On 15 April 2009, the prestigious Beckman Center—the West Coast Headquarters of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in California—hosted an international conference that redefined the economic prospect for the Pacific Island Nations.  Organized by PANGEA WORLD, in coordination with the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States, this conference charted a course towards empowering the island nations to shift away from aid/donations towards high-quality investments in building an exemplary sustainable economy that both nurtures and is nurtured by their collective heritage bounty.  Generating a novel synergy between California’s top-caliber academic and business resources on the one hand and the Pacific Island Region’s treasure-trove of natural heritage riches on the other, the event bridged these two sets of assets in a call for a vanguard alliance for the 21st century of knowledge economies.  The formal launch of the UNESCO Pacific – PANGEA WORLD Partnership culminated this international gathering and inauguration of The Pacific Bridge to Noble Wealth.

It is hoped that the “construction” of this knowledge-welded noble bridge will profoundly change the economic outlook for heritage-affluent countries and, in the process, engender a new-generation hospitality industry that extends the notion of luxury to lavish intellectual treats.  A related aspiration is to shape this endeavor into an inspiration for economically-savvy science and conservation collaborations among nations, corporations, and institutions that may not count as strategic partners in the existing scenarios of international trade.

PROGRAM

Master of Ceremonies
Dr. Richard S. Nicholson
Honorary President and Fellow, PANGEA WORLD
Former Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Dr. Michael T. Clegg
Foreign Secretary, US National Academy of Sciences
Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine

Mr. Kenneth R. Fulton
Executive Director, US National Academy of Sciences
Publisher, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Michael V. Drake
Chancellor, University of California, Irvine

Dr. Hana Ayala
President and Chief Executive Officer, PANGEA WORLD

Dr. Visesio Pongi
Director, UNESCO Office for the Pacific States

His Excellency Winston Thompson
Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji to the United States of America
Fellow, PANGEA WORLD
Former Senator and Ambassador of Fiji to the United Nations

Dr. John C. Avise
Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
Distinguished Science Adviser, PANGEA WORLD

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