WORLD.MINDS (previously known as ZURICH.MINDS until 2016[1]) is a non-profit foundation set up in June 2008 by Rolf Dobelli,[2] with the goal of creating "a bridge between the science, business and cultural communities".
[8] The members of the advisory board include former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Olympic Gold medalist Tenley Albright, Chairman of Hoffmann-La Roche Christoph Franz, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, founder of 3G Capital Jorge Paulo Lemann, and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe Admiral James G. Stavridis, among others.
WORLD.MINDS has around 1000 members,[10] including Nobel prize laureate Kurt Wuthrich, activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, President of the ETH Board Michael Hengartner, Airbus CTO Grazia Vittadini, philosopher John N. Gray of the London School of Economics, the rector of ETH Zurich Sarah Springman, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Gerd Gigerenzer, writer and politician Matt Ridley,[11] Indian artist Aparna Rao, American nuclear engineer and MIT board member Leslie Dewan, economist Paul Romer, investor and author Guy Spier,[11] professor of bioethics at ETH Zurich and Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center Effy Vayena, neuroeconomist Ernst Fehr, experimental psychologist Roy Baumeister,[11][12] investor and entrepreneur Daniel Aegerter, Stanford University professor of mechanical engineering Allison Okamura, MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager, Harvard psychologist and happiness researcher Dan Gilbert, and Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath Benoit Mandelbrot, along with artists such as Ai Weiwei and US-Israeli architect and designer Neri Oxman.
[3] In December 2017, former Swiss President Doris Leuthard opened the 2017 WORLD.MINDS flagship Annual Symposium event in Zurich,[16] where the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei spoke with Uli Sigg, the world's largest collector of contemporary Chinese art, about Ai Weiwei's art, activism and views on the future of China.
[19] WORLD.MINDS has received some coverage in local media, such as the Switzerland edition of The Wall Street Journal,[20][21][22] and Swiss national television,[23][failed verification] amongst others.