Scientists, diplomats, government representatives, members of academia and corporate leaders are meeting at UC Irvine all morning to discuss a proposed new business model that would have luxury resort and estate development leveraged to benefit global sustainability and transnational research.
The honorary chairman of “The Economic Epic of Earth's Evolution: the New Geography, Diplomacy and Legacy for the Knowledge Economy–from California to the World” is Michael Drake, UCI's chancellor who just announced he's leaving in June to become Ohio State's president.
]
UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake to Step Down in June to Become Ohio State President
Hosted by Pangea World, a company that explores how the science and hospitality communities can bring about conservation, sustainability and prosperity, the event aims to “position California as the Pacific gateway and the geographic and academic anchor of a global endeavor to trigger the potential of knowledge based on natural resources as an origin of wealth, not meant to replace oil wealth but to outperform it in endurance and lasting benefit to humanity.”
A flagship project in Panama will be of particular focus at the event running from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, 100 Academy Drive, Irvine.
Speakers include:
Michael Drake, chancellor, UCI, and honorary chair of the event;
Hana Ayala, president and CEO of Pangea World;
Albert Bennett, vice provost for academic initiatives, UCI;
Michael Clegg, Donald Bren professor of Biological Sciences, UCI, and foreign secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences;
John Avise, distinguished professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCI;
Marjorie Reaka, biology professor, University of Maryland;
Adam Wilkins, editor of Perspectives;
Federico Mayor Zaragoza, president, Culture of Peace Foundation, and former director general of UNESCO;
Winston Thompson, Fijian ambassador to the U.S.;
Michael Sedláček, consul general of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles.
A five-page overview of the day's events is available here: http://www.pangeaworld.com/pdf/PW-Event-Program-02-07-2014–5pg.pdf.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.