Speaker Details

Prof Richard R. Ernst

Biography

Richard Robert Ernst is a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel Laureate. Born in Winterthur, Switzerland, Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy while at Varian Associates, Palo Alto and the subsequent development of multi-dimensional NMR techniques. These underpin applications of NMR both to chemistry (NMR spectroscopy) and to medicine (MRI).He also received Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 1991. He studied at and served on the faculty of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Federal Institute of Technology) in Zürich, Switzerland from which he is now retired.

Abstract

Today's Providence for Tomorrow's Survival

Today's means in human hands for constructive or destructive actions are nearly unlimited.We urgently need control mechanisms on various levels. Perhaps the most effective one relies on education towards societal responsibility. Only when we learn to respect the needs of others, also of future generations, instead of maximizing our personal profit, we will contribute to the world's stability and future hospitability. In the context of the current globalization, global institutions are indispensable to define the rules of international trade and cooperation. The free market concepts and the absolute sovereignty of States clearly have their limitations and need to be supplemented by binding rules that enforce global fairness and sustainability.