Public communication of science and technology is critical in a world thoroughly interwoven with science and technology. The International Network on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) is a network of individuals from around the world who are active in producing and studying PCST.
The PCST Network hosts international conferences, electronic discussions, and other activities to foster dialogue among the different groups of people interested in PCST, leading to cross-fertilization across professional, cultural, international, and disciplinary boundaries. The PCST Network seeks to promote new ideas, methods, intellectual and practical questions, and perspectives.
The organisation for PCST-10 is global, as well as local. The Scientific and Conference Committees of the PCST Network represent the continuity and experiences of the previous conferences, as well as the global outlook for trends, issues and other questions related to the field of “Public Communication of Science and Technology”. Locally, the organisation headed by the Swedish Research Council, is responsible for the actual conference.
In the closing ceremony of the 2004 PCST conference, it was announced that Barcelona would host the first headquarters of the PCST Academy.
The Academy is responsible for the creation of the documentary basis of the Public Communication of Science and Technology network (PCST) and its main task is to draw up reports on particular matters in the field of communication and social understanding of science.
The Academy will additionally look for the necessary resources at an international level to guarantee entrance to the network and its activities of those countries that currently have more difficulties. The network must grow, but it must also represent all the different cultures of the world. Thus science communication must respect different cultural contexts and include the knowledge of all continents.
The next PCST-conference will take place in New Delhi, India, in December 06-10, 2010. The focal theme will be Towards a Scientifically Aware & Attitudinally Rational World.
The PCST Network and the Swedish Research Council with partners welcome you to the PCST-conference in Malmö, Lund and Copenhagen in the Øresund region and to the pre-conference in Stockholm, in June 23-27 2008.
The 10th PCST-conference will be a slightly different one. Above giving you the chance to expand your network across cultures and professions and to share your knowledge in research communication with colleagues from all over the world, you will meet challenges of a different kind. Throughout the conference you will have the opportunity to be involved in communication assignments and dilemmas which by their nature are controversial and with an ethical edge. Together we can create a most serious and in the same time playful conference.
Nearly 400 proposals were submitted by the deadline on November 30, 2007. Now, step by step a programme is built based on 27 seminars and about 350 presentations, sessions, that will be grouped into 70 parallel and poster sessions, according to the conference sub-themes
This year´s PCST conference has been organised to be as environmentally friendly as possible. All the conference material, such as the programme, has been produced with minimum environmental impact.
We have chosen to hold the main part of the conference in Malmö — appointed as the first Fairtrade Cityof Sweden. Malmö City has taken the first steps to increase the municipality’s consumption of ethically produced goods and towards promoting the city’s awareness of fair trade.
According to the American environmental magazine Grist, opens in new window, Malmö is the fourth greenest city in the world.
Please, take the opportunity to learn more about the sustainable city Malmö on a guided tour on Friday afternoon.
Lene Vestergaard Hau is a Danish physicist who won world acclaim for slowing light to the speed of a racing bicycle. Lene Vestergaard Hau is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and awarded with the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers, an award she won for her, according to the teachers association “dedication to teaching and research” and her “ability to give an exciting and informative lecture”. “Communicating the unbelievable” is the topic that she will be addressing in her speech at the PCST conference.
Thanks to kind support from the Kavli Prize, opens in new window, it is our pleasure to announce a number of grants for participation in the PCST-10 conference, to be held in Sweden and Denmark 25-27 June 2008.
The grants are intended to cover – or contribute to – economy class air fare, accommodation in Malmö and the conference registration fee. Applications for these grants should include a brief presentatio
n, contact data, estimated costs and a CV — altogether no more than two pages.
The local executive committee for the conference will evaluate the applications and select a maximum of ten applicants. Notifications will be sent to all applicants the 13 May.
Priority will be given to applicants from countries outside the OECD area, in particular science journalists and participants with a presentation, oral or poster, from these countries.