Speakers

Prof Ronald   LaPorte
Professor Emeritus/ Former Director -WHO Collab Center

Biography:

Dr. LaPorte has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Post-Doctoral Training in Epidemiology. He currently if Professor Emeritus and Former Director of a WHO Collaborating Center.  His major focus was Diabetes Epidemiology, but now has shifted to the application of the Internet to Global Health and Science. During the course of his career he has published 530 scientific articles in Science, Nature, PNAS, BMJ and elsewhere.  In the early 1990s Dr. LaPorte established the WHO Multinational Project for Childhood diabetes which built 155 diabetes registries in 70 countries. This is one of the largest global health projects conducted.  Following this in collaboration with NASA he built one of the first global health web pages, which was identified as the top 100 web  pages by PC Magazine.  Following the establishment of the global health network he developed the "Supercourse".  This was one of the first collections of Scientific PowerPoint lectures. This was an open source system with 6000 lectures, where anyone worldwide could download slides and lectures for teaching. One of the lectures of the Supercourse taught 50 million students.  Then he began to collaborate with the Library of Alexandria, and built the Supercourse of science which included 200,000 and the BA Africa, which is a site for and by those interested in African Health.  In the past few years he has collaborated with the BA to establish the largest research methods library in the world, the BA Serageldin which will be made available for free to all budding researchers. This was collected with the help of statistical and epidemiologic experts worldwide Our mission now is to stamp out Statistical Malnutrition in the world, by giving access to the best research methods materials in the world.

"Epidemiology, Stataphobia and the BA Serageldin Library"

I thought I would tell the story of the BA Serageldin Library, with our history, and future "The time is always right to do what is right"  (MLK):
BA Serageldin Research Methods Library Suppose there are two race car drivers who are equally very good, one from the US and one from Egypt. We give the US Driver a Ferrari which has a 700 horsepower engine, and the Egyptian Driver, a VW Beetle which has 53 horsepower. Despite equal skills the US driver has an enormous advantage due to his engine. The same can be said for science, where  US Scientists have access to  1000 times research methods books than equally qualified Ethiopian scientists.  The BA Serageldin research methods library will help level the playing field for access to research methods.The time is right to bridge the research methods to reduce inequities  between rich and poor countries.  We are about to speed down the road to reduce Statistical Malnutrition. The BA Serageldin is a monumental achievement for the world.  Dr. Serageldin and his team are leading a remarkable global effort.   World statistical experts  donated their best  books to the Library of Alexandria.  In only 18 months the Research Methods Library of Alexandria became the largest research methods library in the world with 12,000 books and 4000 virtual sites. The Beetle will creep on  Ferrari in the Grand Prix of science. "As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest" (Mandela).  The BA Serageldin Library is attacking global statistical knowledge inequality, come join.