Award for outstanding science communication
The 2025 Lorenz Oken Medal goes to YouTuber and author Jacob Beautemps
With his channel ‘Breaking Lab’, Dr Jacob Beautemps is one of the most successful science YouTubers with more than 700,000 followers in Germany, according to the award citation. Beautemps also reaches a wide audience on linear television. In his book ‘Rethinking Our Future’, he shows how science can shape the future. ‘He communicates complex topics in an understandable and innovative way, thereby reaching young people in particular,’ says the selection committee.
In his keynote speech ‘The Most Important Skill of the 21st Century’ in Stuttgart, Jacob Beautemps will explain why this skill is learning. Knowledge is the most valuable thing we possess, says the 32-year-old, and the transfer of knowledge is essential for our progress. However, communicating knowledge is often neglected in education. In his lecture, Beautemps will present six rules for successful knowledge transfer. According to Beautemps, those who take these rules to heart will be listened to by their audience and their message will be remembered.
© ‘5 gegen Jauch’ (RTL)
Science communicator Jacob Beautemps in action: the designated recipient of the 2025 Lorenz Oken Medal reaches a wide audience, including many young people.
The medal commemorates Lorenz Oken, who founded the GDNÄ in 1822 – also with the aim of promoting exchange between science and society. The award is presented every two years. Previous winners include presenter and director Armin Maiwald (‘Sendung mit der Maus’), television presenter and YouTuber Mai thi Nguyen-Kim, and television presenter Gert Scobel (‘scobel’).
Science Communication Forum 2025
The Science Communication Forum 2025 will focus on the topic of ‘Algorithms, platforms and AI: science communication in the digital transformation’. It will take place on 3 and 4 December at the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The Science Communication Forum is the largest specialist conference for science communication in the German-speaking world. It has been organised annually since 2008 by Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD), the joint organisation of German science for science communication. The GDNÄ has been a member from the very beginning.
© Boris Breuer
About the person
Jacob Beautemps was born in Essen in 1993. After completing his Master of Education in Physics and Social Sciences, he received his doctorate in 2024 from the Institute for Physics Education at the University of Cologne on the question of how students learn with YouTube videos. Since 2018, the 32-year-old has been reaching a wide audience through his YouTube channel Breaking Lab, which he produces in collaboration with i&u TV. The focus is on scientific and technical topics. Jacob Beautemps also appears as a speaker and guest on television programmes. He already has received several awards, including the 2024 Prize for Science Journalism from the German Physical Society.
Award ceremony
The ceremonial presentation of the 2025 Lorenz Oken Medal is a fixed item on the programme of the 2025 Science Communication Forum. The event will take place from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. in the Liederhalle Stuttgart and will be moderated by Professor Michael Dröscher, Secretary General and Treasurer of the GDNÄ. The welcome and award presentation will be given by GDNÄ Vice President Professor Heribert Hofer, and the laudatory speeches will be given by Kevin J. Yuan and Eric Andresen from the GDNÄ’s Young Network. Dr Jacob Beautemps will then address the audience with a keynote speech.