University of Heidelberg

Bridging Science and Society

Feb 24, 2010

Bridging Science and Society was the theme of this year's AAAS Annual Meeting 2010, where the Cluster "Asia and Europe" presented its research together with other Heidelberg institutions. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of various renowned journals such as 'Science'.

Three Initiatives of Excellence together with the Heidelberg Project for Realising the Potential of a Comprehensive University presented themselves at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from February 18 to 22, 2010, in San Diego, USA. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of various renowned journals such as 'Science'. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education and more.

Represented at this year’s AAAS Annual Meeting were the Clusters of Excellence Cellular Networks (Dr. May-Britt Becker) and Asia and Europe in a Global Context (Dr. Brigitte Merz), the Graduate School Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences (Dr. Michael Winckler), as well as the Graduate Academy of the University of Heidelberg (Anke Rösel). Centre of focus of the presentation were the research possibilities and prospects of funding for scholars in their doctoral and postdoc-phases. These young academics are to be won over for research projects in Heidelberg. Similarly, the Excellence Initiatives involved wished to strengthen their ties with the international scientific community and explore possibilities for future collaborations.

The AAAS Annual Meeting 2010 had as its theme “Bridging Science and Society”. The wide-ranging symposia, workshops and talks attracted some 5000 visitors. The opportunity to exhibit at the adjoining exposition was used by almost 80 scientific institutions, organisations from science and society, and ministerial delegations. This was the third time that the University of Heidelberg participated at the exposition accompanying the conference.

The team from Heidelberg University was delighted to receive such prominent guests as Prof. Peter Frankenberg, Minister of the Arts, Science and Research in Baden-Württemberg, and Prof. Harald zur Hausen, Nobel Prize winner for medicine in 2008 to their part of the Baden-Württemberg International (BW-I) exhibition booth. As speaker at the joint workshop organised by BW-I with the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Minister Frankenberg gave an introductory talk on “Baden-Württemberg – Scientific Excellence Made in Germany”. Dr. Michael Winckler presented the Graduate School Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences by giving a look at current projects.