Romania joins the international celebration of the International Year of Light 2015 and the 70th anniversary of UNESCO and is organising the „Lights of the World”conference from 30 October to 1 November at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest. The event will bring together personalities from Romania and from abroad, people with outstanding resultsin science, art and culture, UNESCO representatives, representatives of prestigious organisations and research centers from around the world, successful businessmen, but also tho interested public, including middle- and high-school students and teachers, researchers and university professors, who will engage in a creative and fruitful dialogue to promote the scientific universe.

The event aims to develop the concept of „light (of the world)” from a transdisciplinary perspective, highlighting its multiple facets and symbols in science, education, space and culture as a vector of sustainable development in the 21st century society.

Approximately 400 participants from around the world will attend the event, including the Romanian scientific and cultural representative values, personalities from the world of science, culture and education, researchers, teachers, successful managers, artists, policy makers and leaders.

Among the personalities who answered yes to the invitation to take part in the conference „Lights of the World” may be listed:

• Basarab Nicolescu, physicist, philosopher, professor and honorary member of the Romanian Academy;
• Solomon Marcus, mathematician and member of the Romanian Academy;
• Marius-Ioan Piso, President and CEO of the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA);
• Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, Honorary President of the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) and the first Romanian astronaut;
• Yannick Mellier, French astrophysicist, EUCLID Consortium spokesman. He was awarded the Jean Ricard Prize by the French Society of Physics in 2005 and won the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize in 2006;
• Dragos Anastasiu, businessman, director of the Eurolines tourism group;
• Magda Stavinschi, PhD in astronomy, former director of the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy between 1990 – 2005 and Member of the International Astronomical Union – IAU;
• Valentin Grigore, President of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy;
• Conf. Univ. Dr. Lucian Ciolan, associated professor in the Department of Educational Sciences within the
• Faculty of Psychology (University of Bucharest);
• Virgil Stefan Niţulescu, curator;
• Maarten de Jong, NIKHEF&Leiden University, Netherlands, spokesman of the KM3NeT Consortium;
• Maciej Nalecz,UNESCO, Director of Basic Science Division;
• J-P Ngome Abiaga, UNESCO, Secretary of IYL2015;
• Frederic Thevenin, Observatoire de la Cote D’Azur, Nice;
• V.I. Vlad, President of the Romanian Academy;
• M. Zamfirescu, INCDFLPR, Director of CETAL;
• Nicolae Mandea, Prorector of the National University of Drama and Film „Ion Luca Caragiale” of Bucharest;
• Gustavo Aviles, Lighteam, Mexic;
• I. Boyd, Director of Experimental Techniques Centre – ETC, Brunel University, London;
• John Dudley, President of the steering committee of IYL2015;
• Ion Morjan, Director of INFLPR.

The agenda of the event includes plenary talks and presentations in parallel sessions on Science, Education, Culture, Transdisciplinary, workshops on issues of Science, Education, Culture, Space, Society, Sustainability, a short film gala and multimedia presentations, the launch of educational web platforms “Scientix” and ESERO, shows demonstration of sound and light and last, but not least, exhibitions of painting, photo, philately and book. These activities are divided into four sections:

Science – „Lights of Science” section which will address topics such as the 25th anniversary of Hubble Telescope, early stage Universe, light as a tool for communications, the Universe in neutrino light and light at “high energies”
This section includes presentations on topical themes and also of general interest, such as Applications of Optical Earth Observation SatelliteData, Solar System observations in space exploration era, Orbital space debris removal system, photonics and the power of light and a LIGHTtalks workshop on: careers in Photonics.

Education section – „Light in Education” will host the Scientix National Conference – National Conference of the „Education for Sciences” Community, organised with support from Scientix, eTwinning, ESERO, Romanian Society of Physics, Mathematical Society of Romania and Teacher Training Center of Bucharest.

At the same time, those present at the event will take part at the launch of the exhibition of painting, photograpy, books, philately, but also will watch presentations about science education in Romania, non-formal learning methods and use of space in the context of STEM education. This section will feature also demonstration workshops for teachers, presentations of educational projects and their results, debates, and participants will learn about successful projects in this field, such as ESERO Romania, eTwinning partnerships, Scientix project and not only.

The Culture session is composed of three main themes:

• Architectural lighting and landscaping (organised togeher with CNRI – www.cnri.ro)
• Light in culture and arts (organised togeher with the Romanian Cultural Institute, www.icr.ro)
• Light. Transdisciplinary approaches in culture and education (organised togeher with IT4S, www.it4s.ro)

A special poster session will be held on Saturday, 31 October.

Associated events

The „Light the Universe” astrophotography exhibition, which includes 50 works dedicated to the International Year of Light, will take place during the „Lights of the World” conference. The exhibition is part of the programme dedicated to International Year of Light in 2015 by the Romanian Astronomical Society of Meteors, which is developed with its own slogan: light – less from us, more from the stars!

The Art Science Association will present the „Light Fields” art exhibition, a collection of abstract paintings of Diana Mavi, made using a new interdisciplinary approach: Physics and art.

Last but not least, an exhibition of Alina Gurban will take place during the event.

A philatelic envelopes exhibition will attract people passionate about this field and book enthusiasts will attend a presentation of new books and a book fair.

A show of music and lights – „Sound and Color” – will complement the theme of the event.

Organisers

The conference is organised by the National Institute for Materials Physics (INCDFM) and UNESCO Cat. 2 International Centre for Training and Research in Physics, Magurele, the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR), the University of Bucharest and Scientix National Contact Point for Romania, the University of Craiova, the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA),the National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (INCDFLPR), the Institute of Space Science (ISS), the Parliament Commission for UNESCO, Horia Hulubei Foundation, UNESCO Chair and the Center of Action and Integrated programmes for sustainable development – CENADD.

Further information are available on the official website of the „Lights of the World” Conference.

About the International Year of Light (IYL 2015)

On 20 December 2013, the UN General Assembly 68th Session proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015), recognising the importance of global awareness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

IYL 2015 programs will promote improved public and political understanding of the central role of light in the modern world while also celebrating noteworthy anniversaries in 2015—from the first studies of optics 1,000 years ago to discoveries in optical communications that power the Internet today.

The event is endorsed by a number of international scientific unions and the International Council of Science and has more than 100 partners from more than 85 countries.