Early in October, this year’s Nobel Prize announcements will be made. At that time, the Nobel Center will also hold its first international conference for educators – the Nobel Teacher Summit. Nobel Laureates Bernard L. Feringa, Shirin Ebadi and Herta Müller will be speakers at the event, together with global sustainability expert Johan Rockström, Gapminder Foundation director Ola Rosling and Sweden’s Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training Anna Ekström. Teachers from all over the world will gather at Münchenbryggeriet (the Brewery Conference Centre) in Stockholm on October 6.
The Nobel Teacher Summit is part of the Nobel Center’s efforts to create highly topical activities and school programmes that will reach pupils and teachers around the world. On October 6 the Summit agenda will include the role of science in the schools, the struggle for the rights of children and professional development of teachers. The initiator of the Summit is Annika Hedås Falk, Head of Educational Programmes for the Nobel Center.
“At a time when science and facts are being questioned, the role of teachers in society is enormously important. We want to give teachers a forum to discuss the challenges that our societies face and give them tools that will enable them to work actively for a better world together with their pupils,” says Annika Hedås Falk.
Many Nobel Laureates single out teachers as important role models. One of these is Bernard L. Feringa, 2016 Chemistry Laureate, who will speak at the Nobel Teacher Summit along with Shirin Ebadi, Peace Prize Laureate 2003 and Herta Müller, Literature Laureate 2009.
“It is heartening that we will have Nobel Laureates among us. The Nobel Prize has the power to inspire and to engage people, and I am convinced that the participation of the Laureates will be a source of motivation for the teachers who attend the Summit,” Ms Hedås Falk adds.
The Nobel Teacher Summit will be the first international event within the global network on which the Nobel Center’s school programmes are based. The Summit is intended to become an annually recurring conference.
Other featured speakers are:
Johan Rockström, Professor of Environmental Science at Stockholm University and Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre; Ola Rosling, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation; Anna Ekström, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training; and Dr Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.
For further information, please contact:
press@nobelprize.org
About the Nobel Center:
The Nobel Center on the Blasieholmen peninsula of central Stockholm will build its public activities around exhibitions, school programmes, meetings and lectures about the Nobel Prize’s unique combination of subject areas – natural sciences, literature and peace. Based on the inspiring stories of the Nobel Laureates, the Nobel Center will be able to examine history as well as our own era and the major issues that are crucial to our world and our future. The building was designed by David Chipperfield and Christoph Felger, who were selected in April 2014 by a unanimous jury as the winners of the Nobel Center’s international architectural competition.