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.

The Scientific Committee for the second edition of the Intercontinental Academia gathered in late October and chose lawyer and human rights activist Akemi Kamimura to be one of the 21 young researchers members of the project.

The Intercontinental Academia is a program of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), a network that brings together 36 institutes of advanced studies from all continents. The first edition of the program, organized by the IEA-USP and the Institutes for Advanced Research of the University of Nagoya, is still ongoing and focuses on Time.

The second edition's theme will be Human Dignity. The organizers are the University of Bielefeld's Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) and the Israel Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Both meetings of the projects will take place in 2016: Jerusalem will host the first phase in March while Bielefeld will host the second one in August.

According to the organizers, the theme of the second edition is related to ethical and practical debates, which are crucial in several disciplines: "Human dignity is referred in research on terrorism, torture, war, big data and data protection, care in the long term, poverty reduction, social security, minorities, history of human rights, assisted suicide, border control and genetic engineering, just to name a few areas."

Each phase of the Academia will feature three or four master classes given by prominent intellectuals. Some of the topics to be addressed are:

Profile

Kamimura holds a Masters in Human Rights from the USP's Faculty of Law, where she has also completed her bachelor's degree. In 2014 she was a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg. In 2010 she was a student of the course Human Rights and Women: Theory and Practice at the Universidad de Chile's Faculty of Law.

She has been working in projects and institutions linked to human rights since 2000. In 2013/2014 she was a consultant of UNESCO for the coordination of a systematic project on human rights recommendations made by UN agencies and the Organization of American States (OAS). The aim of this study is to propose a monitoring mechanism for the implementation of these guidelines by the Brazilian government.

Kamimura hopes that her academic and professional experience can contribute to the debate about the international legal framework on human rights to be discussed at the Intercontinental Academia, especially with regard to equality and non-discrimination of gender.

Photo: Camila Rodrigues/SJESP

Some foreign universities have adopted new organizational frameworks to meet the peculiarities of interdisciplinary research. More than necessary, this restructuring is essential to consolidate the interdisciplinary model, according to the German sociologist Peter Weingart.

Weingart is an adviser and former director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF, in the German acronym) at Bielefeld University (Germany). The ZiF is a partner of the IEA in the Ubias network (University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study).

For him, in addition to adopting new ways to organize scholars, disciplines and teaching & research units, interdisciplinarity requires a solid epistemological foundation: “Without the good internal reasons pertaining to the development of science and without a willingness to deal with problems outside specific areas, it will not succeed.”

Weingart made these remarks at the conference Interdisciplinarity and the New Governance of Universities he gave at the IEA on July 28.

For him, “interdisciplinarity has been fashionable in academia for more than 20 years, with research development agencies in every country advocating it as a goal to be achieved; until recently, however, the term was devoid of meaning.”

Kinds of interdisciplinarity and ways to achieve it

Weingart said that during his term at the helm of the ZiF (1989-1994), the Center classified interdisciplinary relations into two types: small – when, for example, mathematicians and physicists get together, because “they can understand each other rather easily” – and large, as when a biologist and a sociologist discuss the biological foundations of culture and must overcome greater differences between their disciplines.

He also sees two ways that interdisciplinarity can be achieved. One is through the combination of disciplines, resulting in areas such as biophysics. “However, it does not take long for the new area to become a new major field, with the same dynamics and traditional format of a discipline, namely, ‘turf’ protection, demarcation of outside areas and internalization of communication, characterized by the interaction of peers with similar ideas and attitudes.”

The other way of achieving interdisciplinarity is “driven by a demand, often political, from outside the disciplines.” An example is environmental research, which according Weingart “has yet to succeed in becoming a discipline, because it is made up of a conglomerate of different disciplines cooperating among themselves.”

According to the sociologist, these two types of interdisciplinarity may face resistance in universities from well-established departments with whom it competes for funds. “Departments are interest groups and, of course, the strongest ones claim that only they are able to judge the quality and competence of scholars enrolling in the units and institutes of a university.”

Experiences

Weingart mentioned the University of Siegen (Germany) as an example of an institution that is striving to move away from departmental model and pursue interdisciplinarity. He acknowledges, however, that the case in point is not really persuasive, because it is a small and somewhat obscure university.

“The university regrouped its 12 departments into four faculties that, although maintaining the structure of disciplines, work on issues that arise from outside themselves.”

A more radical example mentioned by Weingart is Arizona State University (United States): “Because this university cannot join the elite echelon of American institutions, president Michael Crow decided to follow a different path and adopt a strategy he calls ‘scientific entrepreneurship’: he dissolved all the departments and created a completely new, interdisciplinary mix between the areas.”

