Falling Walls

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The Falling Walls Conference is an annual science event in Berlin, Germany that coincides with the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall (9 November 1989). The one-day scientific conference showcases the research work of international scientists from a wide range of fields.

The Falling Walls Foundation[]

After the inaugural 2009 conference organized by the Einstein Foundation, an independent non-profit institution by the name of the Falling Walls Foundation was established through the support of the German Ministry of Education and Research and the Berlin Senator for Education, Science and Research. The foundation is managed by Tatjana König. She is supported by Prof.  [de], a Berlin entrepreneur and publisher of the Tagesspiegel, who serves at the board of trustees of the foundation.

Conference format[]

Every speaker presents a talk of maximum 15 minutes, explaining how their scientific research helps to break down walls in science and society.

Notable speakers[]

2017[]

• Alexander Betts, University of Oxford
• Sarah Chayes, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Esther Duflo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Dennis Lo, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• W.E. Moerner, Stanford University
• Jian-Wei Pan, University of Science and Technology of China
• , University of Cape Town
• Jürgen Schmidhuber, Swiss AI Lab
• Christina Smolke, Stanford University

2016[]

• Quarraisha Abdool Karim, CAPRISA, Durban
• Kevin Bales, University of Nottingham
• Neil Gershenfeld, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Rob Knight, University of California, San Diego
• Lim Chuan Poh, A*STAR, Singapore
• Randolph Nesse, Arizona State University
• Peter Neumann, King's College London
• Hélène Rey, London Business School
• Katherine Richardson, University of Copenhagen
• Eyal Weizman, Goldsmiths, University of London

2015[]

• June Andrews, University of Stirling, UK
• Bruce A. Beutler, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
• Emmanuelle Charpentier, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany
• Ottmar Edenhofer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
• Nilüfer Göle, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France
• Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind, London, UK
• Dirk Helbing, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• Naila Kabeer, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
• Wolfgang Ketterle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Nina Kraus, Northwestern University, USA
• Joanne Liu, Médecins Sans Frontières, Switzerland
• Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, New York City
• Brian Schmidt, Australian National University
• Jackie Yi-Ru Ying, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore
• Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President, European Research Council (Session Host)
• Rush D. Holt, CEO, American Association for the Advancement of Science (Session Host)
• Johanna Wanka, German Federal Minister of Education and Research (Official Opening)

2014[]

• David Chipperfield, David Chipperfield Architects
• Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University, USA
• Stefan Hell, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany
• Lisa Kaltenegger, Cornell University, USA
• Christof Koch, Allen Institute for Brain Science, USA
• Nathan S. Lewis, California Institute of Technology, USA
• Mariana Mazzucato, University of Sussex, UK
• Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
• Alan Rusbridger, Former Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, UK
• Thierry Zomahoun, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), South Africa
• Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Austria
• Diane Griffin, Vice-President of the United States National Academy of Sciences (Session Host)
• Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (Official Opening)
• Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, UK (Session Host)
• Rupert Stadler, CEO, AUDI AG, Germany (Dinner speech)
• Philippe Taquet, President of the French Academy of Sciences (Session Host)
• Lev Zelenyi, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Session Host)

2013[]

• Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Columbia University, USA
• Olafur Eliasson, artist
• Jill Farrant, University of Cape Town, South Africa
• Stephen Friend, President Sage Bionetworks, USA
• Anita Goel, CEO Nanobiosym, USA
• Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN, Switzerland
• Jules A. Hoffmann, Université de Strasbourg, France
• Robert P. Kirshner, Harvard University, USA
• Daniel G. Nocera, Harvard University, USA
• Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, University of Cambridge, UK
• Mark Pagel, University of Reading, UK
• Dan Shechtman, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
• Salil Shetty, Secretary General Amnesty International, UK
• Luc Steels, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain
• Ai Weiwei, artist

2012[]

• David Awschalom, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Monique Breteler, Harvard School of Public Health in Boston
• Michael Bruter, London School of Economics
• Philip Campbell, Nature Publishing Group
• Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Senegal's Health Minister
• David Harel, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
• Michel D. Kazatchkine, UN Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
• Alan I. Leshner, AAAS and Science
• Daniel Libeskind, Architect
• Helga Nowotny, European Research Council (ERC), Vienna
• Ina Schieferdecker, Fraunhofer FOKUS/Technische Universität Berlin
• Hal Varian, Google Inc.
• Daniel Zajfman, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

2011[]

• Anastasia Ailamaki, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Nick Barton, Institute of Science and Technology, Austria
• Aaron Ciechanover, Technion
• Robert Darnton, Harvard University
• Ingrid Daubechies, Duke University
• Robert E. Horn, Stanford University
• Wang Hui, Tsinghua University, Beijing
• Mary Kaldor, London School of Economics
• Ferenc Krausz, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics Munich
• Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Helga Nowotny, European Research Council (ERC), Vienna
• Kõji Omi, The Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum Kyoto
• Annette Schavan, German Federal Minister of Education and Research
• Dennis J. Snower, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy
• Cédric Villani, Université de Lyon
• Stewart Wallis, nef (the new economics foundation), London

2010[]

• Dalton Conley, Sociologist
• Frederick Cooper, historian
• Helmut Dosch, Physicist
• Olafur Eliasson, artist
• Doug Guthrie, Dean of The George Washington University School of Business
• Olga Holtz, mathematician
• Reinhard Hüttl, President at acatech
• Thomas Lengauer, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics
• Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium
• Karl Ulrich Mayer, President of the Leibniz Association
• Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association
• Annette Schavan, professor, German Federal Minister of Education and Research
• Sabine Schmidtke, professor, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Christian Wulff, President of Germany

2009[]

• Jutta Allmendinger
• Alain Aspect
• Michel Brunet
• Dipesh Chakrabarty
• John-Dylan Haynes
• Rolf-Dieter Heuer
• Harold James (historian)
• Angela Merkel
• Amélie Mummendey
• Miguel Nicolelis
• Tricia Striano
• Wendelin Werner
• Thomas Wiegand
• Muhammad Yunus

References[]

• Central Science: More Falling Walls
• Cern Document Server: Falling Walls
• Scientific American: How science helped bring down the Berlin Wall
• Scientific American: Walls to fall: 6 ideas at the intellectual frontier, from business models based on selflessness to glasses -free 3-D TV
• Physicsworld.com: Breaking down walls in science
• REGIERUNGonline: Rede von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel auf der Konferenz "Falling Walls"
• Tagesspiegel: Die Leute wollen Cola classic
• Tagesspiegel: Kontakt mit der Zukunft
• WISSENSlogs: Falling Walls
• Welt der Physik: Falling Walls 2009 – von Menschen und Mauern
• Handelsblatt: Zukunftskonferenz in Berlin: Was die Wissenschaft verspricht
• Die Welt: Mauerfall auch in der Forschung angemahnt
• Berliner Morgenpost: Auch in der Forschung sollen Mauern fallen
• Berliner Zeitung: Der Traum vom besseren Leben, as well published in Frankfurter Rundschau: Der Traum vom besseren Leben
• BerliNews: Einstei'n bitte
• After the U.S. Election, What's Next for Science?
• No more walls
• Falling Walls Lab comes to Manchester

External links[]

• Falling Walls – Official Site