200 eventful years on 200 pages

A lavishly designed commemorative publication in the style of a modern non-fiction book will be available from beginning of September 2022, just in time for the anniversary meeting in Leipzig. On two hundred pages it deals with the eventful history of the GDNÄ, its present range of tasks and the perspectives for the future.

The richly illustrated book sketches the path of the GDNÄ through two centuries. It stops at important stations, looks far into the future, and lets research spark. Then, for example, when renowned scientists, including many GDNÄ members, give inspiring and comprehensible accounts of their own research and the development of the field. These “workshop reports” deal, for example, with an expedition to the deep sea, the search for dark matter, new techniques of energy storage and the history of modern climate research. Also exciting to read are the interviews with a pioneer of the new RNA medicine and the Nobel Prize winner who was honored for the invention of organic catalysis.

Greetings from politicians and scientists introduce the festschrift. The book is rounded off with a multifaceted outlook into the future.

Editor and co-author of the commemorative publication is Professor Martin Lohse, President of the GDNÄ. The work was designed by Thomas Liebscher, graduate graphic designer, founder and owner of the Leipzig publishing house Passage-Verlag. Here are some sample pages:

>> Grußwort der Bundesforschungsministerin (PDF)

>> Wie alles anfing… (PDF)

>> Endlich unter Gleichgesinnten (PDF)

The book contains contributions by Christiane Angermann, Marie-Luise Beck, Lilo Berg, Rainer Blatt, Matthias Bochtler, Angelika Brandt, Dietrich von Engelhardt, Georg Ertl, Jörg Hacker, Günther Hasinger, Heribert Hofer, Robert Huber, Sandra Kumm, Benjamin List, Martin Lohse, Thomas Lohse, Jochem Marotzke, Ansgar Schanbacher, Robert Schlögl, Jörg Vogel, Wolfgang Wahlster, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Ekkehard Winter and many others.

Lohse, Martin (ed.): Wenn der Funke überspringt, Passage-Verlag Leipzig 2022, ISBN 3954151308, 29 euros (to be published on beginning of September 2022).

He was an innovation manager in the chemical industry and now keeps the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians on its toes: Michael Dröscher on his plans for the GDNÄ of the future. 

Professor Dröscher, you have been Secretary General since 2015 and a member of the Board and Treasurer of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians since 2017. What is its greatest treasure?
Clearly the people who are close to our society. I include our members and all those who take an interest in us and contribute to our activities, for example by giving talks at our meetings. A great treasure is also the student programme, which gives us wonderful access to young people. Of course, we hope to attract even more people from science, society, and schools to become members. This is not easy these days. 

Why is that?
Most associations are losing members and don’t have enough new blood. The GDNÄ, which is also organised as an association, is no exception. Fortunately, we are very generously supported by foundations, so our existence does not depend solely on membership fees. We do not simply accept the decline but do our utmost to fight it. 

How can we do that?
First, we involve young people more than in the past, for example with our own formats at our meetings. For example, at the start of the 200th anniversary celebrations in Leipzig, schoolchildren will organise a part of the programme under the motto “We only have one Earth”. Second, we want to activate our members more strongly, we still see a lot of potential there. As soon as the Corona situation allows, there will also be regional presence meetings again. We introduced this new format before the pandemic and hope to be able to invite our members again soon to exchange ideas with them across disciplines. 

Is the interdisciplinary approach of the GDNÄ still up to date in view of ever greater specialisation in the natural sciences?
Both are important, but the importance of the interdisciplinarity is growing. Let us take my field, chemistry. There is still the classical synthesis of molecules and the development and optimisation of processes. But the great advances occur where chemists work together with biologists and computer scientists. In the GDNÄ we want to inspire this, at our meetings and in between at the regional meetings. I see an enormous need here that is not met by any other scientific society. The personal exchange about new findings in biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering, and medicine without direct pressure to exploit them and with leading experts – that is a great opportunity for the GDNÄ.

Aerial view of the Marl Industrial Park in the Ruhr region: with an area of more than six square kilometres, the site is one of the largest industrial parks in Germany.  What was once the address of Chemische Werke Hüls AG is now Evonik’s largest site. A total of more than ten thousand people work in the Marl Industrial Park – in almost twenty companies. © Evonik Industries AG

Is this only about basic research or also about applied knowledge?
Both should play a role. However, applied research is often neglected in public discourse as well as within the GDNÄ. It deserves more attention.  

You know both worlds and, after professional beginnings in academia, you moved to industry. In 1982 you started your industrial career at Chemische Werke Hüls AG, a company that no longer exists. How did you experience the structural change in the German chemical industry?
This change began soon after I joined Hüls AG in the early 1980s with more and more company mergers and start-ups. When you are in the middle of it, it is not always easy. Overall, however, this development was inevitable in order to survive in an increasingly globalised world. Ultimately, the many mergers have made the German chemical industry stronger and more innovative.  One example: the Marl Chemical Park, where I started, is now Evonik’s largest site and is also home to about 25 other chemical companies. 

You worked as an innovation manager for many years. There is a continuous need for creative and at the same time practicable solutions. Do you have a recipe?
Unfortunately, there is no patent remedy. What worked for me was this approach: bring together good people from different company divisions, let them develop their ideas in protected start-up-like structures, so-called project houses, and feed the solutions, as soon as they are close to the market, into the divisions of the parent company. This approach proved successful, for example, with the Hüls subsidiary Creavis, which then became part of Degussa, both of which have since been merged into the Evonik Group.  

Have successful innovations come from this approach?
I think so. At Creavis, for example, we developed biochemical processes for the production of amino acids, in which Evonik is now the world market leader. Very early on, work was done there on functional nanoparticles, which are indispensable in many areas today – just think of the production of microchips and the application in paints and cosmetics.

Production facilities in the evening light: The Marl Industrial Park is connected in many ways to the European road, rail and waterway network. © Evonik Industries AG

How do you see the future of Germany as an industrial location?
We are in the middle of a major transformation towards more climate-friendly energy sources and raw materials. The fossil age is coming to an end, and it is clear to industry that it must completely reposition itself. The investments for the next 15 to 30 years are already geared to this. The transformation can succeed if we have enough hydrogen and can reliably obtain it from sun-rich countries. Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are preparing for this. As a member of the Enquete Commission on the Future of the Chemical Industry in North Rhine-Westphalia, I have dealt extensively with this topic and continue to advise companies on these issues.  

Much of the public debate is currently about gas as a transitional solution. What is your opinion?
In order to meet the growing energy demand in our country and to replace the coal and nuclear power plants that we have shut down and will shut down in the near future, we cannot do without gas in the foreseeable future. In the future, the chemical industry alone will need as much electricity as all private households together today, and electromobility will need as much again. Gas-fired power plants will probably be needed as a bridging technology for another 15 to 20 years. We also need to build new plants. Evonik is currently building two new gas-fired power plants in the Marl Chemical Park to replace two coal-fired units. In any case, we have to ensure that we can obtain as much gas as we need, whether it comes as liquefied gas by tanker or via the pipelines. If Nord Stream 2 does not come for political reasons, we will need other supply routes.  

Finally, let’s take another look at the GDNÄ, which will soon be 200 years old. How far are you with the preparations for the celebration?
We are right on schedule. With the Leipzig Congress Hall we have found a wonderful venue for the festive assembly in September, the lecture programme with renowned scientists is set and the students will come together in early summer to design their part of the programme. There will be an attractive, generally understandable commemorative publication in book form. We are increasingly addressing the public this time: with media reports, via Twitter and other social media, and with lectures to which all Leipzigers are invited. We attach great importance to the exchange with society – entirely in the spirit of the Year of Science 2022, which aims to strengthen citizen participation in science and research under the motto “Nachgefragt!” – which means both, “Inquired” and “in demand!”.

Chinese Academy of Sciences admits chemist and GDNÄ board member as foreign member 

Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus is Senior Professor of Physical Chemistry at Bielefeld University and former President of the Combustion Institute. She represents the field of engineering sciences on the Board of Directors of the GDNÄ. On 18 November 2021, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced that Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus had been elected as a new foreign member. The long-standing list of foreign members comprises only about 100 people in total. These include the physicist Klaus von Klitzing, the biochemist Hartmut Michel and the mathematician Martin Grötschel. The biologist Herbert Jäckle was elected at the same time as Kohse-Höinghaus.

On 23 November 2021, the former president of the GDNÄ, Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster was accepted as a foreign member of the Czech Academy of Engineering Sciences (Cena Inženýrské akademie České republiky, EACR) in Prague.  

Professor Wolfgang Wahlster from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is known in the Czech Republic as a scientific pioneer in the field of Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence. Industrial production is of great economic importance for both the Czech Republic and Germany. In both countries, industrial artificial intelligence is perceived as an innovation driver. 

For many years, Wahlster has been cooperating with Professor Vladimír Mařík in Prague, the founder of the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). Together, the two scientists have launched the Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production (RICAIP), which is funded with 50 million euros. 

The Czech Academy of Science and Engineering EACR is a partner organisation of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and represents the Czech Republic in Euro-CASE, the European association of all academies of science and engineering.

Trust in science and research remains strong, especially in the Corona pandemic. But there are also sceptical voices. This was the result of a representative survey by Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD), a non-profit organisation in which the GDNÄ is a co-partner.

The majority of people in Germany rely on science and research. In the current opinion poll “Wissenschaftsbarometer 2021”, 61 percent of respondents said they trust science rather or completely. This is similar to the previous survey in November 2020 (60%) and more than before the Corona pandemic began (2019: 46%, 2018: 54%, 2017: 50%).

Only in the Corona Special Surveys in April and May 2020 was the level of agreement higher, at 73 and 66 per cent respectively. 32 percent of respondents are currently undecided. This is the result of population-representative data from the Science Barometer, with which the non-profit organisation Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD) has been surveying public opinion on science and research in Germany since 2014. Sponsors and supporters of the project are the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The GDNÄ has supported the goals and diverse activities of WID for many years as a co-partner.

Germans’ trust in science and research has increased sharply with the Corona pandemic. © WiD

The high level of trust in science and research is also reflected in the desire for scientific policy advice. Thus, more than two thirds of the respondents (69 %) are of the opinion that political decisions should be based on scientific findings. 75 % think that scientists should speak out publicly when political decisions do not take scientific findings into account. An active interference of scientists in politics is desired by 32 percent of the respondents. Half of the respondents think that scientists should recommend certain decisions to politicians in the specific context of the Corona pandemic. 

However, it is unclear to many respondents (53 %) how policy advice on Corona works in Germany.  “People would like even more information about when and how scientific findings influence policy,” says Markus Weißkopf, Executive Director of Wissenschaft im Dialog.

What doctors and scientists say about Corona is most likely to be believed. © WiD

In the context of the Corona pandemic, trust in the statements of scientists is particularly high: 2021: 73 %, November 2020: 73 %, April 2020: 71 %. Only the trust in statements by doctors and medical staff on Corona is even higher (2021: 79 %, November 2020: 80 %, April 2020: 78 %). The statements made by representatives of authorities and agencies, journalists and politicians are trusted much less in comparison (2021: 34%, 21% and 18%). 

Despite the high level of trust in medicine and science, sceptical positions on the Corona pandemic also meet with approval. For example, 39 percent agreed somewhat or strongly with the following statement: “Scientists are not telling us everything they know about the corona virus” (19 % undecided, 40 % somewhat disagree or strongly disagree). Twenty-six percent agree with the statement that the pandemic is being made into a bigger deal than it actually is (12% undecided, 61% disagree or tend to disagree). 

“The results show that a minority doubts science – but a minority that has become louder during the pandemic,” says Prof. Dr. Mike S. Schäfer, Professor of Science Communication at the Institute of Communication Science and Media Research at the University of Zurich and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Science Barometer.