ISC Presents

“The current world needs science, to develop well informed decisions. And that can only come from scientific autonomy.”

“Scientific autonomy does not mean that individual scientists can or should be able to do whatever they want.” 

 In the second episode, Lidia Borrell-Damián (Secretary General of Science Europe) and Willem Halffman (Associate Professor at Radboud University) delve into the concept of scientific autonomy, addressing how it should be balanced with responsibility to avert ethical issues and dangers. 

This new ISC podcast series explores contemporary perspectives on science's free and responsible practice in the early 21st century while questioning the challenges science faces today.

In this first episode, Anne Husebekk (ISC Vice-President for Freedom and Responsibility in Science) and Robert French (Chancellor of the University of Western Australia) question the new threats that scientific freedom faces today — and the responsibilities scientists have to live up to. 

In our final fifth episode we explore the importance of informal and non-governmental channels in maintaining and building international scientific collaborations, the role of informal diplomatic channels such as science and culture in building and maintaining peace, the realities of science diplomacy in practice and the importance of ordinary scientists in fostering scientific collaboration.

In this episode, we’ll discuss the impact of crisis, specifically conflict, on an individual scientist, Dr Alaa Hamdon from Mosul, Iraq. Recorded over a series of voice notes during power cuts in Iraq, we spoke to Alaa about his experience before, during and after ISIS’ takeover of Mosul in June 2014. We discuss the impact of the crisis on his personal, academic and professional life, as well as the important rebuilding of what Alaa has labeled ‘the lighthouse of knowledge’, Mosul University’s Library.

This episode will unpack the worrying impact that conflict has on the capacity of organized science and scientists to respond to global challenges. Some of the critical spaces in which the most pressing issues of our modern era are being researched and studied are currently being disrupted due to conflict and crisis. In this episode we’ll be discussing two of them, the Arctic and outer space. 

In this episode of our series 'Science in Times of Crisis', we will explore two examples of how perceived national interests can impact on the capabilities of collaborative science, the scientific community and society.  Firstly, the COVID-19 pandemic and AIDS crisis and secondly, Brazil’s tumultuous science-policy nexus on issues such as climate change and the Amazon rainforest.

For our first episode, and the introduction to our series, we delve into contemporary history to explore two examples of science in times of crisis. We’ll be looking at the the Cold War period from 1950 to 1990 and the Apartheid era in South Africa with two expert guests, assessing how each crisis impacted the scientific community, as well as the role of science and scientific organisations during the both crises. 

Discover the new podcast series from the International Science Council’s Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS), which explores what living in a world of crisis and geopolitical instability means for science and scientists around the world. 

Episode 1 - Science, Geopolitics and Crisis: What can we learn from history, airing this Thursday December 1st.

In the final episode of Science in Exile, political scientist Radwan Ziadeh shares his story of leaving Syria to continue his research on and advocacy for human rights and democracy. Radwan Ziadeh - who is a member of the Steering Committee for the Science in Exile initiative - shares his insights into the kind of support that displaced and at-risk scholars need to continue their research, and tells us what drives him to continue working for change, and his hopes for the future of Syria.

ISC Presents: Science in Exile is a series of podcasts featuring interviews with refugee and displaced scientists who share their science, their stories of displacement and their hopes for the future.

The series has been developed as a contribution to the 'Science in Exile' initiative, which is run as a collaboration between the International Science Council (ISC), The World Academy of Sciences (UNESCO-TWAS) and the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP).

Following the February 2021 coup d’état in Myanmar, medical doctors and other scientists have been prominent in resistance movements, with many doctors striking to protest against violence and persecution. In this episode of Science in Exile, Dr Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw shares her perspective on the strikes, and on how the medical and broader scientific community is being affected by ongoing conflict in Myanmar. Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw is a research scientist, epidemiologist and health systems specialist. Thin Zaw is a Burmese national and is currently working as a Lecturer in School of Public Health in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong.

ISC Presents: Science in Exile is a series of podcasts featuring interviews with refugee and displaced scientists who share their science, their stories of displacement and their hopes for the future.

The series has been developed as a contribution to the 'Science in Exile' initiative, which is run as a collaboration between the International Science Council (ISC), The World Academy of Sciences (UNESCO-TWAS) and the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP).