"Are there benefits of beeing copied"
PD Dr. Gerald Kerth, University Zurich, Dr. Alfred Köpf, Rentsch & Partner CHF 12'000.-

Symposium February 5-7, 2009, University of Zurich

Programme

"Cosmic Enthusiasm: The cultural impact of space exploration on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe"
Prof. Monika Rüthers, Dr. Carmen Scheide, Julia Richers, Eva Maurer, University Basle /University Fribourg CHF 3'300.-

The conference „Cosmic Enthusiasm: The cultural impact of space exploration on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the 1950’s“takes place January 22-24, 2009. It traces the influence of the Soviet space program on the culture and everyday life of people in socialist Eastern Europe. Since the launch of the world’s first satellite, “Sputnik”, in 1957, man’s departure into the orbit could be read as a symbol for a revival of socialism. Cosmonauts became the new socialist hero-figures, and architecture, design, literature and the arts responded in different ways to the technological breakthrough, its visual language and aesthetic forms. With a special focus on visual culture, historians of art, culture and the sciences as well as literary scholars will trace the impact of Soviet space exploration, including its place today as a Soviet lieu de mémoire in contemporary Russia.

Programme

Symposium: "Understanding Violence – Recent advances in biology, sociology and modeling"
Prof. Carmen Sandi, EPFL Lausanne CHF 9’000.-

Violence is one of the most important social and public health problems worldwide. Despite great interest in understanding the major causes of violence and in developing effective prevention and intervention programs, knowledge generated by experts on different fields is nowadays fragmented and generally circumscribed to the circles where it is generated. Violent behavior is related to complex environmental and social circumstances, but heritable and other biological factors are also implicated. An integrated view of the causes of violence should take into account sociological and psychological aspects, together with biological, evolutionary and modeling approaches.
The goal of the EPFL-Latsis Symposium 2009 February 11-13, 2009 is to bring together world leaders from each of these fields to discuss major recent advances in biological (genetic risk factors; stress; hormonal alterations; neuroimaging data on brain function alterations), psycho-sociological (hierarchical relationships and population health; elements of the micro-context; developmental trajectories) and modeling approaches (virtual reality and emotions; computational models on the development of hierarchical societies) to foster actual interactions between these fields.
The presentations by invited speakers will be followed by a large discussion animated by a leading expert. There will be poster sessions and a round table that will include representatives from major international organizations with programs on violence and representatives from institutions that directly deal with violent individuals or with their victims. The language and level in speaker’s presentations will be accessible to non-experts, as part of the common goal and effort for establishing a true communication among the different backgrounds and approaches.
The cogito foundation supports one overseas speaker and two young scientists.

Program: http://latsis2009.epfl.ch/index.php?page=program