gaza killing at least six in retaliation for a string of deadly shoot outs in the south of the country israeli officials have blamed palestinian militants for a triple attack earlier that rocked the israeli egyptian border. up next algren off talks to a cochairman of the skulk of a scientific council roger kornberg about the project that's been dubbed russia's silicon valley spotlight is next on our team. for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. hello again they're welcome to spotlight on r.t. prime al green of the and my guest in the studio today is roger kornberg. the much discussed project of the city dubbed the russian silicon valley is powering at full

speed its leaders have held the first scientific council meeting and also met the russian president how have they outlined the development of the futuristic city and what are the next steps the cochairman of the scientific council roger kornberg is here to turn lightness. the name skolkovo innovation c.d.u. has planted the vocabulary of the russian elite and the foreign media the recent visit of california governor arnold schwarzenegger has brought significant investment to russia's own silicon valley days later some of the world's biggest names in science talk by nobel prize winner roger kornberg came to moscow to outline the first concrete steps in the city's creation mr pawnbrokers one of the most respected by chemists he comes from a family of another nobel prize winner arthur kornberg roger think skolkovo will

boost scientific progress and take russia to the forefront of innovative development and he promises to do his best to make this happen. what is the goal of thank you very much for being with us tonight. first of all russians russians living abroad like the nobel prize winner andrei game i recently talked to him are often less optimistic about skolkovo then it is then americans like yourself what makes you to mystically the adventurist spirits of americans they make them believe that is going to happen i can tell you the following first of all there is no alternative. russia needs such a project if it is to make best use of its talent and. succeed as a developed country in the future russia has great resources but these are expendable they are being expended now they make the country wealthy at the present

time but that will not last forever it needs to leverage its. human resources to assure the best possible future it needs to leverage those resources for the benefit of the country and to avoid their loss. otherwise as has happened so often in the past this talent will migrate abroad there are many other countries that have in mind the goals of the scope of a project they are fast implementing them if russia wants to retain its capacity to compete and it must do this now science in the u.s. has also always been internationally very cosmopolitan you have the chance to work with russian scientists before oh i have some of my closest colleagues and most admired amongst them are russian they are working in america for the most part for the very reasons that i have mentioned they are probably not inclined to return to

russia because they're so well established where they are now nevertheless many of them have contacted me and said they would be glad to offer whatever they can to ensure he's going to have every bit of both human russians both russian citizens and american citizens these people are buying our own arrogance that it's not as they are the ones that i'm thinking of that i know well one of your best friends among the russian scientists is mr author of why did you agree to co-chair the skolkovo council because you're friends with author of what did you have any other reasons why the i was asked by george al for of who i much admire and respect he told me that he thought it would be helpful to the to. his undertaking and. i wished to do what i could to support him. that said then such a project takes on a life of its own it becomes a challenge and i can see many other good reasons why i should try and help it

succeed like what first and foremost so that russia will be. more successful as a country and a better force for good in the world is not a fact is that it is a job for you are you paid for that or indeed indeed i'm offered payment which i must tell you is not beyond what i receive from anyone else to provide such a consulting service i'm offered by many more than i have the time to do and i've chosen to do this at a comparable level of remuneration because of the reasons that i told you skolkovo has already been dubbed the russian silicon valley everybody calls it the russian silicon valley well do you think they will try that will you try to follow the american example to those in the american food stamps or is it an entirely different thing. it would be a mistake to copy really what was been done abroad the goals may be similar which

in this case as there would be to establish a robust than a vibrant and a productive high tech industry there are two reasons why it would be a mistake to attempt a direct copy of that the circumstances are different and what works in one place will never be the best design or plan for what may work another and the other reason is that the technology of the future will be different from the technology of the past based on discoveries that have not yet been made and so again far the best way is to. to evaluate the circumstances and then to try and make the best possible decision how to proceed based on the current circumstances well let's take a look at the latest developments concerning of the creation of russia as a variation of the silicon valley and the reported by spotlight and they did meet the bat. while the school in the vacation center reason not to build it is already much more than just the territory design

a date on the map it's currently taking shape in the minds of designers from five countries france great britain the u.s. and sweden who won the bid to create a concept for the russian innovation center it might eventually to now to be something as who touristic as the building of the business school which already exists in skolkovo and was designed by british based architect david a gyre who says he was inspired by a russian pioneer of geometric abstract art because in your mileage the construction of the center will take three to five years and around seven billion dollars of investment meanwhile you don't have to be in scope of a to be part of it the project but this happens we'll be able to work outside the technology park until two thousand and fourteen and all these time enjoyed tax breaks attributed to in the vacations sent to members by russian law americans have shown enthusiasm venture investors from the u.s.

and some top silicon valley executives flocked to the russian capital guided by the california governor arnold schwarzenegger the former action heroes visit contributed greatly to promote in russia's efforts in the high tech sphere as for some practical results of guests from the u.s. pledged investment amount into round and new and used doors with eighty giants google and intel announcing their readiness to set up the design of the board to reason skolkovo. world what we just saw was the actual skulk around because there's a big big beautiful building is actually a business school so somewhere in the vicinity nothing is built yet but can you tell us you haven't been there i know but do you have the slightest idea when will that start functioning when when it would start functioning on a regular basis leaders. project i do not know the answer to that question but i think it depends very much upon several factors first the final decision of the

government to invest in this project i'm not aware that that final decision has been taken secondly the development of a an appropriate plan which should involve a contribution from the council of which i am a member and then finally the actual implementation all of these things i believe are yet to be done or decided well can you name a single high tech industry that should become a could become the cornerstone of our all of this this revolution made maybe nano which is which is like a great obsession in the kremlin today in the to the russian to russians got a nobel prize this year for for nanotechnology do you think this may be the driver the locomotive of the of this scientific revolution i think that's possible but i would add that perhaps the greatest opportunity to future lies in the biological round i think that biotech will ultimately become the leading or the driving force

in technology innovation in the world the reason is that it is agreed by all if the twentieth century was the age of physics and it culminated in the high tech industry that we have today. the twenty first century is without a doubt the age of biology and in particular human biology and the important benefits from that are yet to be seen but all would agree on avoidably very great well let's talk a bit more about about the international nature of science when you're talking about this call for project are you discussing are you even interested in the percentage of russian and non russian brains that will be there or even be in the house you don't care i mean certainly the objective is to identify the best talent . and to enable it to succeed regardless of the nationality just as an american regardless of nationality or indeed in other places indeed it would be

a great benefit to the country if a significant amount of talent came from abroad bringing with them. knowledge ideas a different point of view that could augment what is homegrown and well you are a celebrity you're one of the best in the world you're a story like like like a guest star like in any movie there is the guest star can you name a couple of other people of of your rank in science that already have official invitation is or or with which the russians are talking to i didn't know somebody else who can join you look we have a council of very capable people which includes mostly leaders in. this general sort of activity in russia as and appropriately so but then to the council. it has been possible to bring

a leader from biotech in america dr phillip frost who is perhaps the most successful entrepreneur in that industry in the world it has been possible to bring dr richard lerner who is the president of scripts in research institute which is also doubtless the most successful of its kind with vast experience in building enterprises that combine academic and commercial activity so i think we have. any example of those people and others the best that we could hope for in the way of advice to god to preserve you do have in your celebrities i think these people are better than able than i to offer useful advice on the project here but even here i have read it in the press that that in russian press that last summer even you have some troubles getting the russian visa that is. that was a mistake and even a mistake i never i never i don't know where that came from mistaken the press some mistake when they were the bees that mistaken the private press out i never i had

and they may have thought that i had already applied for a visa anticipation of this visit and i had not done so quite the reverse is true when the date for this meeting was finally settled and with my complex travel schedule i had to find a window of time in which to join the meeting then and only at that time i applied for a visa it was far too late to obtain through normal channels a little and the. russians involved in the administration of this project could make it possible for me to obtain the visa on the shortest possible notice so so so far you've won every word you're a critic you go on the contrary going to crush into russian drugs yet no not at all this is yet to come for you so i'm told i have not seen it yet says roger kornberg chairman of the scientific and technical council spotlight will be back shortly after we take a small break so stay way we'll continue this interview in less than a minute.