Public demand

Weingart stressed that the euphoria over interdisciplinary research can also be justified politically, with research responding to issues external to the university, fulfilling public demands and being accountable to taxpayers. “It’s best that science do things that are valued by society rather that doing only what is valued by scientists,” he added.

Even with all the changes toward interdisciplinarity, he warns that “the democratization of science is not something that will abolish the trend toward specialization that we have witnessed over the last two centuries. The evolution of science depends on ever-increasing specialization and penetration, on plunging into unexplored territories, but the question we must ask is whether the model of disciplines, as created in the early 19^th century, herald the end of their own history or whether it is possible that something else replace them.”

Various questions from the audience have been made to Peter Weingart regarding his ideas

DEBATE

Weingart’s statements led to several questions from the audience in the IEA Event Room and from those who followed the conference via Internet.

The debate began with a question from IEA director Martin Grossmann, who asked the sociologist’s opinion regarding the role of institute of advanced studies (IAS) in expanding university interdisciplinarity.

Weingart said there are various ways to understand what IASs should do. One of them is that this kind of institute should promote a gathering of brilliant minds. For him, no one today still believes this is enough: “It’s great to have these people accomplishing things in the same place, but this only works to a certain point. Furthermore, it is a somewhat lavish solution, feasible only for those with large budgets; if you don’t have that kind of money, you’re better off considering systemic solutions.”

In his view, the first step towards establishing an IAS is to ensure that it has its own budget and research stations, with leeway to hire whoever it wants. With regard to their work properly, he believes these institutes should identify issues that cannot be studied in the departments, and also reflect on the relationship between scientific production and other spheres of social life.

The director of the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences, Gilberto Fernando Xavier, asked Weingart if the difficulty to establish interdisciplinary groups in a competitive environment was not more a sociological problem than an organizational one, “because to create such a group there has to be trust and a cooperative attitude among people.”

Weingart said this difficulty is not actually a sociological problem, but rather psychological: “Many academics are afraid and seek security; people like that are not good partners in groups, which require scholars resilient enough to sit down with someone and ask silly questions, because they know that silly questions need to be asked, that they need to learn, to start from scratch.”

Carlos Graeff Teixeira, from the School of Biosciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, asked by e-mail how university administrators may identify relevant social programs and if special groups are needed to accomplish this task.

According to Weingart, there is a no recipe to identify societal problems that deserve to be studied, but that creating groups of social scientists dedicated to this work or seeking information from concerned people elsewhere may be one course of action.

Leandro Giatti, from the School of Public Health, said we live amidst uncertainties and that experts do not have all the answers. He asked Weingart whether society shouldn’t participate more in discussions by scientists on matters of great uncertainty.

According to Weingart, we must overcome the model in which politicians pose questions to scientists who are well informed on all the evidence and the issue is thereby resolved: “We know that public policy makers are very opportunistic with regard to scientific evidence, accepting what they like and discarding the rest; furthermore, there is no way eliminate insecurity from the process, leaving us the alternative of establishing mechanisms that reduce the risks of receiving information or that allow postponing decisions, in keeping with the principle of precaution.”

Marcos Buckeridge, from the Institute of Biosciences, asked Weingart whether the systems of a university need both interdisciplinary workgroups using systemic tools and, at the same time, individuals doing basic science by themselves, and whether it would not be the case to create better connections between basic science and the systemic view.

Weingart said that the notion of system is very different in each context and that a common ground – a prerequisite for interdisciplinary work – will always be at a level above two or three connected disciplines: “It will be a set of problems competing with each other or trying to fit the findings of what is above the disciplines.”

According to Buckeridge, the University of São Paulo has mechanisms for this, but there is the problem of different language between different areas and the consequent need for “translators” (not people, but mechanisms that facilitate understanding).

Weingart said that specialization is the touchstone and this implies highly specialized languages: “It would be impossible to use ‘translators’ to make each discipline translatable; the best would be for different disciplines to confront one specific problem with the help of one ‘translator’.” As an example of this “translation” work, Buckeridge mentioned the books on popular science that many American and British scientists produce. Weingart agreed that this is a possible mechanism.

Silvio Salinas, from USP’s Institute of Physics and former adviser to the IEA, said that departments in the University of São Paulo are strong, well-established and productive, and that he considers concern with the comprehensive training of undergraduate students more important.

Weingart said that with the expansion of the contents of disciplines it is impossible to know everything. In his view, curricula in every discipline are expanding and, therefore, “we need a constant process of rethinking the curricula and deciding which skills are absolutely crucial and which should be abandoned.”

During the debate, the director of USP’s School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, Maria Cristina Motta de Toledo, who followed the event over the Internet, sent an invitation for Weingart to visit the school on his next trip to São Paulo. She said the school adopts an interdisciplinary, not departmental, approach to undergraduate studies, based on integrated subjects and activities, with the freshman year being a common basic cycle for all courses.

