Speaker and audience at the Falling Walls Science Summit

Attendees 2026

"EVERYONE THAT HAS TO DEAL WITH SCIENCE IS HERE." (Jean-Claude Burgelman Director of the Frontiers Planet Prize)

Confirmed attendees and speakers for the Falling Walls Science Summit November 6 – 9, 2026.

This list will be updated regularly, so be sure to return soon or subscribe to our newsletter.

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German Research Minister

Dorothee Bär

Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space

Nobel Laureate Physics

Brian Schmidt

Australian National University

President

Katja Becker

German Research Foundation (DFG)

Director General

Mark Thomson

CERN

Bavarian Research Minister

Markus Blume

State of Bavaria

President

Maria Leptin

European Research Council

German Digitalisation Minister

Karsten Wildberger

Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation

President & CEO

Stephen Toope

Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR)

President

Siegfried Russwurm

acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering

Member of the European Parliament

Christian Ehler

European Parliament

Former Head of NASA Science Missions

Thomas Zurbuchen

ETH Zurich

President

Martin Keller

Helmholtz Association

President & CEO

Adam F. Falk

Wildlife Conservation Society

President

Cornelia Denz

National Metrology Institute of Germany

Jury Chair

Wolfgang Marquardt

RWTH Aachen University

Director

Jörg Vogel

Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI)

Vice President I Vice Provost of Global Futures

Peter Schlosser

Arizona State University

President

Gur Alroey

University of Haifa

Secretary General

Alexander Bonde

German Federal Environmental Foundation

President

Michael Hengartner

ETH Board

President

Sascha Spoun

Leuphana University of Lüneburg

CTO

Oscar-Werner Reif

Sartorius

State Secretary for Higher Education and Research

Henry Marx

Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care

Rector

Pia Cecilie Bing-Jonsson

University of South-Eastern Norway

Science-Journalist

Ranga Yogeshwar

Executive Vice President for Research

Asako Sugimoto

Tohoku University

President

Katharina Lorenz

Justus-Liebig-University Giessen

Vice President

Kathrin Moeslein

FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Former CEO

Joachim Kreuzburg

SARTORIUS AG

Director

Peter Seeberger

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces

Chief Scientist

Randy Gomez

Honda Research Institute Japan

Director International Affairs

Amy Lin

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Managing Director

Felix Streiter

Carl Zeiss Foundation

Founder & Secretary General

Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd

Research!Sweden

Director, Quantum Sensors Challenge program

Marina Gertsvolf

National Research Council Canada

Head of Global Research Partnerships

Leah Soroko

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)

Member of the Board

Joachim Faber

Dalfa Munich Office

CEO

Daniel Hook

Digital Science

Senior Director, Global Partnerships and Networks

Amanda Ellis

ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory

Executive Director

Martin Müller

GESDA - Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator

Director

Mateo Valero

Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Deputy Director-General

Maive Rute

European Commission, DG GROW

Member of Parliament

Lina Seitzl

German Bundestag

Member of Parliament

Andrea Lübcke

German Bundestag

Director, Research and Impact

Julia Lalande

Ontario Science Centre

Laboratory Director

John Wagner

Idaho National Laboratory

President & CEO

Sam Gill

Doris Duke Foundation

Director Human Environment

Jesse Ausubel

The Rockefeller University

Scientific Director

Ann-Kristin Achleitner

Technical University of Munich

President

Stefan Leible

Universität Bayreuth

Vice Rector for Research

Vasilis Avdikos

Panteion University

Managing Director

Sascha Hermann

VDI Technologiezentrum

Rector

Jan Danckaert

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Former German Education and Research Minister

Edelgard Bulmahn

Humboldt University Berlin

Professor

JoAnne Hewett

Stony Brook University

Professor

Nektarios Tavernarakis

University of Crete

Chairman Supervisory Boards

Bernd Scheifele

Heidelberg Materials AG & PHOENIX Pharma SE

Director

Christian Rüegg

Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)

