Mansour Hamada

COVID-19 – Current Trends in Vaccine Research Falling Walls Circle Tables will give the spotlight to world-leading scientists, science strategists and policy-makers from academia, business and politics discuss how we can apply science, research and innovation to get the world moving again. Vaccinations provide a pathway to recovery from the…

The nominating institution DAAD on the breakthrough: Treating your vagus nerve can help to break walls between people. It controls how our heart is beating, and is responsible for many phenomena ensuring a positive social functioning. Laborde started his research career because of the headbutt of Zidane in 2006, willing…

Female Leadership in Science, Business and Society The Falling Walls Foundation and the Bayer Foundation invited to a mutual networking event in July 2021. The Female Science Talents Gathering offered all participants discussion formats that allow insightful connections with outstanding female leaders and scientists. We were happy to welcome Helga…

The nominating institution Hans Knöll Institute on the breakthrough: The dramatic rise of multidrug resistant infections requires global R&D efforts. This is not only a scientific, but a global socioeconomic challenge. Since antibiotics development is not lucrative, publicly funded programs are increasingly important. Kloß’s group is developing a new antibiotic…

The nominating institution Leuphana University on the breakthrough: The Volkswagen foundation has developed a new selection procedure due to the impossibility of absolute objectiveness: In the funding initiative “Experiment!”, part of the funded projects are selected by an independent jury. Additionally, further projects are drawn from those applications that are…

Our cities are heating up nearly twice as fast as the global average. By 2050, the urban population exposed to extreme temperatures is estimated to increase by 800%. This growth will yield a corresponding momentous increase in energy demand for cooling. Meanwhile, our prevailing cooling technology contributes to a warming globe, exacerbating…

Randall Platt is an Associate Professor of Biological Engineering at the ETH Zurich. Platt studied biomedical engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. In 2011 he obtained an MPhil from Imperial College London in material science and in 2016 a PhD from MIT in biological engineering. After…

How Humanitarian Action Urges World Leaders to Prepare for the Next Epidemic At the end of 2013, two-year old toddler Emile was the first patient to die from a mysterious disease in a small village in south-eastern Guinea. A few months later, hospital workers reported similar cases to Guinea’s Ministry…

The nominating institution University of Edinburgh on the breakthrough: New X-ray Free-Electron Lasers allow us to track the motion of atoms and capture the rearrangement of electrons as molecules absorb light or undergo chemical reactions. This powerful imaging technique creates sharp and detailed movies that unveil how molecular machines function,…

The nominating institution Frauenhofer IZM on the breakthrough: Melanie Jaeger-Erben is dedicated to transdisciplinary and transformative research crossing boundaries between technology and society, environment and economy. In her research she brings together stakeholders from different societal sectors to foster joint actions for the SDGs. Her projects bridge the gap between…