Broad Introduction of Science Diplomacy: Kim Montgomery, AAAS

Addressing preconceptions on science diplomacy 
A broad conversation with one speaker from each one of the panels focused on one of the pillars of the AAAS-RS framework on science diplomacy. Speakers will address preconceptions on science diplomacy and provide big picture answers before going into details during their next session.

Setting the scene: Introduction and Historical Background to Science Diplomacy

Objective: reflect on the importance of scientific advice in negotiations related to environmental issues, particularly in connection to scare resources (freshwater), and global commons (oceans). How has scientific advice influenced ongoing negotiations to address regional and global environmental challenges?



Science in diplomacy: Negotiations on water and environmental matters

• Broad Introduction of Science Diplomacy: **Kim Montgomery**, AAAS 
• Mentimeter poll - click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iw_E9cs7fkXSy0fG7QYYI4k5SSF7djXH/view?usp=sharing">here</a> for the results. 

**Addressing preconceptions on science diplomacy** (60 min) 
A broad conversation with one speaker from each one of the panels focused on one of the pillars of the AAAS-RS framework on science diplomacy. 
Speakers will address preconceptions on science diplomacy and provide big picture answers before going into details during their next session. 

**Moderator: Kim Montgomery, AAAS** 
* **Maurizio Bona**, former Senior Advisor, Relations with Parliaments and Science for Policy, CERN. 
* **Akiça Bahri**, Former Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Tunisia. Former Coordinator of the African Water Facility, African Development Bank, and Director for Africa, the International Water Management Institute. 
* **James Hammond**, Professor of Geophysics & Director, Mount Paektu Research Center. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/37636a13e59f081115d4635bed3419f4.jpg)
 
Kim Montgomery is the Director of International Affairs and Science Diplomacy at the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In this role, she advises on bilateral and multilateral relationships and manages the Center for Science Diplomacy. She also serves as the Executive Editor of the policy journal Science & Diplomacy.
Kim has worked in science policy and international affairs in US and Austria. In Austria, she managed and advised on international relationships for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and was a scientific consultant for the International Atomic Energy Agency. Her US experience includes six years at the US House of Representatives as professional staff for the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology and as a legislative assistant for Representative Rush Holt (NJ-12). Directly prior to joining
AAAS in 2021, Kim was a Senior Program Officer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative in the Scientific and
Technical Affairs program.
Kim was an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. She received her PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton
University and has a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science from Northwestern University.


![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/177615a305b6147f7bbafc01d8cc6589.jpg) 
Maurizio Bona holds an engineering degree and a Doctor degree in material science.
He joined CERN in 1983 and participated in the design and development phases of the LHC superconducting magnets. He was responsible of the development of short-length prototypes and of the first full-length prototype dipole magnets. As Invited Professor he taught superconductivity and superconducting magnets at University of Genoa.
From 1998 to 2008 he led some CERN Groups and the Safety Department.
From 2009 to end 2015 he was the Advisor to the Director-General, charged with relations with international organizations. He was instrumental to develop the CERN network of relations with other international organizations and to obtain the status of Observer for CERN in the United Nations General Assembly. In 2016 he served as the Head of Relations with international organization. 
From 2017 until retirement (April 2022) he was Senior Advisor for relations with Parliaments and Science for policy, and Senior Advisor on knowledge transfer. 
Maurizio Bona is an expert in science diplomacy and promoter of initiatives aimed at valorizing the role of science, technology and STEM education for the good of society. He is regularly invited to share his experience at public conferences and thematic events. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/5400d9fb79c6a1b1c412f3e0847d235f.jpg) 
Akiça Bahri is a professor, researcher and author in water resources development and management. Areas she extensively researched and wrote about include agricultural use of brackish and reclaimed waters and biosolids, and their respective environmental impact and water use efficiency. She held the positions of Advisor to the Chief of Government, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries and Secretary of State in charge of Water Resources. She was a Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia, and earlier she worked as Coordinator of the African Water Facility (AWF) at the African Development Bank; as Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Accra, Ghana; and as Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia (INRGREF). She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree and a Doctor-Engineer degree from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. from Lund University, Sweden. She is a member of the African and Tunisian Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences. She has received international honors. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/fcc842f25c92cc7b5f1c39efe4e009b1.jpg) 
James Hammond is a Professor of Geophysics at Birkbeck, University of London. His research interest is in geophysically imaging magmatic plumbing systems. He has worked on volcanoes all over the world, including systems in South and North America, Asia and Africa. He has over 50 publications in international journals. In 2011 he was one of two scientists invited by scientists from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to visit Paektu Volcano, the first western scientists granted access. James is now the Director of the Mount Paektu Research Centre (MPRC), through which he continues to lead scientific collaboration with scientists from the DPRK in volcanology and other areas of environmental science. The work of the MPRC has been held up as an exemplar in science diplomacy, with many co-authored papers in international journals, a track-record of organising workshops to bring DPRK and international scientists together in the UK, China and DPRK and has featured in many international documentaries (Netflix, KBS (ROK), Global co Lab), news articles and other media outlets (see https://themprc.org/media).