i'm sure is that so much i can't tell but i do believe i'll remember some of the words to smooth mcphail changed everything twenty years ago communist party hardliners attempted to derail me help out of a child's efforts to reform the soviet union wealthy british style it's time to. go. to the. markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports on our. welcome back to spotlight i am al green aravind just to remind you that my guest in

the studio today is an outstanding american biochemist professor our structural biology of stanford university two thousand so it's nobel prize winner and finally cochairman of skolkovo scientific and technical council roger kornberg roger welcome back to the show well we started talking about russian bureaucracy that you had faced overly impressed by the cations thankfully not in real life yet but people who have less words in their business cards may face those problems and these russian bureaucracy is a thing that's very frightening for foreigners. the russian parliament has passed a law which facilitates visa procedures for qualified foreign workers in russia earning more than sixty six thousand or more a year do you think this is enough i don't mean the sixty six thousand but lifting

their critic. barriers to attract more and more scientists to russia i would think the answer is yes because scientists will go wherever a combination of factors prevails first of all an interesting opportunity when scientists will be attracted by a challenge and they will want to do the most fascinating building thing they may possibly undertake and then suddenly out of what support if both are provided and i understand that may be true then russia should have i think encountered no problem but i didn't think so and so scientists are not like many other people business with for example are ready to stand in endless lines to get visas and papers and stamps and all that thing because like creative people they're like that they then they like things happen like this that if if. if that were to become a way of life i think it would be a problem if i had to apply for a visa on a weekly basis indeed it would be an issue otherwise let's see if people in russia

believe in modernization of their country spotlights cuts at ullevi on the back has tried to find out. hi there to try to find out if people in this country believe that russia can be modernized without an involvement of the nikkei is the next year it's simply relying on its own talent to potential new corneas hope that the years of course it can i think we should restore the saudi regime and everything will get back to normal. business school in the u.s. of course it can however our government is lacking one small thing for that it's a desire for my door and he say for now i see only statements and promises there is no particular clear cut program i don't think that our government has any idea what they really want there is also this shady enterprise skolkovo i'm a university professor myself and i have been teaching for thirty years so i can tell you that in order to rebuild such a huge science and education system that we used to have in our country there have

to be very clear and understandable plans in order to modernize our country we should avoid destroying what is left from our science and education also stop turning high schools into korea colleges and the most important step turning science into management it's your do most or more that no i think we should try to attract more foreign experts because there is something we can learn from them and vice versa so the exchange of experience and knowledge will only have a positive outcome for both sides. for sure so yes i think it's a carrot that we have enough of our own resources and talents within the country people just need a little more freedom in their actions should also try to rely on our younger generation as. well i've got sasha here she's going to question thought guest. the resume you know what does russia need to do in order to attract foreign scientists to work in our country. so i think the answer is to create opportunity

opportunity opportunity so that it's not only money that started early cutting red tape but it's. it's the springboards that people be looking for here and so there may be people abroad in various places with ideas that they believe passionately in pursuing and there may be an opportunity for their implementation they will go wherever it is possible when you came here in when you when you. got together i mean your council the scientific council what was the first discussion about what was the main subject what was the main burning question if there was one who was to decide what is the role of the council the challenge first of all is to decide how the council will relate to the project as a whole that in turn requires understanding what form the project may take none of that is yet decided the challenge before us is to devise