Photos: Leonor Calazans/IEA-USP

Neuroscientist Ruud Buijs

In a conference at the Intercontinental Academia on April 21, Buijs discussed this interaction, illustrating his exposition with numerous examples from studies of animals and humans.

He initially gave a schematic overview of the workings of the hypothalamus, a part of the brain highly connected to primitive parts of that organ and, via the autonomic nerves of the spinal cortex, to other parts of the body, sending them commands from the brain. “In addition to being essential for us to move our hand and other actions, the spinal cortex is also indispensable for the proper functioning of physiological processes. To achieve this type of physiological control we need the hypothalamus.”

The biological clock, which receives information about light and dark directly from the retina, is located in the hypothalamus, near the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the primary center for regulating circadian rhythms.

According to Buijs, it is now possible to remove the biological clock of the brain of a guinea pig and keep it functioning in vitro, maintaining electrical activity in a cycle of approximately 24 hours, autonomously, without having to do anything else.

Accuracy

To illustrate the accuracy of this mechanism, he said that forensic medicine can determine with great precision the time that someone was murdered by analyzing the expression of the biological clock in their organs, especially if the victim is found within 48 hours of death.

The moment when someone comes into the world is likewise determined by the biological clock. He showed a graph showing that the birth of the first child of pregnant residents of Amsterdam peaks at around 8:00 am. (In the Netherlands, babies are generally born with the help of a midwife.) Another chart showed that the peak time was between 4:00 and 5:00 am for the second or subsequent children, something that Buijs attributes to the fact that women become more savvy regarding labor. A third chart, however, shows a peak around noon and refers to births with obstetricians, when “babies are born in the doctor’s time, who induces labor or performs a cesarean section.”

In some cases, the moment of an individual’s death can also be determined by the biological clock, as shown by the fact that the peak of heart attacks occurs in the early part of the morning, with greater incidence on Mondays (perhaps due to the deregulation of schedules over the weekend, ventured Buijs).

Hormones

In Buijs’ view, the biological clock resorts to several mechanisms to enforce rhythms upon the body, using in many cases the hormone corticosterone. “In experiments with mice, corticosterone peak occurs soon after the night period (we know that mice are active at night), while the peak of the hormone melatonin occurs at night, indicating it induces activity in animals.” In humans, melatonin also peaks at night, but unlike what happens to mice, melatonin promotes sleep in humans.

To study this process in an animal antithetical to the mouse, one with diurnal habits, Buijs used the Arvicanthis ansorgei, a wild African rodent. These animals are active in early and late daytime. “We say that the biological clock prepares our body for the onset of the active period. When measuring corticosterone in the animal, it was found that the peak occurs just before active periods, so there are two corticosterone peaks in 24 hours. This means that, somehow, the biological clock adapts to the animal’s life style and adopts two peaks of activity.”

The hypothalamus contains specific areas that control temperature, heart rate and food intake. The biological clock imposes a temporal pattern to them all. “These connections are strong and there is no escaping the biological clock.”

Buijs said that the areas of the hypothalamus linked to food intake exert a type of influence similar to that of the biological clock, and work in harmony with it. He cited as an example the role of temporal and metabolic factors in modulating body temperature. In animals with nocturnal habits, the temperature is higher at night, then lowers and finally rises again, anticipating the active period.

The metabolism influences temperatures, so that, during the daytime period (of repose), they are low. If the biological clock is injured, the rhythm of temperature variation disappears and remains unaffected even by the metabolic factor, confirming the relationship between metabolism and biological clock.

To produce corticosterone, the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus produces a hormone that leads to the production, in another part of the hypothalamus, of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which stimulates the production of corticosterone in the adrenal glands. Therefore, it was to be expected that upon examining the daytime and nighttime levels of corticosterone in an animal, we would find a relationship with the levels of ACTH. But that is not what happens.

To investigate this, Buijs inserted a virus similar to that of rabies in the adrenal glands of mice. Because this virus has the property of being absorbed by nerve terminals, reproducing itself in the body of the cell and migrating to other cells via the nerve terminals, it is possible to follow the chain of command from the brain to the glands.

Thus, it was possible to establish that neurons in the spinal cortex communicate with the adrenals. It was also possible to follow the impulses of the biological clock, proving that it uses not only hormones to send commands to the organs, but also autonomic pathways. This is advantageous, because something introduced into the bloodstream will take a certain amount of time to reach the organs. With a direct connection to the organs, the biological clock prepares them for what is coming in the blood and also for the arrival of hormones.

