Note to Correspondents

United Nations Academic Impact, Council on Foreign Relations to Host

Talk on Global Health Threats at Headquarters, 1 November

 

The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), in partnership with the United States-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), will launch a new quarterly “talk” on global issues, the first of which will take place on 1 November.

Known as CFR@UNAI, the talk will bring experts from the Council on Foreign Relations to Headquarters, where they will address visiting students, teachers and other guests on issues of current interest.

Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, will speak on “Biology’s Brave New World:  Looking Toward Threats to Global Health”.  Joining her will be Dr. Jacob Kumaresan,Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Office at the United Nations in New York.  Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Under-secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, will moderate the discussion.

The talk will focus on dual-use research of concern and synthetic biology.  The term “dual-use” refers to goods and products that could have both beneficial and dangerous consequences, a classic example being Fritz Haber’s experimentation with the mass production of ammonia, which led to advances in both agriculture — with the creation of the modern fertilizer industry — and in chemical weapons.  Synthetic biology refers very broadly to the design and creation of novel biological functions and systems, as well as the redesign of existing systems.

The event will be webcast and made available at webtv.un.org.

It is open to all, but seats are limited.  Those interested in attending are requested to pre-register by sending an e-mail to academicimpact@un.org (subject: CFR@UNAI), where online viewers are also encouraged to submit their questions/comments to the same address.

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For information media • not an official record