Message from Professor Emeritus Tara P. Dasgupta,
President, Caribbean Academy of Sciences, Jamaica (CASJ)
Caribbean Countries, especially Jamaica, have been suffering from
a prolonged period of low income growth. As a response to this
and in order to generate higher levels of economic growth within
five years, Jamaica launched the Growth Inducement Strategy (GIS)
in 2012. Unfortunately, the concepts behind the GIS were
ineffective since the economic growth recorded in 2017 showed
only a 1% increase. Many believed that the main reason for not
having the expected growth of economy was the absence of a
science and technology component. GIS comprised seven key
components. It is now internationally accepted that a sustainable
rapid growth of economy is only possible by creating a successful
knowledge economy, characterized by the development of
applications of science and technology and greater importance
placed on innovation for economic growth. Currently Jamaica ranks
66 among 140 countries with a Knowledge Index (KI, developed by
the World Bank) of only 5.40 compared to Denmark 9.55 and
Singapore 7.75, ranked 1 and 24 respectively. Obviously,
Caribbean countries need to adopt strategic policies to bring a
science and technology culture to the society and to encourage
scientific communities to do research on applications of science
in solving their countries economic problems.
Against this background, the Caribbean Academy of Sciences,
Jamaica in collaboration with The University of the West Indies
will be holding 4-days of Conference on Science, Technology and
Innovation to celebrate 30 years of the Caribbean Academy of
Sciences and 70 years of The University of the West Indies. The
theme of the conference is “Science, Technology and
Innovation - Vehicles for a Knowledge based Economy" and it will
be held at the Visitors’ Lodge, Mona during the period
27th-30th November 2018. This Conference is quite remarkable in
the sense that over 120 papers from both educational and
professional organizations will be presented and ten
distinguished scientists from across the world will be attending
to give plenary lectures. The conference will attract academics
and professionals from tertiary institutions, the public and
private sectors of Jamaica as well as the wider Caribbean region.
The goals of the conference are to deepen the dialogue among
scientists about important problems in the region and illustrate
how science, technology, and innovation can be used to help build
a knowledge-based economy. I am very pleased to mention
specifically that Professor Richard Catlow, FRS, Foreign
Secretary of the Royal Society, England and Professor John
Hildebrand, FNAS, Foreign Secretary of National Academy of
Sciences, USA will be participating as Plenary Lecturers.
Professor Catlow kindly offered to give a special talk to High
School students during his brief visit to Jamaica.
The Scientific program has been carefully prepared so that
attendees have the opportunity to attend a wide variety of
plenary lectures, oral and poster presentations and Forums. In
particular, a Forum on “Cracking the Code to
Gender Disparities in Creating a Knowledge Based Economy:
Increasing Female Participation in STEM” has
been designed by CASJ who seeks to collaborate with other
partners in examining the reality of gender parity within the
scientific and technological space with special reference to the
Caribbean. Key presenters in this session (supported by UNESCO)
will provide their perspectives and highlight the situation with
STEM in their countries.
We are looking forward to the opportunity this event will bring
to meet and exchange ideas with our peers to promote science and
technology which will bring us together to build a knowledge
based society. This is the only way we can reach sustainable
economic growth in our country.
I, on behalf of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences Jamaica (CASJ)
wish to express my appreciation to the local organizing committee
of the conference, especially Dr. Novelette McKnight who has
tirelessly worked with the Team to organize this event.
I wish that every participant, either from Jamaica or abroad,
will enjoy our scientific and social activities.
(President, Caribbean Academy of Sciences Jamaica}