Professors from world leading universities gave plenary lectures during the International Sustainability Conference, which Széchenyi István University organised for the first time. The conference covered the entire spectrum of sustainability topics where scientific lecturers and researcher publications from various institutions were presented in several sub-sections of the conference program.
Today it is clear that the key issue of our time is that of sustainability – this is why one of the strategic goals of Széchenyi István University is to focus on it with its educational and research programs to facilitate its realisation across the complete industrial and societal spectrum. The Sustainability Competence Centre was established by the institution to organise and support the conference and in so coordinate the participation of famous, international professors for the event which was held between the 12th and 14th of October. During this prestigious scientific event the university urged participating researchers of different scientific areas to work together by sharing their knowledge, experience, and innovative applications and tools in order to deal with the challenges of sustainability affecting us not only today but also tomorrow and the future beyond.
On the opening of the event, prof. Dr. Ferenc Friedler, the rector, scientific vice president put it in clear wording: in our world today, sustainability is one of the most important aspects that we must consider regarding our future.” In the essence of researching and reaching sustainability is an interdisciplinary one to the greatest of extent. Simply because of this fact, the title of our conference is »Conference surrounding sustainability«, without topical restrictions for real solutions on real issues” – he highlighted.
Raafiqul Gani, a research professor from Széchenyi University explained: humanity needs to find those solutions which make it possible for the long-term sustainability of mankind. In his opinion we need to answer questions such as what energy source we use, what products we produce and how, and furthermore what impact they have on our environment. He emphasised the variegation of the event, since the program covers all aspects of sustainability, from legal, to economic and further onward to social matters such as healthcare, IT, agriculture, engineering, different architecture and infrastructural areas.
In his discussion he added: in the plenary sessions should start a joint conversation on the establishment of an international sustainability research centre here at Széchenyi István University.
Dr. Eszter Lukács, university vice president responsible for international and strategic relations of the institution caught the attention of conference participants during her speech by mentioning that most of the 168 studies – publications submitted for the conference originated from the colleagues of the eight faculties of Széchenyi University.
“These publications are not only important from the perspective of the scientific processes and research development, but more importantly they serve the goals and needs of society as well” – she voiced.
She went on to say: Széchenyi University keeps internationalisation as one of its strategic goals, resulting in today’s almost one thousand international students from 77 countries at Széchenyi István University, who can choose from forty English-language courses. She explained that the institution had been ranked in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university world ranking for the third year running, while ranking within the top 10% of European universities and other higher education institutions. In September this year, the Széchenyi István University was also included in the Times Higher Education (THE) world ranking, with its list of sustainability targets placing it among the world’s top 400 universities in several categories.
To close the opening ceremony, participants were given a rare opportunity to participate in a lecture on “Economic Inequality and Sustainable Capitalism” given by Venkat Venkatasubramanian, Professor at Columbia University in New York. In addition, world-renowned professors from around the world shared their research with conference attendees over the three days, including Gerardo J. Ruiz-Mercado from the US Environmental Protection Agency), Seyed Soheil Mansouri from the Technical University of Denmark, and Gonzalo Guillén Gosálbez form the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. The conference programme had scientific discussions over eight various topic sessions with participants from around the globe including academics and researchers from the Széchenyi István University, among others.
