20-28 September 2002,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The ICSU General Assembly meeting and a number of other ICSU related meetings were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from the 20th to the 28th of September. The related meetings included a forum on Science in Brazil and, for the first time in ICSU's history, separate business meetings of the ICSU Unions and of the ICSU National members. These meetings were held prior to the General Assembly itself. Dov Jaron represented IUPESM at the General Assembly.

The ICSU Unions already held a separate meeting in Paris last year. At that time it was decided that the ICSU unions would meet prior to each General Assembly as well as midway between General Assemblies. These meetings provide an opportunity for detailed discussion of strategic issues and a forum to reach consensus on major items that are included on the agenda.

The agenda for the General Assembly and all related documents can be found on the ICSU web site at www.icsu.org. The minutes of the Assembly will be posted by the end of October. What follows is a summary of the elections and the major issues that are most relevant to IUPESM and its member organizations.

Results of the elections:
Officers
President Elect:
Dr. Goverdahm Mehta (India), Discipline: organic chemistry
Vice President for Scientific Planning and Review:
David A.D. Parry (New Zealand), Discipline: Biophysics
Vice President for External Relations:
Peter D. Tyson (South Africa), Discipline: Climatology
General Secretary:
Ana Maria Cetto (Mexico), Discipline: Physics and quantum mechanics
Treasurer:
Roger Elliott (U.K.), Discipline: Theoretical Physics

Representatives to the Executive Board
Representing National Academies
H. Chaimovich (Brazil)
M.L. Chanin (France)
Gudyanga (Zimbabwe)
Lapointe (Canada)
Representing Scientific Unions
G. Berlucchi, International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)
R. Brett, International Union for Geological Sciences (IUGS)
M. Denis, International Union for Psychological Sciences (IUPsyS)
B. Richter, International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)

Summary of major items:

The Committee on Scientific Planning and Review proposed the dissolution of the Committee of Science and Technology in Developing Countries/International Biosciences Networks (COSTED/IBN) and instead, the establishment of regional ICSU offices in Africa, Asia, Arab region, and the Caribbean and Latin America. This should allow ICSU to interact more closely with the community in these countries and to be more effective than it has been previously. The proposal was approved by the General Assembly.

In response to a recommendation by the ICSU Assessment Report, a resolution to consider admitting to ICSU Unions representing engineering, medical and agricultural sciences was presented. The General Assembly discussed this resolution and decided to return the resolution to the committee in order to make the wording consistent with the recommendations of the report. Final wording will be posted on the web with the minutes of the General Assembly.

A very controversial resolution on Traditional Knowledge was presented by the Resolution Committee to the General Assembly. The resolution called on ICSU to undertake concrete initiatives in this area. This resolution elicited the most heated arguments of the session and was the only one that was forced to a secret ballot. The participants who objected to the wording of the resolution were concerned that the scientific community may mistakenly view activities in Traditional Knowledge as being equivalent to the endorsement by ICSU of pseudo-science. Dov Jaron presented a motion to revise the wording of the resolution. The proposed change would have prevented potential harm to ICSU that could result from misperception by the scientific community, the public and government legislators. The proposed motion to reword the resolution was defeated with a very narrow margin. While this was a secret ballot, it was apparent that most of the scientific unions voted to revise the resolution and that the representatives from the developing countries voted against the motion to revise. The initial resolution was then approved. The resolution will be posted on the ICSU web site together with the minutes of the General Assembly.

Last year, each Union received a $5,000 grant to help support its activities in Capacity Building. IUPESM used these funds to publish a brochure whose purpose is to educate the public, government entities and legislators to the importance of medical physics and biomedical engineering in the delivery of health care and in improving quality of life. The Executive Committee of ICSU decided to terminate this program and use the funds to augment the general grant program.

Science for Health and Well Being

During the meeting of the Scientific Unions that was held in Paris last year, this topic was suggested by Keith Boddy (past president of IUPESM) as an important area for ICSU. During that meeting the Unions adopted this topic as one of three future strategic focus areas for ICSU. Somehow, however, the Executive Committee neglected the recommendation and did not include it in any of the reports or deliberations for the General Assembly in Rio. Dov Jaron brought the omission to the attention of the participants a number of times during the General Assembly's reports and discussions. In addition, this topic was raised during a meeting of the Bio-related Unions that was held on Friday, 27th of September. The purpose of this meeting was to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration by forming effective partnerships between the Unions. At that meeting Dov Jaron made a formal recommendation to the participants to adopt this theme for an initiative in which all of the Bio-related Unions will collaborate. The suggestion was accepted with great enthusiasm. The Unions are planning to prepare a draft document with input from the various unions, followed by a meeting in Paris - probably during February of 2003 to discuss implementation of this initiative and to develop proposals for the ICSU grants deadline of March 1st, 2003. Dov Jaron discussed this item with Drs. Thomas Rosswall (Executive Director of ICSU) and Carthage Smith (Deputy Executive Director) who were both very supportive of the idea. IUPESM should play a leading role in this effort.

Dov Jaron met with Dr. Metha, President Elect of ICSU and discussed with him increased participation by the Indian community in the affairs of IUPESM, IOMP and IFMBE. India, for example, is not currently a member of IFMBE. Dr, Metha was very surprised and promised to act through the national Academy of India in order to have their community join IFMBE and play an increasing role in IUPESM.

An important contact was made with a representative of UNESCO who is interested in supporting activities of IUPESM in developing countries and possibly providing modest support to bring scientists from these countries to the 2003 World Congress. Dov Jaron will pursue this opportunity.

To conclude, IUPESM was very visible during the General Assembly and, if we maintain and strengthen our activity, we could have major influence on ICSU's actions in the future.

Respectfully submitted,
Dov Jaron
President, IFMBE