Watch jubilee lectures in real time

The Nobel lecture is about a galactic voyage of discovery, the Leopoldina lecture shows how much computer science is in cinema films today and the grand opening ceremony entices with exciting discussions, music and insights into current research. Those who are present at the GDNÄ's anniversary conference will experience a great celebration of science with many highlights.

But also those who cannot be there are invited – and this is a novelty at GDNÄ meetings – to participate in real time. All lectures in the Great Hall of the Congress Hall at Leipzig Zoo will be livestreamed, as will the entire Festversammlung on Thursday, 8 September 2022 (14:00-18:00), and the public lectures by Nobel Laureate in Physics Professor Reinhard Genzel (Friday, 9 September, 18:30-20:00) and Professor of Computer Science Markus Gross of ETH Zurich "Computer Science for Hollywood Pictures" (Saturday, 10 September, 18:30-20:00).

Livestream use is free of charge; no special technical requirements are necessary. A digital device and a good internet connection are all you need to join the live stream below:

The livestream is intended for the real-time experience and is only available at the same time as the programme in Leipzig. The video recordings of lectures, interviews and summary contributions, which are posted on the GDNÄ's own YouTube channel after the meeting and are available free of charge, can be used permanently.

"We only have one world": Student presentation well on its way

The student program plays a special role at the Bicentennial Celebration in Leipzig. Right on the opening day, September 8, representatives of this year's group of students will present questions to science under the motto "We only have one world," which they have worked out together beforehand. The impulses of the young people will be the focus of a subsequent panel discussion with a high-caliber panel of experts. The panel of experts will be moderated by GDNÄ President Professor Martin Lohse.

To prepare for the presentation, students will meet several times before the assembly from September 8 to 11. A first meeting was held in early June; a final vote is scheduled for Sept. 7.

© Michael Dröscher

In work groups, students discuss their ideas for presentation at the jubilee assembly.

The first meeting was about defining the most important challenges with a view to the future of humanity. The guiding question was: Which problems are the most pressing and to what extent can the natural sciences contribute to solving them? Discussions took place in a total of six workshops, in which around one hundred students took part. The main topics were chemistry, biology, medicine, physics/geology, mathematics/computer science and technology/engineering. The working groups were supervised by Professor Eva-Maria Neher, Professor Wolfgang Lubitz, Professor Uwe Hartmann, Professor Michael Dröscher, Student Councilor Paul Mühlenhoff and tutors Clara Vogt and Moritz Sest. 

The students from Leipzig and the surrounding area developed three joint questions per working group. In digital networking, they will now continue to work on the joint task until the next face-to-face meeting on September 7. The idea is that each team will agree on a challenging core question to science at the end, which will then be presented at the festive meeting.

© Michael Dröscher

Preparatory workshop at Leipzig: group of students in action.

Würzburg 2021 will be merged with 200th GDNÄ anniversary

With a heavy heart, the GDNÄ Presidium has decided not to realize the 131st Assembly in Würzburg in 2021, but to combine it with the 132nd Assembly in Leipzig. The reason is the Corona pandemic, which made all previous plans obsolete. The anniversary conference will be held in Leipzig from 8 to 11 September 2022.

Everything was prepared on time for the meeting in Würzburg originally planned for September 2020 on the topic of "Science & Image". Many GDNÄ members, selected students, teachers and citizens had looked forward to high-level lectures, discussions and personal exchange. But then Corona came and called for new solutions. In the early summer of 2020, it was decided to postpone the Würzburg Assembly was postponed by one year. At the time, that seemed like a safe distance. But in the meantime we had to realize that planning for an assembly in September 2021 would be too risky. Hence the decision to present highlights on the topic of "Science & Image" at the anniversary meeting to mark the 200th anniversary of the GDNÄ at its founding location in Leipzig - together with new topics that will be developed over the next few months and then presented on this page.

The next conference takes place from September 10-12, 2021

In view of the current corona situation, the GDNÄ board has decided to postpone the annual meeting until 2021. The new date is September 10-12, 2021, and the topic "Science in Picture" and the program are to be retained as far as possible. The exact program will be announced on this website in autumn 2020 and sent to the members in spring 2021. We look forward to welcoming you to an exciting conference in 2021.

Together with the meeting, the next general meeting and the elections planned there must also be postponed to that date.

Digitisation of the Sciences, from Structures to Processes

Dear members, friends and sponsors of the GDNÄ,

The digitisation of science enables the analysis and simulation of complex processes using computers based on structural models.

For the first time in its almost 200-year history, GDNÄ comes to Saarland, which is ideally suited as a state of information technology for this topic of our 130th meeting.

The Internet and the first wave of digitization had revolutionized access to scientific results. In the meantime, computer science has developed methods for all sciences to automatically evaluate digital mass data. However, the second wave of digitisation triggered by this also fundamentally changes the way scientists work and thus holds enormous potential for breakthroughs in science, medicine and technology.

Mass data are automatically classified by machine learning algorithms, experiments are carried out by robots, new connections are discovered by artificial intelligence and hypotheses are tested. However, the focus continues to be on scientists who, with their curiosity and passion, overcome existing boundaries within and between disciplines in order to gain completely new insights - increasingly often supported by digital assistants.

In addition to its university's internationally renowned Department of Computer Science, Saarland has the highest density of associated institutes in the field of computer science: In addition to the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence headed by me, the Helmholtz Center for Cyber Security, the Leibniz Center for Computer Science at Schloss Dagstuhl, the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems make the Saarland Informatics Campus with its joint Cluster of Excellence a prime location for digitization.

In addition to the Nobel Lecture and the Leopoldina Lecture, the programme offers 15 invited lectures by top researchers from medicine, biology, physics, chemistry and technology, supplemented by six laboratory tours within walking distance with practical insights over lunchtime.

The historic part of Saarbrücken exudes French charm and is worth a visit for its excellent cuisine and three-star restaurant. The GDNÄ participants will be spoiled culturally with a unique concert evening in the late baroque Ludwigskirche, a reception of the Lady Mayoress in the Knight's Hall of the town hall as well as a performance of the Saarländisches Staatsballet after the noble lecture in the Staatstheater.

This big event was only possible with generous donations, for which we would like to thank all our sponsors! The importance of our 130th meeting is underlined by the patronage of the Federal President and the opening by the Prime Minister of Saarland.

Take an active part in our dialogue on the future and discuss the opportunities and risks of digitising the sciences with renowned experts!

I look forward to your participation in the 130th GDNÄ meeting in Saarbrücken.

Saarbrücken, June 2018

Yours Wolfgang Wahlster
President of GDNÄ