If the biological clock uses these means to communicate with the body, what means do the organs use to respond to biological clock? “Many scientists still think the biological clock is an autonomous timepiece that requires no feedback. Of course, this is not true. We have evidence that it needs feedback. The biological clock is in constant interaction with the body.”

In mammals and many other animals, this response is regulated by melatonin, which leads the body to bypass the biological clock cycle. Buijs displayed graphs showing the increased production of melatonin in a reindeer in Finland in the autumn, when the duration of night increases from less than one hour at the end of July to more than 11 hours in mid-September. Also in Finland, where the temperatures of certain periods of the year make the night flight of mosquitoes impossible, bats begin making diurnal flights to hunt for food. “Each organism makes manifold efforts to get in balance with the environment, where the length of the day/night cycle will determine the standard daily rhythm and the pace that the animal will adopt.”

According to Buijs, different areas of the brain produce the same neurotransmitter. The biological clock is one of the areas that produce vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone with vasoconstrictive effects that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. The biological clock produces vasopressin for an area that is also influenced by gonadal hormones.

Buijs showed images of two areas in the brain of a mouse with vasoconstrictive innervation, one that is influenced by gonadal hormones and another sensitive to the biological clock. When the mouse is neutered, vasoconstriction in the first area disappears, but remains in the area that is sensitive to the biological clock. This would indicate the possibility of an eventual loss of vasoconstrictive innervation for physiological or functional reasons. According to Buijs, this possibly occurs through the reduction of gonadal hormones, e.g., during preparation for winter, when the animal hibernates.

The size of the testicles and the testosterone levels of the European hamster (an animal that hibernates) are much greater in summer than in winter. Both the size and the level decrease abruptly between late July and late August, apparently preparing the animal to survive the coming winter. “The hamster goes into hibernation for four or five days, wakes up for 24 hours and eats, drinks and urinates a little, then goes back into hibernation, in a very well-organized process in temporal terms. If testosterone is given to the animal during this period, it will not hibernate, will attempt live in open spaces and will die.”

Images of certain area of the hamster’s brain (the same one observed in the mouse of the previous example) are completely different in the summer and in winter, indicating how the animal’s rhythm influences the central nervous system. The decrease of gonadal hormones prepares the animal for winter. The loss of vasoconstriction in the septum allows it to adapt its physiology and plummets its temperature to 5°C.

Type 2 diabetes and obesity

Two other examples of disordered physiological processes possibly caused by a desynchronization between the biological clock and the physiological mechanisms themselves are, according to Buijs, the onset of type 2 diabetes and the development of obesity.

In the case of type 2 diabetes, this might have to do with the fact that the brain needs more glucose for the active period of the individual’s daily cycle. The amount of sugar (glucose) consumed by the brain in 24 hours is 100 g and the quantity available for the rest of the body is 5 g. “The selfish brain competes with the rest of the body for energy. ‘Compete,’ however, is not a good verb, because the brain is the boss and orders that the sugar be given to it.”

An experiment was carried out with people suffering from type 2 diabetes and had twice the glucose levels of people without the disease. Although the level of glucose is already quite high in patients, it begins to rise even further around 5:00 am, preparing the body for the active period of the day.

The explanation for this, according to Buijs, is that the brain becomes more active and requires more energy in the beginning of the period of greater activity. To meet the demands of the brain, the biological clock prepares the body to make more glucose available.

When the body provides more glucose, it peak in the bloodstream quite rapidly, but then the level drops in a short time. By observing this phenomenon throughout the day, it was found that peaks in blood glucose levels decrease until the onset of the active period.

Interestingly, if you compare both phenomena, you’ll see that the glucose peak in the blood corresponds to lowest glucose peak in the muscles. “This means that the biological clock is doing two things at once: on the one hand, it is stimulating the production of glucose; on the other, it is making the brain absorb more glucose. A perfect preparation for the active period of the day.”

What is the role of the biological clock in obesity? Buijs said one of the correlations has to do with the period of sleep: the shorter the period, the greater the chances of developing obesity. But there’s another correlation, related to factors that promote the growth of fatty tissue.

Actually, the autonomic nervous system involves two systems (the sympathetic and the parasympathetic), by means of which the brain sends commands for the fatty tissues to grow. By injecting a virus similar to that of rabies in retroperitoneal fat (the back of the abdominal cavity) of mice, it is possible to identify the area of the brain that controls the parasympathetic system – which is, in general, the system for repose. “When cutting the innervation of the system, the uptake of glucose decreases, indicating that a command from the brain is required for the fatty tissue to absorb it.”

