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Game-Changing Innovators to Meet Policy Makers at WIPO Forum, September 24, 2013

Geneva, September 3, 2013
MA/2013/62

Four world-renowned pioneers from the fields of medicine, architecture and industrial design will draw common insights from their varied experiences on September 24, 2013 as they engage with policy makers seeking to ensure a future brimming with game-changing innovation.

The WIPO Forum 2013, From Inspiration to Innovation: The Game-Changers - designed to bring policy makers into incisive engagement with the global innovators they seek to help in a balanced, inclusive intellectual property system - will take place on the second day of the WIPO Assemblies, which are meeting in Geneva from September 23 to October 2, 2013.

These four visionary innovators, each disrupting current paradigms in a quest to improve some of the most basic elements of the human experience - food, shelter, and health - will discuss their achievements with government representatives.  At the forefront of policy makers minds will be how to foster a creative and enabling environment that promotes the kind of ground-breaking work done by the WIPO Forum 2013 panelists, while ensuring that the improvements lift up communities. The panelists are:

  • Anthony Atala is the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the W.H. Boyce Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.  A practicing surgeon and pioneering researcher in the area of regenerative medicine, Dr. Atala is currently focusing on growing new human cells, tissues and organs, including livers, kidneys, heart valves, bone and muscle. One strategy used by his team is 3D printing – a technology often referred to as “disruptive.”  Dr. Atala has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to science and the understanding of human disease, and his work is considered among the top medical breakthroughs of the last several years.  He led a team that in 1999 implanted in a human being the first lab-grown organ, and currently oversees the work of some 300 physicians and researchers.  He has published more than 400 journal articles and has applied for or received over 200 patents worldwide.
  • Diébédo Francis Kéré is the founder of Kéré Architecture.  His first building “Primary School in Gando” in his Burkina Faso birth town was finished in 2001 and received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for its elegant architecture using basic, constructive instruments in a design that allowed for natural, cooling air flow, among other features.  This creates a more comfortable building that enables students to concentrate better, contributing to an improvement in their educational advancement.  Mr. Kéré’s development of local materials and techniques, through the adaptation of new technology, unites modernity and tradition, providing economic and ecological building solutions for local situations in a global context.  His work to promote sustainable and community driven architecture has been recognized with numerous awards. Mr. Kéré studied architecture at the Technische Universität Berlin and has taught at Harvard University and Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
  • Henry Markram is the Director of the Blue Brain Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He is also the coordinator of the Human Brain Project, a new research initiative which was recently chosen to be one of the European Commission’s Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships, with a grant of more than €1 billion over the next ten years. The Human Brain Project, which engages biologists, neurobiologists, biochemists, computer scientists and engineers in more than 80 institutions across Europe, aims to build a complete virtual brain, realistically simulating its systems of billions of neurons.  Its goals: to provide a better understanding of how the mind works, discover new treatments for brain diseases, and inspire new computing technologies.
  • Gopalan Sunderraman is the Executive Vice President of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing, a 100-year plus old manufacturing firm based in Mumbai, India.  Mr. Sunderraman is the driving force behind the corporate initiative on Breakthrough Management and Disruptive Innovation in several businesses across Godrej and the intellectual father of the “ChotuKool” cooling system, a red 45-liter plastic container that can keep food cool for days using only a 12-volt battery, drastically reducing spoilage for people living in food-insecure environments. ChotuKool was awarded the 2012 Edison Award Gold prize for the Social Impact category.  With its long-term vision of a more inclusive and greener India, Godrej has created products that are environmentally superior and address critical social issues including health, sanitation and disease prevention.

The WIPO Forum 2013 will be moderated by Ms. Inga Michler, an economist and journalist, currently a business reporter for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper. The Forum will be held at the International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG) Plenary Room, 17 rue de Varembé, Geneva from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on September 24, 2013.  Participation is open to all delegations registered for the Assemblies 2013.

Journalists wishing to cover the Forum are invited to contact the Media Relations Section by September 23, 2013.  The Forum will be livestreamed, and questions to the panelists can be sent in advance to wipo_forum@wipo.int.

 

For more information, please contact the News and Media Division at WIPO:
  • Tel: (+41 22) 338 81 61 / 338 72 24
  • E-mail
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