panel

[![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/948cf014279d85a14af949fc212a46d6.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dVnFNLYZ4E2LchKr_lvnBQfKcJUa0nFW/view?usp=sharing) 
**Welcome to the 2022 AAAS-TWAS Course on Science Diplomacy! **

We look forward to engaging with you all: participant pairs, speakers, facilitators and moderators throughout this course. 
We hope that thanks to this course, you will learn about key definitions, actors, and frameworks of science diplomacy; explore key contemporary international policy issues; and build a skillset to develop careers at the intersection of science and diplomacy. 

We expect more than 20 distinguished experts and practitioners to provide their invaluable contribution by sharing their expertise and experience throughout the course, starting from the inaugural session and through five thematic sessions: on diplomacy for science, science in diplomacy, science for diplomacy, science advice, and careers in science diplomacy. To make the course even more engaging, we also include a policy simulation on food security, led by the Centre for Systems Solutions, and group activities led by us.

This is the ninth edition of the AAAS-TWAS course. For the second year in a row we are experimenting with a new format whereby attendees participate in pairs made up of an early career scientist and a colleague from the diplomatic or policymaking arena. The 2021 pilot programme was well received and opens new opportunities to enhance collaboration across the scientific and diplomatic communities. Congratulations to participants on being part of the second cohort of science diplomacy pairs! We encourage you to read the following two stories about last year’s course, available here and here. 

For the first time ever, you will have the opportunity to interact continuously with other attendees on the virtual space of the Underline platform called “gather.town”, where you can network amongst yourselves in a more life-like way. In gather.town, participant pairs have been provided with their own table where they can meet and talk with each other, and there are other spaces to facilitate interaction between participants, including pairs from last year’s course. 
We expect participant pairs to enjoy using this highly interactive platform and take advantage of gather.town as much as possible, not only to widen their understanding about science diplomacy and discuss how the scientific and diplomatic communities can address global challenges, but also to build personal and collaborative relationships that can last beyond the days of the workshop. In fact, it is our hope that these partnerships across disciplines can lead to long-lasting institutional collaborations among you that may create positive change in your countries and regions based on science diplomacy initiatives.

AAAS and TWAS have partnered since 2011 to organize a week-long summer course at TWAS headquarters in Trieste, Italy, to introduce science diplomacy to participants mostly from the global South and explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and health. Since 2014, more than 350 alumni from over 50 countries have participated. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course has been held virtually in 2020 and 2021. Should you wish to know more about this partnership, you can find more information as well as articles about past courses here. 

We look forward to an enriching and interactive course with you! 
Sincerely, 
The AAAS and TWAS organizing committee

AAAS TWAS 2022

The AAAS-TWAS Science Diplomacy training program was established in 2014 to expose scientists, policymakers, diplomats and other interested stakeholders and institutions to science diplomacy concepts, explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and health, and build a skillset to allow for careers at the intersection of science and diplomacy. Over the past years, we have trained over two hundred emerging leaders from more than 50 countries to address science diplomacy from global and regional perspectives. 

**Objective**: reflect on the importance of scientific advice in negotiations related to environmental issues, particularly in connection to scare resources (freshwater), and global commons (oceans). 
How has scientific advice influenced ongoing negotiations to address regional and global environmental challenges? 

**Moderator**: **Mounir Ghribi**, Director of International Cooperation at OGS, the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, in charge of research promotion, 
internationalization and fundraising and Director of the International Advanced Master on Sustainable Blue Growth at University of Trieste. 