a plan that works there are just there is justifiable skepticism as there would be of anything of a new and as yet undefined nature and it is our responsibility to take all the the critical comment that has been made to heart and take advantage in order to formulate a successful plan you don't sound skeptical along. i think because i have lived my life engaged in such high risk activity that is the nature of science of course it's frightening and of course one can get it wrong and in fact i've often gotten it wrong. but getting it right even once or occasionally is the reward in a case like this i think we have a good chance of getting it right we must try this economy and i've talked to a couple of americans who came here to moscow last week as part of

a delegation of u.s. venture capitalists and they will lead by i don't short snag or the the california governor himself they visit us call and they have a they met the president so do you think that now investments are guaranteed or on the contrary you know in vestment of that nature is very slow to materialize and i don't think that that needs to be a limitation at this stage what matters is to develop a plan and then to pursue it and be persistent and eventually the investment will follow so so when people people like like the guys from this delegation come in and then they will walk around and drive this fancy cars and stuff it's oh it's all smiles and then nothing really behind it is that true or it may materialize i don't know how does that work in my limited experience i know you know that money but

still the venture the venture community is interested in opportunity but very limited in those that it will eventually pursue they would come to explore the possibilities they might decide to invest in the in the odds are always against it but the determination of the founders of the project and their capacity to design an appropriate plan will be decisive in the end. i know you're not about money you're a scientist but you did make a couple of projects happen in our life so so you know how far is that's the reason i'm asking so what i want to know is what makes you and i'm so sure that you sound like an optimist here what makes you believe that skolkovo is going to happen that it's not going to become another but tom can village you know nice now nice on the surface but not really impressive inside there is no guarantee but you believe it is it is what i what i think is that we have that it is possible to succeed it

is possible to accomplish what all would agree was. worthwhile and to deliver value for money in terms of investment but you won't know it until you see it and you've got it it's up to us to do it and the proof will be . whatever is the outcome. now we have two stars one here one on the screen here we've got our own charts now under the screen and we've got and we've got roger kornberg here in the studio so. how do you feel about it is it you to make these guys pay their money or is it those guys that are here to pay for people like you to come to work and skulk over who is it's a chicken and egg question but still i think we have different motives i think it is true that when the venture community comes to visit spoke of all their purposes

to make money and to multiply the value of any investment my interest is of course entirely different it's to see such an undertaking be productive in terms of technology to see it succeed at the levels of both discovery and the translation of discovery into meaningful so practical terms. but according to you of course have your own criteria when you talk to young scientists were you look through millions of projects that they they share with you is there such a criteria for the council you're a scholar of and what's the criteria. that has not been finally set down in words but i would insist and i'm sure others would agree there should be only one criterion and that is the quality of ideas person it's what you may or may consider it quality you you said biologicals i was no mathematics and no one said

a physics in the first place if one can't really judge mathematics against biology or vice versa but within the realm broad realm of biology for example it is possible to convene a group that will review a proposal vote and then go with the majority decision there's no better way to do it another thing that i think would be nice for your council to have and this is the veto power like if the authority is rushing over to wherever. one some project they really very much want it and you see that it's that it's not really promising can you veto it and can't can your side of the council veto the process now. that aspect of governance has not been established but i think it's appropriate i think what you've said is entirely reasonable i think the scientific council should have the last word and i think it should work the same way scientific councils work in america there is

a review process the rule the decisions of that review are then forwarded to a final council that passes on them in the end almost always almost invariably they approve the decision made at a lower level but i think what you are suggesting would be very well placed in such a process thank you sir thank you very much it was a great privilege having you on the show my thanks and just to remind you that my guest in the studio today was roger carbury cochairman of skulk of a scientific and technical counts and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say on spotlight have someone in mind who you think i should interview next time to drop me a line at al green our past are you and let's keep the show interactive we'll be back with more first hand comments on was going on and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take care thank you.

quite.

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