Science in the Islamic World

Join Sir John Boyd, the Chairman of Asia House, and an expert panel to discuss how capabilities and capacities for science are changing in the Islamic world.

Across the Islamic world, there are signs of renewed ambition and investment in education, science and innovation. In Saudi Arabia, built upon a US $20 billion endowment, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) aims to rival the California Institute of Technology for prestige within just two decades and Qatar now aims to spend 2.8% of its GDP on research. Malaysia has undergone the most far reaching higher education reforms in its history – one outcome of which has been a dramatic increase in the number of science and technology researchers in the workforce.

Might such eye-catching developments signal the start of a new ‘renaissance’ for science across the Islamic world?

Natalie Day is a Senior Policy Adviser in the Royal Society Science Policy Centre and is the EU-based Project Manager for The Atlas of Islamic-World Science and Innovation - an ambitious study of the changing geography of science and innovation across the 57 Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

Ehsan Masood is a journalist, based in London, who writes on science, international development and the Muslim world. Ehsan is a former director of communications of LEAD International; opinion editor of New Scientist magazine and science writer with the weekly journal Nature. His latest books include: Dry: Life Without Water (Harvard University Press 2006) and Who Decides: Analysing Decision-making on Genetically Modified Crops in Developing Countries (Panos 2005)

Ziauddin Sardar, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic, is Visiting Professor, the School of Arts, The City University, London. He describes himself as a ‘critical polymath’ and works across a number of disciplines ranging from Islamic studies and futures studies to science policy, literary criticism, information science to cultural relations, art criticism and critical theory.

Dr Rim Turkmani is an Astrophysicist working with the Space physics group at the Imperial College. She has published several research papers in international refereed journals and spoke in numerous international and national conferences. Rim has also an interest in the history of Arabic/Islamic science and philosophy and its influence on the Renaissance, an influence that has been ignored for long time in the West.

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