PSA is pleased to announce that the 23rd Pacific Science Congress (PSC-23) will be held in Taiwan in 2016 at the Taipei International Convention Center. The Congress will be held in partnership with Academia Sinica, the preeminent academic institution in Taiwan, whose mission is to promote and undertake scholarly research in sciences and the humanities. Academia Sinica is composed of twenty-four research institutes and seven research centers, and has been a member of PSA since their founding in 1928.
The tentative theme of the Congress is “Science Towards Sustainability”, and the sub-themes are currently under discussion. The Local Organizing Committee in Taiwan, the PSA Executive Board, PSA Secretariat, and PSA Committee on Scientific Activities will work together to formulate the Congress themes, agenda, and keynote speakers.
The Taipei International Convention Center is a state-of-the-art, seven-floor conference center with one plenary hall and 10 meeting rooms. The plenary hall is a super-high column-free space that reaches from the second to the sixth floor, with a maximum seating capacity of 3100. The 10 meeting rooms have the capacity of 40-500 seats also with flexible partitioning. TICC is located in the Hsin-Yi District of Taipei within walking distance to five-star hotels and shopping centers. There will soon be a subway stop at the TICC to link the venue to less-expensive hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions, making those accommodations easily accessible.
As always, PSA is strongly committed to ensuring that the Congress will be focused on core and emerging scientific topics, as well as being maximally inclusive both in terms of the participation of all nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the full national and generational range of participating scientists.
Planning for the PSC-23 has begun and is proceeding smoothly. The official Congress website will be developed in late 2014 or early 2015; sub-themes and critical dates will be announced as they are established.
The 2016 date for the PSC-23 marks a new chronology for PSA Congress and Inter-Congresses. Previously these events took place in odd-numbered years, but the PSA Council decided at its most recent meeting (Fiji, 2013) to shift to even-numbered years – in part to allow the 24th Pacific Science Congress to be held in 2020, which will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Pacific Science Association.