A photo shows lecturers attending the first Shanghai Masters Science Forum at Fudan University on November 15, 2022. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Focused on sharing scientific thoughts from leading experts around the world, the first Shanghai Master Forum on Science will be held at Fudan University on November 15.
Initiated by the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and organized by the city’s science and technology administrators and Fudan University, this year’s forum will feature Nobel Laureate Professor Michael Levitt of Chemistry 2013, who will deliver the keynote address entitled AI for Science: Frontiers of Computational Biology.
Professor Levitt, who is also a member of the American National Academy of Sciences and a full professor of structural biology at Stanford University, is a pioneer in the development of a molecular dynamics simulation method for proteins and DNA. For many years he has been evaluating protein structure prediction and studying protein folding and packaging. He also established a scoring system for large-scale sequence structure comparison.
In 2018, Levitt joined Fudan University, where he founded the Multiscale Research Institute of Complex Systems (MRICS).
In his 60-minute keynote address at Xianghui Hall, Levitt will talk about the transformation of computational biology from a once marginalized topic to a mainstream topic.
An interdisciplinary field of computer science, biology, and big data, computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling, and computer simulations to understand biological systems and relationships.
“Computational biology plays an important role, especially in the field of biomedicine, as it is necessary for the research of biological data design, comparison and analysis,” said Ma Yugang, Academician of the Chinese Academy. of Science and Deputy President of Fudan University to the Press. conference on Wednesday.
The forum also invited two co-speakers, Professor Ma Jianpeng and Qi Yuan, both from Fudan University, to share their thoughts and research findings on AI research, prospects and application. and its contribution to pharmaceutical development and innovation.
“The three speakers in the first forum will introduce the audience to the basic technology and knowledge of AI, as well as their thoughts on how to incite reform in fundamental topics and improve breakthrough in key scientific questions” , said Ma Yugang.
The organizers said that the forum, compared to the Global Laureates Forum and the Pujiang Innovation Forum held annually in the city, will focus more on collecting and sharing scientific thoughts, and thus become a platform to improve the construction of Shanghai to make it a science hub and technology innovation hub.
The organizer plans to hold six forums each year, with each event featuring a keynote speaker and up to two co-speakers.