By analyzing the abdominal fat of two 14-year old boys, one non-diabetic and the other diabetic, the clinical finding was that the accumulation of fatty tissue in the gastrointestinal compartment is associated with the disease. According to Buijs, understanding that the parasympathetic system is important for the accumulation of fat suggests that the system’s commands for the gastrointestinal compartment may be stronger than the commands for the subcutaneous area. This might mean that both regions need other body signals; otherwise, the brain will not be able to distinguish between the compartments.

To resolve this doubt, markers were injected in abdominal tissue of mice and it was found that in the autonomic center (which commands the fatty tissues) there is a pair of different nerves to command the fat of each compartment. The differentiation of nerves may be followed up to the hypothalamus, where the differentiation can actually be seen in one of the structures that receive information from the biological clock. Thus, we find that the biological clock has nerves that communicate only with some part of the body not with another.

The conclusion of these experiments is that different controls for different tissues is what enables the centralized control of fat distribution. According to Buijs, this can be seen in the fact that individuals who accumulate abdominal fat suffer an imbalance in the body’s fat compartments, suggesting that some cases of diabetes and hypertension may involve this type of imbalance in the commands of the autonomic nervous system – not only in commands stemming from the hypothalamus, but in those from the biological clock itself.

Buijs’ working hypothesis for future research is that disarray in the reciprocal relationship between the biological clock and the organs – at any level and at any stage of life – can result in illness. “The disease can be induced, for instance, by ingesting food at the wrong moments during the 24 hour cycle.”

The Senior Committee that coordinates the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) has completed the final stage of the selection process of the 13 young researchers who will participate in the pilot-project initiative. The result is the composition of a plural group, which includes the geographic diversity and the dialogue between East and West pursued by the ICA's creators for this first edition. Among the scientists there are representatives from three continents and seven countries: Germany, England, Finland, Japan, China, the United States and Brazil.

The selection began in the Senior Committee Meeting held in September 2014 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Freiburg (FRIAS), when the first names were chosen. In order to ensure the participation of young researchers from different countries, cultures and academic traditions, the decision on the other scientists was postponed until there was time for new candidates from other regions of the world to sign up.

The process was resumed in the 3rd Meeting of Directors of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) - a network which brings together 34 institutes for advanced studies based in universities around the world, to which the ICA is bound. During the event, held in November 2014 in Taipei, there was agreement on the appointment of four new candidates, all from Asia. The process was finalized in February 2015, when the last two researchers were chosen.

INTERCONTINENTAL ACADEMIA

Synthesized in the concept 2+2+2, the ICA is an international academic cooperation project which aims to bring together two institutes of UBIAS from two different continents to develop, over two interdisciplinary workshops, a joint research focused on a cross-thematic topic.

Synthesized in the concept 2+2+2, the ICA is an international academic cooperation project which aims to bring together two institutes of UBIAS from two different continents to develop, over two interdisciplinary workshops, a joint research focused on a cross-thematic topic.

PARTICIPANTS

	América
	André Mascioli Cravo - Brazil A psychologist graduated from USP, where he also received his PhD in neurophysiology and did a post-doctoral internship at the Medical School. Cravo is a professor for cognitive neuroscience at the Math, Computing and Cognition Center of the Federal University of ABC (UFABC).
	Eduardo de Almeida - Brazil A biologist graduated from the University of Minas Gerais and a PhD in entomology from Cornell University. Almeida is a professor of the Department of Biology at USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Sciences of Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP).
	Adriano De Cezaro – Brazil A mathematician graduated from the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), PhD in mathematics by the National Pure and Applied Mathematics Institute (IMPA) and postdoctoral fellow at the Computer Science Institute of the University of British Columbia. Cezaro is a professor at FURG’s Mathematics, Physics and Statistics Institute.
	Helder Nakaya - Brazil A biologist graduated from USP, where he also received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology. Post-doctor from Emory University. Nakaya is a professor at the Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analysis of USP’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF), and at the Department of Pathology of Emory University‘s School of Medicine.
	Marius Müller - Brazil (in spite of being German, USP is supporting him at the ICA) A biologist graduated from the Christian-Albrechts-University and PhD in marine biogeochemistry from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences. Müller is a post-doctor from the Oceanography Laboratory of Villefranche-sur-mer and from the Institute of Marine Studies of the University of Tasmania. He is a post-doctorate fellow at USP’s Institute of Oceanography (IO).
	Nikki Moore - United States A bachelor of Arts from Baylor University and master in History, Theory, and Art and Architecture Criticism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Moore is a doctoral student in art history at Rice University.
	Asia
	Norihito Nakamichi — Japan Graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Nagoya University, where he also received his PhD in the same area. Nakamichi is an associate professor at the Institute of Biomolecules Manufacturing (ITBM) of the Nagoya University.
	Kazuhisa Takeda — Japan A bachelor in literature from the Reitaku University that has obtained his PhD in area studies from the Sophia University. Takeda is an assistant professor of the Institute for Advanced Study and a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies, both at Waseda University.
	Saitya Das — India A bachelor in letters (English language) from the Gauhati University that has obtained his PhD in semiotics and structure philosophy from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Das is a post-doctor in philosophy of literature from the Unit of Philosophy Training and Research of the Université de Marc Bloch Strasbourg 2. He is a professor at the English Studies Center of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
	Christian Hein — Taiwan A bachelor and a doctor in English and German comparative literature from the University of Hannover. Hein is a professor at the Languages Center of the Free Arts College of the National Taiwan University.
	Liu Yangyang — China A bachelor from the Nanjing University that holds a PhD from the University of the Southwest, both in China. Yangyang is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of the Nanjing University.
	Europe
	Boris Roman Gibhardt — Germany A bachelor of general and comparative literature, history of art and musicology from the Johannes Gutenberg Mainz University that has obtained his PhD in general and comparative literature from Free University of Berlin. Gibhardt is a professor for art history at the University of Bielefeld and a visiting researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies / Interdisciplinary Research Center at the same institution.
	David Gange — UK A historian graduated from the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he also obtained his PhD in history and was a post-doctoral fellow. Gange is a senior professor of modern history at the University of Birmingham.
	Eva von Contzen — Germany A bachelor of English and Classical Art from the Ruhr-University Bochum that holds a PhD in theory of English medieval narrative. She has been a junior visiting researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study of the University of Freiburg (FRIAS). At the Ruhr-University Bochum she is currently a professor for culture, literature, and medieval and ancient English language.
	Valtteri Arstila — Finland A social scientist graduated from the University of Turku, where he has also obtained his PhD in philosophy. Arstila is a researcher of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Turku.

