medicine Abraham Maslow, psychologist Yehudi Menuhin, violinist Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist Alva Myrdal, Nobel laureate in economics Gunnar Myrdal, Nobel laureate in economics Philip Noel-Baker, Nobel peace laureate Linus Pauling, Nobel laureate in chemistry and peace Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, president of India (elected as honorary fellow) Jonas Salk, developer of the Salk polio vaccine Vikram Sarabhai, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission Arne Tiselius, Nobel laureate in chemistry Research programs WAAS conducts research, conferences and other activities in collaboration with a global network of partner organizations, including UN agencies and other international organizations, academies and research institutions, universities and civil society organizations. The Academy has an on-going focus on issues related to peace, nuclear disarmament and global governance. Global Challenges A major focus of WAAS is an examination of the root causes of the multidimensional challenges that confront humanity today. The academy and fellows search for policy frameworks that offer solutions and opportunities for the 21st century. A view commonly expressed by WAAS President Garry Jacobs is that if these challenges are seen from a global evolutionary perspective, it can help identify the characteristics, which they all share. Fellows of WAAS work to address crises that are global in scope and that have a chance of being resolved through cooperative global action. In numerous papers by leading intellectuals, they have called for a paradigm change in thinking that is synthetic and integrated. The Global Challenges project commenced officially at an international conference in Geneva in 2013, in collaboration with the United Nations Office. It aimed to consider in-depth the multiple challenges before the international community with a view to identifying the elements necessary for fundamental paradigm change. The Geneva conference (UNOG), hosted notable speakers such as Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Emil Constantinescu, Peter Maurer, Herwig Schopper, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, and Anders Wijkman. The project ideas have been represented at more than a dozen conferences and have brought hundreds of diplomats, politicians, scientists and social leaders together, representing a wide range of organizations. Some of these include the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Club of Madrid, Club of Rome, European Leadership Network, European Movement International, Future World Foundation, Green Cross International, Library of Alexandria, Nizami Ganjavi International Centre, Partnership for Change, Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and the World University Consortium. The meetings have led to the publication of more than 100 notable