New science forum to strengthen city’s innovation ability

A number of world's leading scientists, including around 30 Nobel laureates, are expected to attend the first Dishui Lake Forum for scientific cooperation and application in Shanghai from Oct 29 to Nov 1, according to the forum organizer.

Wang Hou, secretary general of the World Laureates Association, one of the forum's organizers, released the final date of the forum and its official website dshforum.org during a briefing in Shanghai on June 22.

He said the association is inviting winners of the world's top scientific awards, including the Nobel Prize, the Turing Award and the Wolf Prize, to participate in the forum which he has dubbed "the Davos of the science circle".

"We will try to invite no less than 30 Nobel laureates," Wang said. "The responses have been good so far."

The forum will also extend invitations to academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he added.

Roger Kornberg and Barry Sharpless, the winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2006 and 2001 respectively, attended the briefing on June 22 and introduced their research projects to a room of around 80 representatives from universities, hospitals, and medical companies.

During the briefing, Kornberg explained his research on the essential replication process of viruses — the viral RNA polymerases — and introduced Cocrystal Pharma, a Nasdaq-listed biotech company he co-founded which is developing new drugs to combat hepatitis and influenza.

Meanwhile, Sharpless introduced his research on click chemistry, a term he coined to describe reactions that are high-yielding, wide in scope, stereo-specific, simple to perform, and can be conducted in easily removable solvents. He also spoke about his industrial project of clinical imaging technology that is based on sulfur fluoride exchange.

The briefing is the first of a series of activities leading to the forum, according to the association.