Date: May 9th and 10th, 2019

Venue: Aula Magna-Stockholm University-Frescati Campus

Symposium Chairs: Professor Bengt Nordén, Dr Lorie Karnath

Day 1, Thursday May 9, 2019

8:30-9:00  Registration

9:00-9:15 Opening Addresses:
Prof. Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President Stockholm University 
Prof Dan Larhammar, President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Prof Stefan Bengtsson, President and CEO of Chalmers University of Technology
Prof Karin Markides, Chair of the Molecular Frontiers Foundation
Prof Bengt Nordén, Hon Chair Molecular Frontiers Foundation
Dr Lorie Karnath, Molecular Frontiers Foundation, Molecular Frontiers Journal

9:15-9:50 The Origin of life on earth revised, Professor Jack Szostak: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

9:55-10:30 Why is life the way it is? Professor Nick Lane: Biochemist and author. Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London. 

10:30-11:00 Break, coffee/tea

11:00-11:35 Our Place in Nature, Professor Donald Johanson, paleoanthropologist. Virginia M. Ullman Chair in Human Origins, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Founding Director, Institute of Human Origins. Discoverer of the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia.

11:35-12:30 Discussion in plenum with morning speakers-Moderator, Dr. Lorie Karnath

12:30-13:45 Lunch Break-Box lunch provided

13:45-14:20 Aging Earth, Professor Sir Christopher Dobson, FRS, John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology, Chemistry Department, University of Cambridge. Prof Dobson has specialized in the molecular mechanisms, such as protein misfolding and aggregation, behind Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

14:25-15:00 Climate change, where the world is heading and how we can stop making things worse, Professor Joanna Haigh, FRS, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London, England, co-director of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

15:00-15:35 Natural capital, resilience and biosphere stewardship, Professor Carl Folke, The Gunnerus Prize 2017, Director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is also Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Stockholm Resilience Center.

15:40-16:40 Discussion in plenum with afternoon speakers-Moderator, Professor Bengt Nordén

16:40 Announcement of the Molecular Frontiers Journal Awards for Student Solutions for Future Planet Earth, with World Scientific, Singapore
(https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/mfj)

16:50 Group photo students and speakers

17:00 Harnessing Science-Sandvik's Smashproof Guitar

17:15 Evening event with students-Aula Magna-Dr Per Thorén and Jason Learning 

Day 2, Friday, May 10, 2019

9:00-9:15 Welcome and introduction to Day 2

9:15-9:50 The fabric of life and us, Professor Sandra Diaz, Professor of Community and Ecosystems Ecology, Cordoba National University, Argentina

9:55-10:30 Enzymes by Evolution, Professor Frances Arnold, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology

10:30-11:00 Break, coffee/tea

11:00-11:35 Harvesting water from desert air: Chemistry designs and viable solutions to vexing societal problems, Professor Omar Yaghi, James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Prof Yaghi is known for the development of “Reticular Chemistry” concerned with linking molecular building blocks into large predetermined structures with catalytic or other interesting functions.

11:35-12:30 Discussion in Plenum morning speakers- Moderator, Professor Bengt Nordén

12:30-13:45 Lunch Break-Box lunch provided

13:45-14:20 The Art of Building Small, Professor Ben Feringa, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016, a synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis. Professor of Molecular Sciences, at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Netherlands.

14:25-15:00 Photophysics and future energy, Professor Josef Michl, Chemist, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, and Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States.

15:05-15:40 Harnessing science; towards the ends of the earth-at the edge of Space, Raphael Domjan, eco-explorer, Switzerland   Initiator, president and expedition leader of “PlanetSolar” the first solar-powered around-the-world journey. Initiator and pilot of SolarStratos, a solar expedition to the edge of space.

15:45-16:30 Discussion in plenum with afternoon speakers- Moderator, Dr. Lorie Karnath

16:30-16:45 Conclusions and program closure, Professor Bengt Nordén