Coordinated by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) of the National Taiwan University (NTU), the event will have the theme Breaking Through Boundaries and Old Paradigms in the New Age of Globalization and a special focus: Rising East Asia in the New Age of Globalization.

Over four days there will be a series of panels and conferences. Among the issues to be addressed in addition to the specific themes of the meeting there are the contributions of thought in East Asia, Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula to the global scientific production; the potential of the UBIAS network; creativity and interdisciplinarity; models of cooperation between the institutes linked to the network; research leading in the field of natural sciences and technology in institutes of advanced studies; and the importance of social sciences and humanities in the discussion of pressing issues (see schedule).

Held annually, the meeting of directors is an opportunity for network members to share experiences, promote cultural and scientific exchanges, and articulate inter-institutional partnerships, such as the Intercontinental Academia (ICA). Synthesized in the concept 2 + 2 + 2, the initiative is an international academic cooperation project, which aims to bring together two institutes of UBIAS, in two different continents, over two interdisciplinary workshops. to develop a joint research focused on a cross-thematic topic.

Under the responsibility of the IEA-USP and the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) of Nagoya University, the ICA pilot project will have "Time" as its theme. The activities will begin in April 2015, when the first workshop takes place in São Paulo, and will continue until January / February 2016, the period for the second one, to be held in Nagoya.

Issues relating to the general planning of the ICA, the programme of the workshops and the selection of participating researchers in the pilot project will be discussed during the meeting.

IEA-USP's PARTICIPATION

On the first day of the meeting, Martin Grossmann, director of the IEA-USP, and Cai Dapeng, associate professor of the IAR, will talk about the progress of the ICA on the panel São Paulo - Nagoya Intercontinental Academia 2015: Overview, Prospects, and Progress Report. The presentation of Grossmann and Capeng will be moderated by Yun-han Chu, professor of political science at the NTU.

Grossmann will also give the talk The challenges of the University in the 21st century: nowadays and in possible futures in the panel Thinking from Latin America and Iberia, to be held on November 29. The other panel speakers will be José Vicente Tavares dos Santos, director of the Latin American Institute Advanced Studies (ILEA) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and Rocío Davis Garcia, representative of the Instituto Cultura y Sociedad of the University of Navarra, Spain. Moderation will be in charge of Luisa Shu-Ying Chang, director of the Office of International Affairs of NTU.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the inventors of the LED (light-emitting diode) lamp: Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, both from the Nagoya University, and Shuji Nakamura, from the University of California Santa Barbara. The winners were announced in the morning of this Tuesday 10/7 in Stockholm, at the headquarters of the Nobel Foundation.

The Nobel Committee has justified the award to the three scientists for having invented the "efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." According to the committee, LEDs are the light source of the 21st century, as the incandescent bulbs were in the 20th century.

The researchers will share a prize of $ 1.1 million, to be awarded in Stockholm on December 10.

