CECAM-MARVEL Mary Ann Mansigh series: Science and diplomacy

The Mary Ann Mansigh Conversation series focuses of non-strictly technical topics of cultural interest for the simulation and modelling community. The format reflects the informative and informal nature of these sessions, with talks introducing the subject followed by a conversation between the speakers and the audience.

About the speakers

Gihan Kamel is the SESAME (Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) Infrared Beamline Principal Scientist, on leave from the Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. Dr Kamel obtained her Ph.D. in Physics in 2011 from the University of Rome, La Sapienza, Italy, and was beamline researcher at Daɸne-light at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (LNF-INFN) before moving to SESAME in 2015. At SESAME, she focuses on using infrared light for various scientific studies, ranging from biology, medicine, archaeology, material science among many others. Her work has had a significant impact on expanding research opportunities and fostering scientific exchange across borders in a region with a complex political landscape. Through her efforts, Kamel has become an advocate for the role of science in building bridges and fostering peaceful collaboration. She is also extensively involved in the establishment of the first African Light Source. In 2015, she earned recognition for her presentation at a TEDxCERN | TED conference on the theme of "Breaking the Rules.". Dr. Kamel was honored with a recognition of the President of the Italian Republic at the International Day of Women in 2017. In 2020, she was awarded the Eureka South Shore Prize ex-aequo Laureate of Eureka Prize of the French organization amcsti (The professional network of scientific, technical and industrial cultures) for her role at SESAME that brings together scientists from the eight founding states of this unique experiment in this region. In 2021, as part of the ‘Championing the Decade of Action’ - an initiative being implemented by ECA and other UN agencies, Dr Kamel was selected by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as one of twenty-five African Women scientists featured within the African and global research and development (R&D) communities in the publication titled “Earth, Oceans and Skies: Insights from selected, outstanding African women scientists”. In 2023, she was chosen by Nature to comment on the challenges facing women scientists in the Middle East. Gihan Kamel received the John Wheatley Award from the American Physical Society (APS) in 2024.

Atish Dabholkar is the director of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. He is a theoretical physicist from India working in the field of string theory, black holes, and holography. Atish Dabholkar received his PhD in theoretical physics from Princeton University under the supervision of Jeffrey Harvey. He did his Masters in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Dabholkar is the recipient of the 2006 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian science prize awarded by the Prime Minister of India. He was awarded the Chaire d'Excellence of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France in 2007. He is an elected Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in developing countries. Dabholkar was the Head of ICTP's High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics section prior to taking up the directorship. He has been Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Directeur de Recherche of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Sorbonne Université and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and CERN. He was a post-doctoral associate at Rutgers University and Harvard University, and a senior research fellow at California Institute of Technology. 

Tatsujiro Suzuki is a Professor of Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University (RECNA), Japan. Before joining RECNA, he was a Vice Chairman of Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) of the Cabinet office from January 2010 to March 2014. Until then, he was an Associate Vice President of the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan (1996-2009) and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo (2005-009), an Associate Director of MIT’s International Program on Enhanced Nuclear Power Safety from 1988-1993 and a Research Associate at MIT’s Center for International Studies (1993-95). He is now a member of Advisory Board of Parliament’s Special Committee on Nuclear Energy since June 2017. He is also a Council Member of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (2007-09 and from 2014~), co-chair of International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) and an International Advisory Board member of Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). Dr. Suzuki has a PhD in nuclear engineering from Tokyo University (1988).

Roland Bouffanais is an Associate Professor at the Global Studies Institute and the Department of Computer Science (Faculty of Science) of the University of Geneva. He holds the Chair in Computational Diplomacy and is Co-Director of the SiDLab (Science Diplomacy Lab) at the University of Geneva. His research on complex systems involves a synergistic combination of computational and theoretical developments with real-life experimental validations. Specifically, he focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of complexity science, the social sciences, and AI. He received his Ph.D. from EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in computational science, for which he was awarded the prestigious IBM Research Prize in Computational Sciences (2008) and the ERCOFTAC Da Vinci Award Silver Medal (2007).

Previous CECAM and MARVEL lectures can be found at:

https://www.materialscloud.org/learn/sections/Btmngu/marvel-events

https://www.cecam.org/lectures