Press release

For the diversity of ideas – the Humboldt Foundation invites to its digital Annual Meeting

On 23 and 24 June 2021, international researchers will be meeting for the Humboldt Foundation’s virtual Annual Meeting. The opening with Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be broadcast via livestream.

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Press, Communications and Marketing
Tel.: +49 228 833-144
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presse[at]avh.de

On 23 and 24 June the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will be gathering researchers from around the world at its digital Annual Meeting being held this year under the motto “Diversity of Ideas”. For the second time now, the annual reception for Humboldt Fellows will be conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea behind the Diversity of Ideas meeting is to turn the diversity of the Humboldt Network with over 30,000 fellows and alumni from more than 140 countries into a tangible experience and create a space for sharing and networking even in times of a pandemic. The conference is part of the #ProgressDiversity campaign which the Humboldt Foundation is using to foster diversity in science and research. Further information regarding the campaign is available here: #ProgressDiversity

T-Shirt für die Jahrestagung, bemalt von Humboldtianer Vibhav Bharadwaj

The opening session will be broadcast live on YouTube. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Hans-Christian Pape, President of the Humboldt Foundation, will kick off the conference with opening statements. Greeting will then be given by Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, and Wolf-Dieter Lukas, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Emmanuelle Charpentier, the 2020 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry and a Humboldtian, will report on her research. Individuals who have been sponsored by the Foundation will provide insights into their work. This line-up will include the winners of this year’s Humboldt Alumni Awards which the Foundation uses to single out innovative networking ideas developed by alumni in their native countries. These individuals are exemplary for the diversity of the Humboldt network, not just in terms of the regions its members hail from, but also with regard to their fields and areas of focus.

When: 23 June, starting 5 p.m., via livestream on YouTube:

The second day will feature keynote lectures on the focus of the conference “Diversity of Ideas”. Speakers will include the sociologist Jutta Allmendinger, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Angela Schöllig, robotics expert and designated Humboldt Professor for Artificial Intelligence at Technische Universität München. Humboldtians will then present their own research topics in “Open Spaces”. To wind things up, the conference will conclude with virtual lab visits where researchers in Germany will present themselves and their workplaces.

The second day of the conference will not be broadcast live. Journalists may however attend on an individual basis between 2 and 5:30 p.m. on 24 June. If you are interested in attending, please contact presse[at]avh.de. We will be glad to arrange interviews.

(Press release 8/2021)

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains an interdisciplinary network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians in more than 140 countries around the world – including 61 Nobel Prize winners.

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