Outstanding figures from science, business and politics come together for the first time at the Falling Walls Science Summit for a day of public debate on scientific breakthroughs and societal impact. Participants Emmanuelle Charpentier, Uğur Şahin, Maria Leptin, Marius Brand, Donna Strickland discuss on November 8 in Berlin. Free livestream.
Berlin, 4 November 2021 Under the theme “Science Reunites Us,” the 13th Falling Walls Science Summit will take place between 7-9 November in Berlin. The Summit returns as the largest science in-person event of the year. The new public Summit format on 8 November, Falling Walls Circle, reflects pandemic- era insights about the need for public debates among science, policy, and society. On Circle Day, global leaders in research, policy, business, and media will discuss scientific solutions to the greatest challenges of our time. Participants include BioNTech co-founder Uğur Şahin, Nobel laureates Emmanuelle Charpentier and Donna Strickland, President of the European Research Council Maria Leptin, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Research Center Jutta Allmendinger and others. For the full program, visit falling-walls.com/programme/. All program events will be livestreamed free of charge on the Falling Walls Foundation homepage.
With the public Circle Day, the Falling Walls Science Summit introduces a new format that emphasises the importance of public knowledge transfer and interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration in addressing the greatest challenges of our time.
The Falling Walls Circle programme includes public Plenary and Round Table debates, as well as exclusive expert discussions under the Chattam House Rule. The agenda also includes scientific symposia organised by the Wilhelm-und-Else-Heraeus-Stiftung, the VolkswagenStiftung in cooperation with the WZB Berlin Social Science Research Center and the Charité that aim to deepen the scientific discourse in key research disciplines of medicine, social sciences, and physics.
In the Plenary Table “Translating Science into Medical Application,” BioNTech co-founder Uğur Şahin, Nobel laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier and President of the European Research Council Maria Leptin will discuss opportunities and risks in the fight for better global health. President of the WZB Jutta Allmendinger and renowned architects Doris Kleinein and Klaus K. Loenhart elicit on urban changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strategies for resilient and inclusive cities of the future in the Plenary Table “The Future of Work and Urban Planning.”
The range of topics also includes debates on the “Green New Deal” and the steps science, society, policy, and globalized business should take to successfully address the climate crisis, as well as discussions on unified transatlantic guideposts for science and technology, and challenges and opportunities for successful deployment of hydrogen technology.
Experts in the Round Table discussions will provide in-depth insight into the programme’s main themes, including battery research for a sustainable energy transition, scientific engagement and scientific credibility, climate-friendly agriculture, and quantum technologies.
The thematic symposia are dedicated to scientific breakthroughs in three major research areas: medicine, physics, and social sciences. International participants in the symposia include winners of “Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year 2021”, as well as Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland, Harvard Professor of Sociology, African and African American Studies Michèle Lamont, Chris Polly of Fermilab, and others.
The full Falling Walls Science Summit program at falling-walls.com/science-summit-2021. All Falling Walls Science Summit events will be livestreamed for free on the Falling Walls Foundation website. For press and other inquiries, contact Lena Taran, Press Officer Falling Walls Foundation, press@falling-walls.com.
About the Falling Walls Science Summit
The Falling Walls Science Summit is part of Berlin Science Week with over 200 events from 1-10 November 2021. Since its first annual gathering on November 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall, Falling Walls has steadily grown into a leading global forum for science. The event brings together the most important researchers and thinkers of our time to discuss scientific breakthroughs with global leaders in science, politics, business, and media, and to answer the core question of the Falling Walls Science Summit: “What are the next walls to fall in science and society?”
PRESS CONTACT
Lena Taran
Tel: +49 30 60 988 39-750
press@falling-walls.com