Presented by Julia Marton-Lefevre, Chair, the Villars Institute; former Director General, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Technology and Learning in an Era of Unprecedented Opportunities, Inequalities and Disruptions – Subra Suresh, President, GLC; former Director of National Science Foundation, USA

Moderated by S.D. Shibulal, Co-Founder, Infosys, India, and Vanessa Evers, Professor and Scientific Director, University of Twente, Netherlands

Panelists:

• G. Desh Deshpande, Co-founder, Deshpande Foundation, Boston, USA & Hubli, India
• Meagan Fallone, Entrepreneur in Residence, CareUSA; Former CEO, Barefoot College
• Anthony Bouchier, Founder, ITZA
• Guayente SanMartin, Global Head, Commercial Systems and Displays Solutions, HP Inc.

Moderated by Fabiola Gianotti, Director General, CERN, and Nicholas Dirks, President, New York Academy of Sciences and former Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley

Panelists:

• R.C.M Reddy, MD & CEO, Schoolnet India
• Bitange Ndemo, Ambassador of Kenya to the European Union
• Claudette Irere, Minister of State for Information and Technology, Rwanda
• Ben Nelson, President, Minerva Project

Moderated by Christine Looser, Minerva University, and Richard McDonald, Founder & Executive Chair, R Futures Group, Former Headmaster and Executive Director, Aiglon College

Panelists:

• Kris Gopalakrishnan, Founder, Axilor Ventures, Bangalore, India
• Suzanne Walsh, President, Bennet College, North Carolina, USA
• Andreas Cangellaris, Founding President, NEOM University, Saudi Arabia
• Andy Karsner, Member of the Board, Applied Materials, CA, USA

Moderated by Volker Meyer-Guckel, Secretary General, Stifterverband, Germany

Panelists:

• Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General, International Baccalaureate, Geneva, Switzerland
• Mayank Dhingra, Senior Education Business Leader, SEMA, HP Inc., Dubai
• Jean-Marc Tassetto, former CEO, Google France, and co-founder & VP Operations, Coorpacademy by Go1

Chaired by Subra Suresh and Lee Howell

Participants:

• Fabiola Gianotti, Director General, CERN
• G. Desh Deshpande, Founder, Deshpande Foundation, USA
• Claudette Irere, Minister of State for Information and Technology, Rwanda
• Guayente SanMartin, Global Head, Commercial Systems and Displays Solutions, HP Inc.
• G. Ravichandran, Provost, Jio Institute, Mumbai, India
• Nicholas Dirks, CEO, New York Academy of Sciences, USA
• Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Axilor Ventures, Bangalore, India
• Andreas Cangellaris, President, NEOM University, Saudi Arabia

Villars Symposium opening remarks by Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Chair of the Villars Institute

GLC Meeting Summary and Introduction of the Villars Distinguished Lecturer by Subra Suresh

Presented by Prof. Didier Queloz, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, UK, and ETH, Zurich. 2019 Nobel Laureate in Physics.

There is growing interest in the search for the origin and prevalence of life in the universe. The wealth and diversity of planetary systems that have been detected, and the exploration of our own solar system, are profoundly changing our outlook. This creates a historic opportunity and an irresistible call to search for signs of life on planets other than Earth. I will be sharing recent advances in this exciting area of research with the public.