The IEA-USP is honored to disclose this award since the Nagoya University, through its Institute for Advanced Research (IAR), of which Akasaki is a member, is a partner of the Brazilian Institute in the Intercontinental Academia project. The pilot edition of the interinstitutional initiative will bring together young researchers from various countries for an interdisciplinary research on time in 2015.

With the granting of the Nobel Prize to Akasaki and Amano, Nagoya University now has six winners of the award. The other four are Makoto Kobayashi (Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008), Toshihide Maskawa (Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008), Osamu Shimomura (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008) and Ryoji Noyori (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001).

These scientists (except for Amano) and seven other renowned scientists make up the Academia of the IAR. According to the website of the institute, "the Academy is composed by the 'scholars' that the university is most proud of, and who provide guidance and suggestions for the advancement of academic activities of the university, in addition to transmitting through the excellence of their work the essence of academic research to young researchers and graduate students.

Photos: Nagoya University and University of California Santa Barbara

The deadline for submission of the letter of interest and an updated curriculum (in English) by those interested in participating in the Intercontinental Academia has been extended to August 31.

The project is an international and interdisciplinary initiative organized by the network University-based Institute for Advanced Study (Ubias), the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo (IEA-USP) and the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) of Nagoya University, Japan. The goal is to promote scientific and cultural exchange between institutions and young researchers around the world.

The theme of the Intercontinental Academia is time. This theme was chosen because it is usually conceptualized differently in each area of knowledge, whether humanities or natural sciences; and because, according to the project leaders, "to obtain a comprehensive overview of the impacts of these notions in science and culture in general there must be an academic dialogue between people working and experiencing the different concepts of time."

Two meetings of immersion are planned to occur in March 2015, at the University of São Paulo, and in January 2016, at the Nagoya University, besides other activities during this period.

See the steps to applying: intercontinental-academia.ubias.net/howwtoapply.

Related news

The Intercontinental Academia will bring together researchers from various countries to interdisciplinary studies on time

Time was chosen as the main theme, since its concept is usually different in each area of knowledge, whether in the humanities or in natural sciences. For a comprehensive overview of the impacts of these ideas in science and culture in general, there must be an academic dialogue among people that work with different concepts of time.

Two meetings of immersion are planned to occur in March 2015, at the University of São Paulo, and in January 2016, at the Nagoya University, besides other activities during this period.

Those interested in applying should be aged up to 40, hold a PhD or post-doctorate (completed or in progress) in any field of knowledge and be fluent in English. A letter of interest and a updated curriculum, both in English, should be sent to one of the Ubias members. The IEA-USP will receive the letters until the 7th of August, when the pre-selection process starts.

More information on the Intercontinental Academia: http://intercontinental-academia.ubias.net.

Related

• The Intercontinental Academia will bring together researchers from various countries to interdisciplinary studies on time

Projects

Call for Essays - COVID-19

Intercontinental Academia

• Time
• Human Dignity
• Laws: Rigidity and Dynamics

Meetings

"University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study in a Global Perspective: Promises, Challenges, New Frontiers", Freiburg, Germany - Founding Conference

October 25-27, 2010

Coordination Committee in New Delhi, India

March, 2012

"Shaping the Future: Navigating a Changing World", Jerusalem, Israel - Steering Committee Meeting

March 4-6, 2013

Photos

• Meetings and facilities of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Scientific and Academic Knowledge", Vancouver, Canada - UBIAS Conference

September 17-19, 2013

Photos

• Steering Committee Meeting
• UBIAS Conference
• Peter Wall IAS's Facilities

Video

• Interview with Rogério Meneghini for the Panel "Curating Knowledge"

Videos of presentations held by member institutes of UBIAS at IEA-USP

• Institute for Avanced Studies Jawaharlal Nehru, India
• Collegium de Lyon, France
• University of Birmingham's Institute of Advanced Studies, United Kingdom
• Institute for Advanced Research of the University of Nagoya, Japan

Related news

"Hasta la Creación del Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IAS) de la Universidad de Costa Rica", San José, Costa Rica - Workshop

February 10-13, 2014

Directors of the IASs of Princeton and Jerusalem visit the IEA-USP

March 24, 2011

Photos

The UBIAS network was initiated in 2010, when representatives from 34 research institutes worldwide met at the conference entitled “University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study in a Global Perspective: Promises, Challenges, New Frontiers”, hosted by the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, Germany. The founding of the first UBIAS dates back 40 years. However, the last 10 years have seen an upsurge in the establishment of such institutes across the globe – and this trend continues. The network was established to enable structured forms of exchange in this growing segment, including bi-annual conferences and joint programmes between partner institutes.

