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The 2024 Kyoto Prize
Commemorative lectures by Kyoto Prize laureates are held in Kyoto. These lectures provide an opportunity to get to know not only the achievements of the laureates but also their views on life and personalities. The laureates, who have reached the pinnacles of their respective fields, talk about their research, art and life with various episodes. Please come and join us.
2024
11 /11 Mon
13:00 - 16:00
Place： Kyoto International Conference Center
Capacity：1,500 persons (FCFS)
Languages：Simultaneous interpretation is provided.
Admission Free
The 2024 Kyoto Prize Kyoto Prize Laureates
Lecture topics
My Life in Science
Abstract of the lecture
I was born in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1943, a Lancashire mill town where I grew up, went to school, learnt to play the piano, and had many friends. Life changed in 1962 when I went up to Cambridge to continue my science studies. The thirteen years I spent there moulded me as a scientist and afforded huge cultural opportunities especially in the appreciation of music. My next move in 1975 was back to the North to work for the government at the new synchrotron radiation source as head of the theory division, a big step up for me professionally. It was there that I got married to Pat who I had met in Cambridge. My last move in 1981 was to Imperial College London where my work blossomed into many areas some of which I shall mention in my talk.
Lecture topics
A Ramble Through Geologic Time
Abstract of the lecture
My parents believed that young children should be kept outdoors and unsupervised whenever possible—habits I have been reluctant to shake in later life. Canada is a country of many rocks and few people, so the notion that one could tell the planet’s history by mapping its rocks appealed to me. My university attendance coincided with the plate tectonics revolution in Earth science, explaining the slow dance of continents and oceans, the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes, and how geochemical cycles are driven that sustain life and modulate the climate. In northern Canada, I showed that plate tectonics has operated for billions of years, and that North America participated in a succession of supercontinents. In southern Africa, I brought credibility, leading to confirmation, of late pre-Cambrian global glaciations that shuttered the oceans for sixty million years. Their legacy persists in the genomes of living organisms, descended from opportunistically pre-adapted antecedents.
Lecture topics
Sometimes I Kiss Flowers
Abstract of the lecture
Sometimes I Kiss Flowers is an introduction to the landscape that supported the growth of a life in the arts. It introduces three different nominations of the artist: Billy, Bill, and William and charts the developmental details that allowed them to manifest themselves in the field of choreography. This lecture also documents the artists relationship with nature and as they who already at a young age, were asked to examine and question the nature of reality.
| 12:00 | Doors open |
| 13:00 | Opening Opening Address Shinobu Inamori-Kanazawa（President of the Inamori Foundation） |
| Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Advanced Technology John Pendry “My Life in Science” |
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| Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Basic Sciences Paul F. Hoffman “A Ramble Through Geologic Time” |
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| Intermission | |
| Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture in Arts and Philosophy William Forsythe “Sometimes I Kiss Flowers” |
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| 16:00 | Closing |
*After each lecture, interviewer Mayuko Ishii (former NHK announcer / freelance) will ask the laureates about the lecture and their views on life from the audience’s perspective.
Organized by Inamori Foundation
Supported by Kyoto Prefectural Government, Kyoto City Government, Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education, Kyoto City Board of Education, Kyoto Private High School Federation, The Consortium of Universities in Kyoto, Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, The Kyoto Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Newspapers, The Sankei Shimbun, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jiji Press, Kyodo News, NHK, Kyoto Broadcasting System, α-STATION FM KYOTO
Contact
Please direct all queries to the secretariat of the Kyoto Prize in Congrès Inc.
E-mail: kyoto-prize-lecture@congre.co.jp