First Speakers announced for International Year of Light Closing Ceremony
The International Year of Light 2015 (IYL2015) has been a tremendously successful global initiative with thousands of events reaching millions of people in over a hundred countries. The International Year will be brought to an official close with a ceremony held over three days from 4-6 February 2016 in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico. The final programme will be released in January 2016, but we are delighted at this stage to be able to announce preliminary information about topics and speakers.
The Closing Ceremony will provide a forum to both continue the celebration of light and its many applications in science and society, but also will discuss the achievements of the International Year and look forward to continuing its success in the future. The programme will be opened by messages from UN, UNESCO and IYL2015 leaders, and an impressive range of speakers will then contribute over three days in a series of keynote lectures, symposia and round-tables covering areas of basic science, technology, development, lighting solutions in society, art & culture, the history of science, and science policy.
The Closing Ceremony will also include a film and video festival and an extensive outreach programme which will be open to the public. A parallel cultural programme will showcase performances and installations from leading light artists, and an optional excursion to the Mayan Archaeological Site of Chichen Itza will also be offered to participants.
Keynote speakers include Nobel laureates John Mather and Shuji Nakamura. John Mather is an astrophysicist and cosmologist who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is senior astrophysicist the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and was listed in 2007 amongst Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Shuji Nakamura is an electronic engineer and won the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics for his invention of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. The programme will also see contributions by leading international speakers including: Harry Atwater, Gustavo Avilés, Vanderlei Bagnato, Fabio Bevilacqua, Gihan Kamel, Sir Peter Knight, Noureddine Melikechi, 1001 Inventions, Víctor Palacio, Sir David Payne, Sir John Pendry, Lluis Torner, Ling-An Wu and many others.
The expected audience of over 500 will consist of members of the International Year of Light community from amongst the diplomatic, scientific and business sectors around the world. Attendance is by invitation only to key members of the IYL2015 scientific community as well as our partners and sponsors. A range of sponsorship opportunities are available for the Closing Ceremony, and note that a limited number of places will also be reserved for students willing to provide logistical support.
Closing Ceremony Programme 2016
(Detailed timings subject to change)
3 Feb
17:00-20:00 Registration & Exhibition
4 Feb
09:00-10:30 High Level Session and Overview
10:30-11:30 Nobel Lecture
11:45-13:30 Plenary Lecture; Panel Session – History of Optics
15:30-18:00 Parallel Workshops: Light & Architecture; Education & Outreach; New Light Sources for R&D
18:00-20:00 Cultural Event & Welcome Reception
5 Feb
09:30-10:30 Nobel Lecture & Plenary Lecture
10:30-13:30 Panel Sessions – Research in Optics & Photonics; Light and the Arts
15:30-18:00 Parallel Workshops: Dark Skies; Linking Industry & Academia; Harvesting Solar Energy
18:00-21:00 Cultural Event
6 Feb
09:00-10:00 Panel Session – Cultural Heritage
10:00-11:00 Panel Session – Light for All
11:30-13:00 Concluding Session
13:30-20:00 Tours to Historic Sites; Archeoastronomy; Light & Sound Show