By Professor Michael Dröscher, Treasurer and Secretary General of the GDNÄ

The program for high school students has become one of the hallmarks of the GDNÄ – alongside the scientific excellence of the lectures and the interdisciplinary exchange. Many of the young people who have participated in the program in recent years have remained members of the GDNÄ and continue to attend the meetings. We want to bind as many of them to the GDNÄ as possible and have therefore founded the Young GDNÄ.

Thanks to the generous support of the Heraeus Foundation, the AKB Foundation, the Foundation for Family Businesses and the Bayer Foundation, which bore a substantial portion of the costs for young participants, we were able to finance the student program largely from the donations. A total of 138 young people took part, including 98 school students, apprentices, and Jugend forscht award winners, as well as 40 university students, some of whom were former participants in the program in Greifswald, Saarbrücken, and Leipzig. Most of the school students came from Potsdam, Berlin, and the surrounding area in Brandenburg. Twenty-seven young people came from Bielefeld, where the head of our student program, Studienrat Paul Mühlenhoff, works as a high school teacher.

Approximately 260 schools with a high school level were contacted and asked for nominations. Up to four candidates could be named per school. Unfortunately, the effort to persuade school administrators to participate in the program was extremely high again this year.

The total number of participants was limited by the number of beds in the youth hostel. Initially, all places could be filled. Unfortunately, some of the students and alumni had to cancel their participation at short notice, so that in the end there were 138 participants.

All participants received a four-day ticket for public transport in Potsdam.

As in the last few assemblies, Studienrat Paul Mühlenhoff took over the overall management of the student program. Professor Heribert Hofer, Professor Eva-Maria Neher, Professor Uwe Hartmann, Professor Peter Liggesmeyer, Professor Wolfgang Lubitz and Professor Michael Dröscher, supported by five tutors, accompanied the teams as mentors. The burden of organization was borne by the employees of the office, Sylvia Landeck and Katja Diete.

© Dima-Juschkow

Workshops

In contrast to the procedure in Leipzig, this time we had scheduled the workshops for the Saturday before the meeting in order to create a closer connection to the lectures. On September 7, 86 participants met at the Mercure Hotel Potsdam from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the six specialist teams of chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, engineering and medicine to prepare for the conference theme “Science for Our Tomorrow’s Life”. Their task was to explore the fields of work of the speakers, familiarize themselves with the topics of the lectures and develop questions that would be discussed after each session in a panel discussion with the speakers and moderated by the session leaders. On Thursday afternoon, before the assembly began, those who had not been able to attend the pre-workshop were assigned to the teams. The teams selected three to five representatives for the individual expert panels.

After the preparations were complete, the teams met with the members of the board and the board of directors for a meet-the-prof exchange over snacks and drinks in the foyer.

This year, the participants also networked in a WhatsApp group, which made communication with each other and with the management much easier.

Science slam kicks off the assembly

On the evening before the official opening of the conference, the popular science slam “Wissenschaft in 5 Minuten” (Science in 5 Minutes) took place again – moderated by Professor Heribert Hofer and attended by around 80 percent of the assembly participants. The eight contributions were met with storms of applause. The loudest applause and first prize went to 18-year-old Anne Marie Bobes, who presented her project on the development of small rotors for street lanterns. The rotors can generate enough electricity to operate the lanterns using wind power.

The titles of the other short presentations were: “Recognising Alzheimer’s through AI”, “Sick systems in search of fair health care”, “Polyme(e)re – a planet full of plastic”, “Seeing without understanding – how AI interprets images”, “Can meat be produced in the laboratory”, “Epoxy resin”, “Ethanol production from starch-rich waste”.

After the award ceremony, Dr. Stefanie Kaiser was connected via video. The marine biologist fascinated the audience with her report on the AleutBio deep-sea expedition in the Northeast Pacific and then answered many questions from the audience.

Science for our tomorrow’s life

In the opening session on Friday morning, President Heribert Hofer welcomed the participants, especially the school and university students. He introduced the Young GDNÄ and proclaimed its founding. After the address by the local managing director, Professor Alexander Böker, and the greetings from the state of Brandenburg, the city of Potsdam and the university, Professor Eva-Maria Neher received the Alexander von Humboldt Medal for her services to the development of the GDNÄ.

The lecture program began after the opening session. The computer science session focused on the development of software-intensive, cyber-physical systems and large generative language models. This was followed by the first panel session with the Junge GDNÄ in a lively atmosphere.

Intensive discussions also took place after the technology session with representatives of the Junge GDNÄ on human-centered AI for medical assistance systems and a sustainable transformation of industry.

A new program item was the doctoral students’ and alumni café during the lunch break.

The highlight of the day was the public Nobel Lecture. With his introduction to the art of building small, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Professor Ben Feringa inspired young and old alike.

The chemistry session opened on Saturday. Topics included nanocapsules as drug carriers and artificial organelles, as well as the “Oscar for best supporting actor: water” and “Fire and Ice” – a lecture in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide were described as molecular interfaces between energy and chemistry. This lecture also led to an intensive discussion on the podium.

The afternoon was dedicated to biology. The topics were mycorrhizal fungi, which work together with plants, and the contribution of climate change to the loss of biodiversity, especially among birds. The question of whether the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors are devil’s tools or a blessing for agriculture was the subject of a lively discussion on the podium.

The Leopoldina lecture on “Placebo or Therapy with Nothing” made a big impression, especially on the young participants. It was given by Professor Martin Lohse, GDNÄ President 2019 to 2022, who stepped in after the original lecture was canceled at short notice.

On Sunday morning, physics was on the program. Topics included how animals orient themselves in the Earth’s magnetic field and the state of development of quantum computers. There was no shortage of material for a lively discussion on the podium here either.

Medicine provided the final topic. Three fascinating lectures covered the use of AI to gain a better understanding of diseases, healthy aging, and the links between climate change and infectious diseases. Here, too, the Junge GDNÄ was well prepared for the panel discussion, which a large audience followed until the very end.

After the president’s closing and thank-you remarks, the students received their certificates of participation and were given a warm send-off.

Further activities in the context of the student program

Participation in the lecture program

Whether it was the morning lecture at nine o’clock or the evening lecture at the Nobel or Leopoldina Lecture: the young participants were always in the lecture hall, listening to the lectures with great interest. After the lectures, they often surrounded the speakers for a long time to ask their questions.

Study advice

The study advice sessions with experienced scientists in the GDNÄ’s subject areas were again very well received.

Museum visit

The students and alumni had the opportunity to visit the Barberini Museum in Berlin on the evening of September 14.