Steering Commitee

The UBIAS Steering Committee consists of nine elected members. At the last  Directors’ conference in São Paulo in March 2018, the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo in Brazil (IEA-USP) was elected coordinating institute of the UBIAS network for the period of 2018-2020. As chair IEA-USP form together with IAS Perth and IMéRA / Aix-Marseille the so-called  'Triumvirate', the main coordinators of the UBIAS network. The Steering Committee encompasses the 'Triumvirate' and six other members:

• Professor Guilherme Ary Plonski, (Chairman) Coordinator of UBIAS, Deputy Director at IEA-USP, São Paulo, Brazil

• Professor Clarissa Ball, Deputy Coordinator of UBIAS, Director at IAS Perth, Australia
• Professor Raouf Boucekkine, Deputy Coordinator of UBIAS, Director at IMéRA, Aix-Marseille University, France

• Professor Yoshiyuki Suto, Deputy Director at Nagoya IAR (Institute for Advanced Research, Nagoya University), Japan

• Professor Michal Linial, Director at IIAS, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

• Professor Bernd Kortmann, Director at FRIAS, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany

• Professor Morten Kyndrup, Director at AIAS, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark

• Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Director at Trinity Long Room Hub, Ireland
• Professor Véronique Zanetti, Director at ZiF, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Germany
• Professor Olivier Bouin, Director at RFIEA, French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study
  
  

The Steering Committee is responsible for identifying overarching themes and objectives for the biennial conferences and approach the Institute that will host the UBIAS conference. Also, they process membership requests and applications.

Network Participants

Africa:

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)
South Africa

Americas:

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Harvard University
United States

Centro de Estudos Avançados (CEAv)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Brazil

John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute
Duke University
United States

Instituto de Estudos Avançados (IEA)
Universidade de São Paolo
Brazil

Stanford Humanities Center
Stanford University
United States

Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
University of British Columbia
Canada

Asia:

Institute for Advanced Research (IAR)
Nagoya University
Japan

Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IAS)
Nanjing University
China

Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
India

Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) New Delhi
India

Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS)
Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS)
Korea, Republic of

Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies
Peking University
China

Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences
Fudan University
China

Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS)
National Taiwan University
Taiwan, Province of China

Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS)
Waseda University
Japan

Australia:

Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
The University of Western Australia
Australia

Middle East:

The Institute for Advanced Studies of Jerusalem (IAS)
Israel

Europe:

Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)
Universität Bielefeld
Germany

Istituto di Studi Avanzati (IAS)
Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Italy

Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH)
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom

Trinity Long Room Hub
Trinity College Dublin
Ireland

Institute of Advanced Study
Durham University
United Kingdom

Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Germany

Lichtenberg-Kolleg
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Germany

Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
University of Helsinki
Finland

School of Advanced Study
University of London
United Kingdom

Réseau Français des Instituts d’Études Avancées (RFIEA)
Collegium de Lyon, Institut Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées (IMÉRA) de Marseille, Institut d'Études Avancées (IEA) de Nantes, Institut d'Études Avancées (IEA) Paris
France

Center for Advanced Studies (CAS)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Germany

TUM Institute for Advanced Study
Technische Universität München
Germany

Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme - Alsace (MISHA)
Université de Strasbourg
France

Collegium Helveticum
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ)/Universität Zürich
Switzerland

Institute for Advanced Study Budapest
Central European University Budapest
Hungary

The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
University of Birmingham
United Kingdom

Originally launched in December 2011 as part of the celebrations of IEA-USP’s 25th anniversary, issue 73 features the special dossier ‘IASs: Science and Society’. The 20 articles that make up the dossier outline a panel of ideas that have guided the creation of the institutes for advanced study from the foundation of the pioneer institute in Princeton until the emergence of newer units in Brazil and abroad.

Through articles written by their directors, the IEAs of UNB (University of Brasilia), UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), UNICAMP (State University of Campinas), University of British Columbia (Canada), Collegium Budapest (Hungary), Collegium de Lyon (France) and Fudan University (China) are all represented in the dossier. The section dedicated to IEA-USP contains articles written by former directors, coordinators of the hubs of Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos and Alfredo Bosi, editor of ‘Estudos Avançados’ and former director of the institute.

The creation of IASs in various universities around the world since the 80’s demonstrates that the international academic community sees this type of institution as a key component for the development of universities. The article written by researchers of the FRIAS (IAS at the University of Freiburg) on the 32 members of UBIAS points out some common features like full freedom of research and the variety of structures, emphases and approaches. The dossier of ‘Estudos Avançados’ tries to picture the vitality and commitment of the institutes regarding scientific excellence and improvement of the societies worldwide.

Issue 73 also brings a series of five texts about USP’s museums. As highlighted by Bosi, it is a "tribute to our partners in research and in the opening of the university to society.