Dr. Weena Gera, Assistant Professor of Political Science in the College of Social Sciences has been awarded the GroBrundtland Award 2018 during the GroBrundtland Week of Women in Sustainable Development, 29 March – 3 April 2018 in Taiwan.
The award was established by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the winner of the first Tang Prize in sustainable development, to recognize distinguished female researchers in the field of public health and sustainable development.
The 2018 GroBrundtland Week of Women in Sustainable Development commits to engage young female researchers and promote the study of global issues in public health and sustainable development, ranging from women and children health, Epidemiology, to environmental sustainability. The GroBrundtland Week is a three-year project granted by Tang Prize Foundation and managed by National Cheng Kung University, from 2016 to 2018, aiming to establish and promote an international collaboration and partnership platform for female researchers.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland was Norwegian Minister for Environmental Affairs from 1974 to 1979, and served three terms as Prime Minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as Director-General of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003. She is also known for having chaired the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, referred to as the Brundtland Commission) from 1984 to 1987 and published the report, Our Common Future, in April 1987, as the broad political concept of sustainable development, which also provided the momentum for the 1992 Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Dr. GroBrundtland is widely regarded as the “godmother” of sustainable development.