Milestone
USERN Festival to Cherish Art and Science: USERN Laureates Introduced
USERN Prize Recognized Five Young Scientists from Iran, USA, Netherlands and Belgium: In Appreciation of Exceptional Scientific Endeavors Under Age 40
And here it comes the night of November 10th: Every Breath has come to this moment when first USERN Laureates in the year 2016 are recognized. Everyone has his own speculations with the newsletter and all the banners on the wall... Who will win the USERN Prize this year? Now, before we get into the details of this selection.
USERN Prize was new to many and most people even USERN members, did not know that it is not confined to the fields of medical science. The USERN Scientific team went through a thorough search in Scpous, as well many know awards in formal sciences like the Abel prize and searched through every young, junior, youth award that there was to identify potent young scientists under 40, eligible to be nominated in each field. The USERN advisory board in each field were also asked to nominate individuals. Again there was this huge number of applicants in Medical Science, followed by biological science and physical science, many of whom been nominated by local Iranian advisory board members. Thanks to this comprehensive search, and thanks to those with courage who had applied independently for the prize, we had more than 570 nominees/applicants in five fields to receive the USERN Prize in 2016. Forty-Seven shortlisted young scientists where then shortlisted by the scientific managers according to the primary selection criteria for age and their eligibility to compete for the prize. Next, we called for a round on international voting by world top1% scientists and Nobel laureates as the jury. It was a tough and head to head decision in some fields, to name the prize winner and final applicant. A second round of voting was performed in physical science and the young USERN Laureates were identified in each field by the end of September 2016. The project they had applied for was asked to be the single most important factor that the jury had to take into account. Number of papers, H-index, awards, honours and of course grants the individuals had been offered where also taken into account and represented to the jury, all being world top 1% scientists (highly cited, hot papers, number of papers) and Nobel laureates.
The Old and memorable Tehran Azadi Tower was selected as the Venue of the USERN Festival and Final Ceremony of the USERN Prize 2016. The final ceremony was again a mixture of art and science and a depiction of the spectacular art performances, video clips and piano work from the Mana’ (Concept) Music Group headed by Mr. Rahimi Danesh, who voluntarily undertook all the art performance of the congress. All the verses replayed and art performance unveiled to the audience who had gathered in the convention centre of Tehran Azadi Tower. Head of the human development department of Iranian National Commission of UNESCO, Dr. Mahnam, USERN President Dr. Nima rezaei were invited lectures, with Rasht Mayor, Rasht Congress legilator, and Shahr Bank, deputy being among invited speakers of this ceremony.
Last but not least, it was time for USERN delegates to recongnize USERN Laureates and also cherish the heart-warming presence of 14 top1% scientists and Nobel Laureate in Medicine. USERN Laureates were presented one by one:
1- Floris De Lange, Social Laureate (Netherlands):
He won the Cortex Prize in 2013.
He is at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior in Nijmegen Netherlands.
2-Alexander Leemans Medical Laureate (Belguim/Netherlands):
From Belguim, now is Head director of PROVIDI Lab, Utrecht
A lead developer in Diffusion Tensor Imaging
3- Jamshid Aghaei Physical Laureate (Iran):
He is from Shiraz, and has studied in Isfahan!A 35 years old, he is a lead young scientist at Shiraz University of Technology.
He works in the field of renewable energy sources, electrical power and energy systems.
4- Morteza Mahmoudi Biological laureate (Iran/USA):
37 year-old, Iranian geniusnow a Professor at Stanford and Harvard’s
5- With the honour of representing Lucas Joppa Formal Laureate (USA):
According to his own words: ‘’ … [He] is not at an academic institution, [He] doesn’t have grants, doesn’t teach, and… BUT ‘’ … [does] publish and [has] been leading the international charge at the intersection of computer science and conservation biology’’
He works for the Microsoft and is the co-founder of Nature +Computing group!
After all the ties and tears from speakers, laureates and acknowledgement of the executive committee it was time for a nice dinner, from the northern city of Iran, Rasht, the capitol of Iranian food!