The event is also the opening conference of the new Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. Following the opening by Leopoldina President Gerald Haug, the President of the Max Planck Society Patrick Cramer, Jürgen Renn, Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, and Thomas Lengauer, Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken/Germany, the event will focus on humanity’s impact on the Earth system, as well as the question as to how limited knowledge on this subject is.
Key figures in the Anthropocene and their scope of action will be introduced and discussed over the next days of the conference. Experts from the natural and social sciences and the humanities will speak about economic, political and social control mechanisms as well as the responsibility of the individual. Speakers will include marine researcher Antje Boetius, biologist Katrin Böhning‐Gaese, historian Dipesh Chakrabarty (virtual), system ecologist Johan Rockström, climatologist Jochem Marotzke, chemist and Vice-President of the Leopoldina Robert Schlögl and physicist Ricarda Winkelmann, Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology.
As part of the symposium, cultural historian Andrea Wulf will speak about the natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt in a public lecture on Monday evening. The English-language lecture “The Invention of Nature – Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” will begin at 7.30 p.m. at the Volkshaus Jena (Carl-Zeiss-Platz 15).
The conference is the third event in the “Crossing Boundaries in Science” (CBiS) series by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The objective of the series is to discuss, at an early stage, the research areas which are particularly dependent on interdisciplinary cooperation. This event is open to all interested parties and will also be livestreamed. The conference will take place in English.