05 de diciembre de 2014, 12:52 Hrs.
John Dudley
The story starts in 2009 when I proposed the idea for an International Year of Light as EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division (QEOD) representative to the International Council of Quantum Electronics. The idea was to follow up the Laserfest celebrations planned for 2010 (to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the laser) with something even more ambitious covering the entire field of light science and applications, and the global community of both developed and developing countries. As is often the case in a meeting, making a suggestion to do something is often followed by the task of finding out how to do it! Thus began the adventure towards IYL2015.
My first step was to meet EPS past-president Martial Ducloy (who organized the 2005 International Year of Physics). He explained that it was only the UN General Assembly that can declare International years, and he outlined how to work through UNESCO to prepare and submit a resolution. With endorsement from the EPS Executive Board, QEOD worked hard during 2010 to build a consortium amongst the major optics and physics societies to approach UNESCO.
In 2011, EPS President Luisa Cifarelli brought her tremendous personal support to the initiative, and over the summer "vacation," together we drafted the prospectus and decided on 2015 as the target year based on several key scientific anniversaries. September 2011 saw the Passion for Light launch meeting for IYL2015 organized by SIF and EPS in Varenna where representatives of UNESCO and UNESCO-ICTP were present to learn more and to show their support for our plans.
With the help of IOP, in November 2011, EPS led a delegation to the IUPAP General Assembly in London to obtain IUPAP endorsement. From March 2012 things moved quickly. I was invited by the Director of UNESCO's International Basic Science Programme Dr Maciej Nalecz to UNESCO HQ in Paris, and his guidance was absolutely invaluable in accompanying the scientific consortium to assemble a consortium of supporting UNESCO member states. Much help was needed from a number of international partners at this stage, and it is essential (and a great pleasure) to acknowledge and thank: Francis Allotey (Ghana), Ana Maria Cetto (Mexico), Zsolt Fulop (Hungary), John Harvey and Geoff Austin (New Zealand), Joe Niemela (UNESCO-ICTP), Lluis Torner (Spain), and Victor Zadkov (Russia). There were many many more who lent their support at this stage and in another forum when I have more space I will name them all.
Obtaining the status of an International Year is absolutely not a formality!
A resolution supporting IYL2015 was adopted by the UNESCO Executive Board in 2012 which opened the gate to approach the UN General Assembly. A meeting amongst the international stakeholders in early 2013 proposed ICTP as the global coordination secretariat, and with more help from UNESCO, we were invited by Mexico to defend the proposal in full at an information meeting held at UN Headquarters in May 2013. Ana Maria Cetto and I had the great honour to lead a delegation that also represented the African Physical Society, ICTP, OSA and SPIE. Following this meeting, and after final endorsement at the 2013 UNESCO General Conference, the resolution A/RES/68/221 proclaiming the IYL 2015 was adopted during a plenary meeting of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly on 20 December 2013.
Early on in the process, I heard it often remarked that obtaining UNESCO and UN support for an International Year was "just a formality". Nothing could be further from the truth. Getting such high-level support on a political level required extremely hard work by many people, and the development of arguments defending the proposal on all levels: from science to society to the economy to development and more...
Thanks to all who helped and supported us, we are now in a truly excellent position to ensure that 2015 is a great success!
John Dudley
President of the EPS
http://www.zyyne.com/zh5/146621#p=4
