Montreal, QC, Canada, May 30, 2011

Your Majesty

First allow me to thank Your Majesty for the great contribution Your Majesty has given to acknowledge the role of many famous and deserving personalities that have given a great contribution in the world, especially in the fields of politics and arts.

However, it can be sadly noticed today generally in the world, that a great deal of acknowledgement as "stars" of our society is mostly given to politicians and artists. The scientists are mostly forgotten. Although we cannot imagine the world today without cell phones and the internet, the scientists that invented them are not at all known. This affects badly the aspirations of future generations. For example, in a recent poll in Italy, 95% of Italian teenagers wanted to be TV stars in the future. Science and engineering were not even on the list. If a similar poll would have been taken in UK the results would not have been very different. The same can be said for all developed countries where the number of science and engineering students is drastically falling. As Your Majesty may understand we are all very deficient today in acknowledging the scientists. I am just refraining myself from enumerating many examples in this direction.

As a scientist, while having the highest respect for politicians and artists, I would like for the profession of scientists to be more acknowledged in the world. This is because if we spell the real truth as it is there are primarily scientists and engineers who send the world ahead. They, in fact, make possible the "star" development even in politics and society: an example is the role of the internet in precipitating the revolutionary events in the Arab World. Another example is that a sustainable and clean world of tomorrow will mostly be achieved through new scientific developments before anything else...

The English Monarchy is well known in the world for its ability to bring positive change and adapt in itself. I guess that this gesture would bring to it another leading role in acknowledging the famous scientists of the world...

I very much hope to have the high honor and the privilege of Your Majesty's help in acknowledging the great work of scientists around the world.

(For the full copy of the letter please click here.)