The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s National Academy, welcomed members of the new “RSE Young Academy of Scotland” to an event on Tuesday 29th November.
The Young Academy brings together some of the most able and innovative young academics, entrepreneurs, artists and professionals in Scotland, with the aim of harnessing their creativity to develop a coherent and influential voice on behalf of the most talented people of their generation. The Academy members will be encouraged to work across disciplines to consider many of the most challenging issues facing society either domestically or globally, in fields as diverse as climate change, the economy, ethics or the arts.
The launch event was chaired by the journalist Kenneth Roy and also involved prominent speakers from a range of backgrounds, such as Shami Chakrabarti (Director of Liberty), Professor Anne Glover (Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government), Professor Steve Jones (geneticist at University College London), and Dr Martin Parker (composer). The RSE Young Academy is the first such development amongst the national academies in the UK and is part of a growing movement of like bodies around the world. Messages of support have been received from other young academies including the Global Young Academy for young scientists, the National Academy of Young Scientists in Pakistan, Die Junge Akademie in Germany, the Young Academy of Sweden, the South African Young Academy of Science, and De Jonge Akademie in The Netherlands. It is intended that the RSE Young Academy will develop links with these sister bodies to promote the cross fertilisation of ideas.