Welcome to NAMES 4th General Assembly Meeting

The target of the North Africa and Middle East Science centers network (NAMES) is to provide professional development for the science center field in the North Africa and Middle East region. NAMES aims to promote best practices, to support effective communication and to strengthen the position of science centers within the community at large. NAMES aspires to encourage excellence and innovation in informal science learning by serving and linking its members in the Middle East and North Africa Region and advancing their common goals, as well as linking them to the goal community of science centers.

NAMES 4^th General Assembly Meeting (NAMES 2014) was hosted by "Bursa Science and Technology Center ", from Friday to Sunday, 7-9 November 2014. The main theme of NAMES 2014 was "Innovation: Revisiting your Mind!". Sub-themes that were tackled in parallel sessions and workshops were "Innovate to Educate", "Innovate to Reach", "Science behind Innovation", and "Innovation and Society" or "Innovation and Social Change". Keynote speakers included Dr. Essam Heggy , PhD, California Institute of Technology, Geophysical and Planetary Sciences Diversity; and Mr. Mehmet Arik, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director for EVATEG Center, Ozyegin University.