead to a considerable separation between metal and silicates. Thus, the age of the hafnium-tungsten (Hf-W) separation would be the age of the last huge impact, that is, the age of the Earth and the Moon. "It is possible to calculate how much tungsten the mantle has and thus determine the age of the planet." Using this method, it has been concluded that the Earth and the Moon emerged at the beginning of the solar system, 62 million years after the system's rise, 4.5 billion years ago.

The impact has generated a large number of fragments around the Earth, which then regrouped giving rise to the Moon at an orbit just above the Roche limit (minimum distance from the center of the planet that a satellite can orbit without being destroyed by the severity of the tidal forces), said Sasaki. This limit is at a distance of three times the Earth's radius, but now the Moon is at a distance of 60 times the radius size, and should stop to move away when the distance reaches 80 times the radius size, in a multibillion years.

To measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon scientists use time: how long it takes for a laser beam to reach the Moon, be reflected and reach the Earth. The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment uses this method and the first measurement was made in 1969. With this method, it was decided that the Moon is at 384,400 km from the Earth. Then, the Experiment found a surprising fact: analyzing the data from January 1992 to April 2001, the researchers found that the Moon is moving away 3.8 cm per year. "If this is correct, then the Moon was much closer in the past," Sasaki said.

There is an exchange of angular momentum between the Moon and the Earth. Sasaki cited a hypothesis that is mentioned in the reference book of this area, "Solar System Dynamics," by Carl Murray and Stanley Dermott: "It is highly likely that the orbit of the Moon and the Earth's rotation have considerably changed during the existence of the solar system, especially due to the action of semidiurnal tides [when the Moon is over a location on the Earth and then on its opposite side] caused by the Moon to the Earth."

This means that the Moon attracts the mass of water and this reduces the speed of the Earth's rotation. At the same time, the tide shifting due to the Earth's rotation attracts the Moon, gaining angular momentum and gradually distancing. The Moon also gets slower, reducing the duration of the month.

Sasaki explained that according to the Kepler's 3rd Law (the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of half the major axis of its orbit), the closer to the Sun, the higher the speed of a planet, and the further away, the slower. This also applies to the Moon-Earth system.

An attempt to prove the variation in month length has been made by two researchers that studied the structure of a certain type of sea shell. For Sasaki, "this is a controversial article, but it provides some interesting directions." The shells develop lines of daily growth in segments with monthly growth. Analyzing shells today, it appears that they have 30 rows per segment, which means a 30-day month. "In fossil shells of 400 million years ago there are only 9 lines per segment, assuming that the month lasted 9 days. This indicates that the Moon spun faster around the Earth and at a distance 40% smaller than the current one."

After all, how long did a day last when the Earth and the Moon came to be? "At first, the Moon was at a distance of three times the Earth's radius, immediately after the Roche limit. With this distance and the estimated angular momentum, it can be said that the day lasted only 4 hours. Over time, the Moon moved away and the length of the day increased: when the planet and its satellite were 30,000 years old, the day lasted six hours; when they were 60 million years old, the day lasted 10 hours."

At the end of his presentation, Sasaki presented a graph relating the development of life ("though not an expert on the issue") with the length of the day through time. According to it, the first evidence of life, 3.5 billion years ago, happened when the day lasted 12 hours. The emergence of photosynthesis, 2.5 billion years ago, happened when the day lasted 18 hours. 1.7 billion years ago the day was 21 hours long and the eukaryotic cells emerged. The multicellular life began when the day lasted 23 hours, 1.2 billion years ago. The first human ancestors arose 4 million years ago, when the day was already very close to 24 hours long.

Naoshi Sugiyama, a physicist from the Nagoya University, spoke about time according to the Einstein's special and general theories of relativity on March 9, at the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), in Nagoya.

Sugiyama's approach has been didactic and simplified for a proper understanding of the audience, with several participants from the humanities and the social sciences.

He explained that the special theory of relativity (1905) is based on two principles:

• Principle of Relativity, which states that all inertial frames of reference (moving at a constant speed) are equal;
• Principle of Invariant Light Speed, which is the same for all inertial frames of reference.

According to him, the understanding of these principles makes it easy to understand why time is relative and not absolute, as considered before Einstein's theories, which he quoted: "If the observer is still, the clock of a moving system beats more slowly." This is called dilution, Sugiyama said.

He added that in the General Theory of Relativity (1915) Einstein included the effect of gravity in the theory ("with the presence of strong gravity, time is also retarded") and established the equivalence principle, in which gravity and inertial strength can not be distinguished.

Regarding practical life, Sugiyama demonstrated how this dilution of time needs to be considered in the operation of a Global Positioning System (GPS). "It takes at least four satellites to determine x, y, z and t (the three spatial dimensions and time), and to calculate the distance from them by means of very precise measuring of time."

This precision is important because as the speed of light is 300,000 km / s if there is an error of a second the determined location will be at a distance of 300,000 km from where it actually is.

For the location to be identified with a margin of error of 10 cm, time needs to be measured with a maximum tolerance of 3/10 of a billionth of a second.

The effect of dilution by relativity implies the identification of spots on the Earth's surface outside their actual location: "In the case of special relativity, as satellites travel at high speed (4 km / s), the estimated location gets 25 cm away from the actual position at each second. In the case of general relativity, as gravity at 20,000 km high is weaker than that on the Earth's surface, the difference between the assumed location and the actual one is 160 cm."

To be precise, the GPS has to deal with the dilution of time caused by the satellite's speed and the weak gravity at the height of its orbit, said Sugiyama.

Rabinovici has directed the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an institution linked to the UBIAS network, which brings together 34 IASs based in universities around the world. The IEA-USP is also a member.

The Israeli physicist is a member of the Senior Committee of the Intercontinental Academia, a project proposed by him with the objective to promote scientific exchange between generations, disciplines, cultures and continents. The first edition of the project is being conducted by the IEA-USP in partnership with the University of Nagoya's Institute for Advanced Research.

Rabinovici has visited the IEA-USP and gave lectures on the role of the UBIAS network and on his specialty, particle physics. On one occasion, he showed his vision of the SESAME project, of which he is a co-founder. It is a cooperative venture that brings together scientists and governments of several Middle Eastern countries in order to create a third generation light source.

At the election of the CERN, the physicist received the majority of the 21 votes by the member countries of the Board. Rabinovici had been elected to the position of Vice President of the SESAME project in 2013, when he also became its spokesman.

Israel is an associate member of the CERN since September 2014. Since 1991, the country has invested in research in Central Europe after being granted the observer status by the Board. Currently, Israel is involved in the Atlas experiment, as well as on the premises of CERN Isolde and other experiences.