12

The World Cultural Council (WCC) is an international organization based in Mexico. Members of the Council are eminent global scientists and personalities and include numerous Nobel laureates. The objectives of the WCC are to promote scholarship, art and culture and to foster fraternity among people, nations and governments, based on mutual respect for the ideology, religion, race, and gender.

One of the means of achieving these objectives is by granting the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, the José Vasconcelos World Award of Education and the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts to outstanding individuals or organizations whose work has had a significant and positive impact on the cultural enrichment of mankind.

The WCC annually organizes an Award Ceremony at which these recognitions are conferred. Each ceremony is held in a different country with a renowned university or academic institute acting as host.

In rewarding outstanding individuals, the World Cultural Council pays tribute to their remarkable achievements as well as their relentless persistence. Their hard-earned breakthroughs in the fields of knowledge, learning and creativity have rendered an invaluable service to mankind and improved the welfare of all of us who share this planet.

Since its foundation in 1981, the dedicated work of our members has produced a long list of distinguished award-winners, selected on the basis of a careful evaluation of their merits.

The World Cultural Council Awards 2016
at Riga Technical University

The World Cultural Council (WCC) and Riga Technical University (RTU) are pleased to announce that the 33rd Award Ceremony will take place on Friday 14th of October 2016. It will be held in conjunction with the celebrations of the 154th anniversary of the University.

At the event, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science and the José Vasconcelos World Award of Education will be conferred on eminent pioneers in their respective fields in honour of their tireless efforts to advance human culture and well-being.

Culture

Traditions

High quality study process

Riga Technical University

Science

Riga Technical University

Nature

Latvia

Innovation

Riga Technical University

History

Riga

Award Winners 2016

The Albert Einstein World Award of Science

The Albert Einstein World Award of Science was created as a means of recognition, and as an incentive to scientific and technological research and development. It takes into special consideration research which has brought true benefit and well-being to mankind. It is awarded annually.

The José Vasconcelos World Award of Education

The José Vasconcelos World Award of Education has been established as an acknowledgment of those who have the all-important labour of teaching the underlying basis of our present civilization. The prize is awarded every other year.

Professor Edward Witten

Professor Edward Witten, Charles Simonyi Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, has been selected as the winner of the ALBERT EINSTEIN World Award of Science 2016.

During the selection process, members of the Interdisciplinary Committee highlighted Professor Witten’s visionary research that affects our fundamental understanding of all physical interactions. This outstanding work has been done by spanning the two contrasting disciplines of mathematics and pure physics and has opened new fields of research that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Professor Witten’s achievements fulfil the criteria for the ALBERT EINSTEIN World Award of Science because of their remarkable contributions to human thought and scholarship. The World Cultural Council acknowledges his persistence, breakthrough creativity and commitment to learning as an invaluable service to mankind and as an inspirational example for future generations.

Witten received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976. Probably best known for his seminal contributions to the modern interest in superstrings as a candidate theory for the unification of all known physical interactions, Witten played an influential role in the 1980s, showing how to derive semi-realistic models of particle physics from string theory. In the following decade, his work on duality and the strong coupling behaviour of string theory was highly significant. He is also known for numerous results in quantum field theory and the Standard Model of particle physics, sometimes using string theory methods.

Professor Witten’s contributions to mathematics have also been noteworthy. He is known, among other things, for his novel approaches to Morse theory, the Jones polynomial, and the positive energy theorem of General Relativity; for his work on the intersection theory in moduli spaces; and for the Seiberg-Witten invariants of fourmanifolds and their relation to Donaldson invariants.

He is a member of numerous academic societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and, as a foreign member, the Royal Society of London and the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France.

“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are
wrong: it is character.” Albert Einstein

Professor Kalevi Ekman

The JOSE VASCONCELOS World Award of Education 2016 will be awarded to Professor Kalevi Ekman, Professor of Machine Design, School of Engineering, Aalto University, Finland. This prize recognizes his international and productive humanistic approach to education and his visionary and inspiring ideas on the Design Factory Concept as outstanding educational methodology.

The prize further acknowledges Professor Ekman’s relentless efforts as a mentor and teacher and his passion for fostering learning, multidisciplinarity and cross-cultural cooperation.

For 20 years “Eetu”, as he is known, has pioneered methods designed to engage students in the education process, spark entrepreneurship, promote teamwork and enhance multi-culturalism. The actors involved in the Design Factory Network represent diverse fields, ranging from science, engineering, business and design, through to the arts and humanities.

For students, the Design Factory provides a holistic experience characterized by real-life challenges in a relaxed but enthusiastic atmosphere, with genuine teamwork and daily international collaboration. For the business community, the factory is an innovative environment for finding, incubating and implementing new ideas. Meanwhile, for researchers, the Design Factory offers unique opportunities to carry out open-ended research initiatives challenging the industrial status quo.

The success of the Design Factory can be partially measured by the fact that the methods and spaces have been duplicated on five continents, in countries as diverse as China, Australia, Chile, Switzerland, Korea, Portugal, the Netherlands and the USA.

In short, the work of ”Eetu” Ekman has inspired hundreds of university educators and thousands of students around the world and is starting to change the face of higher education by motivating and empowering individuals, highlighting soft skills and human values.

“A true education is not complete without the drive that can only be spurred by a great intent, a high ideal.” José Vasconcelos

The event will take place on 14th October in the National Library of Latvia.
The relevance and importance of these awards is bolstered by the world-renowned personalities that comprise the jury.

For further details of the winners, please visit this LINK

General information on the World Cultural Council can be found in this LINK

© World Cultural Council 2016