(Photo : George Smoot (left), James Mirrlees (middle), Edmund Phelps (right) present at the Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum)

The Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum 2013 opened in Beijing on September 10th, 2013. In the following three days, four Nobel laureates and four overseas leading scientists will make academic speeches and have dialogues with government officials and students in Beijing, discussing about how to carry out sustainable and sound development by using new materials and new energy.

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"New Materials and New Energy" is the theme for this year's forum. Winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences James Mirrlees, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences , winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Edmund Phelps and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics George Smoot, together with other noted scholars, will discuss in-depth about how to develop new materials and new energy, how to deal with the challenges through policy-making, industrial chain construction, talent training and international exchanges and cooperation, and propose solutions at the forum.

According to Beijing's mayor Wang Anshun's speech at the opening ceremony, new materials and new energy, as a new industry of global interest, is essential for alleviating environmental degradation and achieving low-carbon economic development. There are a great number of research institutions and technology talented people in Beijing, laying a foundation for the development of new materials and new energy both at home and abroad. Beijing will take active measures to promote the rapid development of 8 new industries including new materials, new energy and new energy vehicles, striving to make the added value of strategic emerging industries account for 30% of Beijing's GDP by 2020.

President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Bai Chunli pointed out that, since the 21st century, the continuous innovation of new energy and new materials has become a crucial way for China to realize the sustainable development. Research institutions and scientists played important roles during the process. They have spared no efforts to do researches and have obtained remarkable achievements, contributing to both China and the world. According to Bai Chunli, Beijing and the entire China are still facing various new challenges of sustainable development at present. The forum would serve as a newest platform for world leading scientists and Nobel laureates to exchange ideas and propose solutions for current challenges. 

Winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics addressed the opening ceremony that, China's enthusiasm for exploiting new energy fully embodied its development direction in the future. He pointed out that, as a city with a large population, Beijing would have to make use of more new materials and new energy to achieve technological, sustainable and low-carbon growth.

Initiated in 2005, the annual Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum has been held for 6 times. In the following three days, 8 world leading scientists, such as Robert Mundell, who pioneered the theory of the optimal currency area, George Smoot, who once submited the proposal for a cosmology satellite to NASA, will speak on topics including global currency and exchange rates, future power grid development trend and biofuel. They will also have dialogues with government officials and students in Beijing.