Managing Director

Beate Wagner

Global Young Academy

Foreign Secretary & Vice-President

Mark Walport

Royal Society

Executive Director

Julie Maxton

The Royal Society

Vice President

Jeanne Rubner

Technical University of Munich

Director

Jean-Claude Burgelman

Frontiers Planet Prize

Rector

Peter Middendorf

University of Stuttgart

CEO

Antonio Krüger

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

President of the Foundation Council

Wolfgang Ischinger

Munich Security Conference Foundation

President

Axel R. Pries

World Health Summit

Managing Director

Theresa Twachtmann

PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand

State Secretary

Thomas Jarzombek

Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation

Rector

Johannes Wessels

University of Münster

Former German Minister of Education and Research

Bettina Stark-Watzinger

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Rector

Michael Hoch

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

President

Walter Rosenthal

German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz)

Founder & CEO

Nicole Büttner

Merantix Momentum

President

Jan Hesthaven

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Chairman, President & CEO

Frank Laukien

Bruker Corporation

Director of International Affairs

Liat Mandelbaum Shor

The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Dean of Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology

Anat Brunstein Klomek

Reichman University

Co-Founder & Member Board of Trustees

Detlev Ganten

Virchow Foundation

Laboratory Director

John Sarrao

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Senator for Science, Health and Care of Berlin

Ina Czyborra

The Senate of Berlin

Director

Suman Chakraborty

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Martin Sonnenschein

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Vice President (Sustainability & Resilience)

Lian Pin Koh

National University of Singapore

President

Günter M. Ziegler

Freie Universität Berlin

President

Oliver Günther

University of Potsdam

President

Hugh Brady

Imperial College London

Director of Research

Philippe Chomaz

French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)

Director Systems Medicine

Joachim Schultze

Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE)

Editor in Chief

Magdalena Skipper

Springer Nature

Director

Tracey Brown

Sense about Science

Founding Director

Barend Mons

LIFES Institute

Board Member | Managing Director & CEO

Olaf Brock

Hannover re Foundation | Hannover Retakaful B.S.C. (c)

Scientific Director

Marcio de Castro Silva Filho

São Paulo Research Foundation

President

Lise Korsten

The African Academy of Sciences

Director

Dietmar Harhoff

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

President

Eva Martha Eckkrammer

University of Trier

Jury Chair | President

Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Executive Vice President

Yuri Tschinkel

Simons Foundation

Former President

Helga Nowotny

European Research Council

CEO

Christian Humborg

Allianz Foundation

Executive Vice President

Juan de Pablo

New York University

Laboratory Director

Kimberly Budil

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Founder Ig Nobel Prize

Marc Abrahams

Improbable Research

President

Eloísa del Pino

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Director

Thomas Thum

Hannover Medical School

Director

Gerald Haug

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Chairman

Vassilis Charmandaris

Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH)

Vice-President of Research and International

Mario Pinto

University of Manitoba

Member of Parliament

Oliver Kaczmarek

German Bundestag

President

Karla Pollmann

University of Tübingen

President

David Alis

University of Rennes

Vice President for Transfer and International Affairs

Thomas Hirth

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Chairman of the Board

Stefanos Kollias

National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET)

Acting Director

Emmanuel Stratakis

Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH)

President

Michael Schaepman

University of Zurich

Rector

Frauke Melchior

Heidelberg University

President

Mohamed H. A. Hassan

Sudanese National Academy of Sciences

CEO

Felix Büchting

KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA

Managing Director

Christian Piel

RI Research Instruments

President & CEO

Caroline Montojo

Dana Foundation

Former BASF Board Member & CTO

Melanie Maas-Brunner

Independent Advisor

President

Donald Bruce Dingwell

Academia Europaea

Rector

Barbara Albert

University of Duisburg-Essen

Chief Scientific Officer

Lene Oddershede

Novo Nordisk Foundation

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SCIENCE SUMMIT 2026