**Speakers**: 
• **Tessa Goverse**, Chief, Source to Sea Unit, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) 
• **Dan Whittle**, Senior Director, Caribbean, Environmental Defense Fund. 
• **Akiça Bahri**, Former Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Tunisia. Former Coordinator of the African Water Facility, African Development Bank, and Director for Africa, the International Water Management Institute. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/51a85f046306eaf1dc7fdec35db7ba0b.jpg) 
Director of International Cooperation and Research Promotion at OGS. Director of a second level University master’s degree in Sustainable Blue Growth jointly organized by OGS and the University of Trieste. Professor of Science Diplomacy and Sustainable Development at Euclid Intergovernmental University. He holds a Ph.D. in methods for monitoring environmental change, University of Trieste; a Master in Open Innovation and Knowledge Transfer at the Politecnico di Milano; a Master of Sciences in environmental management from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Crete, Greece, and a degree in Engineering from the ESAM School of Engineering - University of Tunis II, Tunisia. Former United Nations officer, in-charge of fellowship programme at UNIDO International Center for Science and High Technology. Member of the Union of the Mediterranean board on Mediterranean for Jobs initiative and member of several boards and committees such as TWAS, OWSD and initiatives on Science Diplomacy and Science Refugees and ESOF. He was appointed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research to represent Italy in various international initiatives, namely: the 5+5 Dialogue for Research, Innovation and Higher Education and the G7 future of the seas and oceans. He coordinates the internationalization activities of the national Blue Italian Growth cluster. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/e0cf2630f06806fabd6d1b89ef1cceb5.jpg) 
Tessa Goverse is an environmental expert with over 25 years of international experience in promoting environmental sustainability and strengthening the science-policy interface. She is currently the Chief of the Source to Sea Pollution Unit in the Ecosystems Division of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and coordinator of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities. She joined UNEP in 2000 to contribute to the Global Environment Outlook series and transferred in 2006 to the Global Environment Facility coordination office as land degradation, biodiversity and international waters Task Manager. Between 2009-2014, she led the emerging issues work of UNEP and later served as the coordinator of the Environment Under Review and the Chemicals, Waste and Air Quality subprogrammes in the Policy and Programme Division. Before joining UNEP, Tessa served on a range of international research projects in the fields of ecology, agri-food chains, waste management, technology development and life cycle analysis. With a Masters degree in biology and a PhD in industrial innovation and climate change, she has a strong multidisciplinary background in environmental science, global governance and sustainable development. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/87442cd1dfe04b7b6b6e22615654ab2a.jpg) 
Daniel Whittle directs EDF’s work to advance clean energy and climate resilience in the Caribbean. He works with scientists, lawyers, government officials and communities to implement collaborative strategies for environmental protection and natural resources management. He leads a team to address Puerto Rico’s clean energy needs via a community-driven solar and storage project.

Daniel has been active in promoting scientific exchange and environmental dialogue between the US and Cuba. In 2011 he organized fact-finding delegation to Cuba with members of President Obama’s national oil spill commission. That trip prompted a multi-lateral dialogue on oil spill prevention and resulted in a bi-lateral accord between the US and Cuba in 2017. 

Daniel served as Senior Policy Advisor at the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, practiced at a private firm in Washington, DC., and taught at Wake Forest University Law School.

He is a fellow with the American College of Environmental Lawyers and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow. He co-founded the Research Initiative for the Sustainable Development of Cuba and the Tri-National Initiative on Marine Sciences and Conservation for the Gulf of Mexico. 

He earned a law degree from the University of Colorado and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/5400d9fb79c6a1b1c412f3e0847d235f.jpg) 
Akiça Bahri is a professor, researcher and author in water resources development and management. Areas she extensively researched and wrote about include agricultural use of brackish and reclaimed waters and biosolids, and their respective environmental impact and water use efficiency. She held the positions of Advisor to the Chief of Government, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries and Secretary of State in charge of Water Resources. She was a Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia, and earlier she worked as Coordinator of the African Water Facility (AWF) at the African Development Bank; as Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Accra, Ghana; and as Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia (INRGREF). She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree and a Doctor-Engineer degree from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. from Lund University, Sweden. She is a member of the African and Tunisian Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences. She has received international honors.

Akiça Bahri

2

1

Presentations

Setting the scene: Introduction and Historical Background to Science Diplomacy

Science in diplomacy: Negotiations on water and environmental matters

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES