"Sustainability, Climate, and what Diversity has got to do with it"

The Max Planck Symposium is a intensive, two-day Career Conference serving as a platform to connect international Max Planck Alumni and Max Planck Early Career Researchers of all disciplines and Institutes.

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Note to alumns, especially when travelling from abroad: We have a limited number of travel grants available to all alumns* travelling from abroad. If you choose to apply for a travel grant during registration, we suggest to spend extra care on filling out the motivational questionaire. If you need an invitation letter for your visa application, please contact Birgit Adam directly.

Note to participants travelling with children: We highly enourage you to make use of our on-site daytime childcare. After you've checked the corresponding box during registration we will get in contact with you to arrange the details.

There is no registration fee.

* To include all genders and facilitate transparent communication, alumni and alumnae will be referred to as alumns, henceforth and throughout the conference.

Programme (preliminary)

Please note that the programme is constantly updated as speakers are confirmed. Please check last year's programme for reference.

Sunday, 1^st September 2019

Arrival, MPAA matters and Welcome Dinner

13.00 | Registration Desk opens (Harnack-Lobby)

12.30 - 18.00 | Satellite: Assembly of the MPAA (for MPAA members only)

12.30 - 14.00 | Light Lunch for the Assembly Members (Lobby)

14.00 - 15.30 | Assembly of the MPAA (open to all MPAA members) (Meitner Saal)

14.00 - 15.30 | General Meeting of all Max Planck Alumni Ambassadors, Room II tba

15.30 - 16.00 | Presentation of MPAA Ambassador's Program to the Assembly (Meitner Saal)

16.00 - 18.00 | Assembly of the MPAA (only delegates) (Meitner Saal)

16.00 - 18.00 | Meeting of all Max Planck Alumni Ambassadors, Room II tba

16.00 - 18.00 | City Tours through Dahlem (Guided Tour or App Tour)

18.30 - 19.00 | Reception with Drinks and Welcome (Harnack-Lobby)

19.00 | Welcome Dinner (Harnack House Restaurant and Garden)

Monday, 2^nd September 2019

Careers -- Keynotes and Panel

9.00 - 10.00 | Registration (Harnack-Lobby)

10.00 - 10.30 | Opening and Welcoming Address (Goethe-Saal)

10.30 - 11.00 | Sigourney Luz

"The Climate Change Challenge – a Scicomm perspective"

My talk will likely be split up into two parts. Firstly, on the IPCC and Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) – mostly for background –, and then on communicating science and climate science.

11.00 - 11.30 | Andi Gros
"Building Data Products for Social Good"

11.30 - 12.00 | Coffee Break

12.00 - 12.30 | Jonas Binding
"How self-driving taxis will enable more sustainable city life"

12.30 - 13.00 | Theofanis Karaletsos
"From Researching Uncertainty To Smarter Markets"

13.00 - 13.30 | Olga Dubey (CEO at AgroSustain)

13.30 - 15.00 | Lunch (Harnack House Garden and Restaurant)

15.00 - 15.30 | Kamalanetra A. C. Hung

"Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and gender equality. The IN_Visible Project"

IN_VISIBLE is an interactive, bottom-up, visualization tool and open mapping prototype that monitors the changing landscape of access, inclusion, and exclusion from public spaces, services and private institutions for transgender communities. The first mapping of the series will monitor which higher education institutions have inclusive gender policies and trained staff that ensure rights and protections. The project aims to sensitize institutions, and promote respect for difference and diversity in educational spaces. Science, Technology and Innovation combined can substantially accelerate the implementation of the SDGs by 2030. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations. The term “trans*” describes all people that do not or just sometimes identify with their assigned gender at birth.

15.30 - 16.00 | Laura Knogler
"Transforming Research into Change: A Personal and Professional Perspective"

16.00 - 16.00 | Martina Sitt
"Discover, Discuss, Decide – my work as mentor to Early Career Researchers"

16.30 - 17.00 | Coffee Break (Harnack-Lobby)

17.00 - 18.00 | Panel Discussion with Kamalenetra A. C. Hung, Andi Gros, Olga Dubey, and Theofanis Karaletsos moderated by Conny Czymoch

18.00 - 22.00 | Dinner, Drinks and Archery (Harnack House Garden and Restaurant)

Tuesday, 3^rd September 2019

Engagement – Keynotes and Workshops

9.00 - 10.00 | Registration (Harnack-Lobby)

10.00 - 10.30 | Sandra Schöttner
"Protecting marine biodiversity – The challenges and joys of addressing global governance gaps"

10.30 - 11.00 | Ali Al-Sawalmih
"Sustainable Management of Water, Energy, and Environment in Developing Countries"

11.00 - 11.30 | Coffee Break

11.30 - 12.00 | Konstanze Steiner

"Aotearoa – environmental research in a land down under"

New Zealand (Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud) is well known for its unique landscapes and biodiversity. Working as an international early career scientist at the Cawthron Institute – New Zealand’s largest independent science organization - provides fascinating challenges and great opportunities to develop and apply practical science within this unique environment. Areas of focus include aquaculture research, marine and freshwater resource management, food safety and quality, algal technologies, biosecurity and analytical testing. In this talk, selected topics - including aquaculture research, biosecurity and freshwater lake health over the past 1,000 years - will be presented as examples of current challenges and research interests in New Zealand.

12.00 - 12.30 | Gabriela Peyrera
"Responsible agriculture for the triple bottom line"

12.30 - 14.00 | Lunch (Harnack House Garden and Restaurant)

14.00 - 15.30 | Workshop SESSION I

Amal Kasry
"The interface between intellectual property and diversity" Meitner-Saal

Jakob Schweizer
"Change management for sustainability: How to get everyone on board" Goethe-Saal

Kathy Edersheim and Drago Milovanovich

"Expertise and Enthusiasm - A workshop on public speaking on technical subjects for a non-technical audience"

(Limited to 15 people) Warburg-Saal

Get practical advice on presentation preparation then practice your presentation and get feedback to improve your style. Prepare a 5 minute mock presentation of your choice (slides are plus, but not a prerequisite!) Attendance is limited to 15 people so sign up now by contacting Kathy Edersheim at Kathy.edersheim@impactrics.com.

Richard Schubert
"Comparative Alumnistics" Mozart-Saal

Tina Persson (Career Coach)
"Emphasizing the importance of diversity in sustainable careers" Ruska-Saal

Ritu Mishra

"Impact of Women empowerment in sustainable development; Lessons from India"  Lynen-Saal

Women; the real educator of coming generation and end user of energy technologies in house hold the critical key in balanced societal development. A significant increase in women education in India in past 50 years and its effect on well being of Indian society teaches us many lessons. It unveils the relevance and impact of women empowerment in improving life quality of society and environment at large. Analysing and highlighting those useful lessons to a larger diverse global gathering would certainly fill the gaps in our knowledge. It will also inspire us to apply those success stories in other arena of life and achieving our remaining goals of sustainable development.

15.30 - 16.00 | Coffee Break

16.00 - 17.30 | Workshop SESSION II

Kamalanetra A. C. Hung, Erica McGale and René_ Rain Hornstein (Sigmund Freud PrivatUniversität Berlin, Research Project Leader on Internalised Trans*phobia and Community Empowerment)

"Internalized Oppression and Diversity in Academia"

Internalized oppression affects academics with marginalized identities as well as their allies who want to act in solidarity with them. In order to address the effects of different dimensions of oppression on the participation of marginalized people in academia, academic institutions need to create awareness and language for the mechanisms and effects of oppression. One of these being internalized oppression. René_ Rain Hornstein is a psychologist and researcher who studies internalized oppression (especially within the trans* and homosexual communities) as well as working on how to make academic institutions more inclusive for trans*, non-binary and intersex people. This workshop tries to share some central concepts and vocabulary around, and promote discussion about, internalized oppression and inclusive academic institutions.

Isabell Tunn (Cradle to Cradle e.V.) und Johannes Stiglmair (TRNSFRM)
„Cradle to Cradle - A circular economy concept”  Ruska-Saal

Jorge Saturno, Faten Attig-Bahar and Bell Kuei-Hua Hsu

"Sustainability and air quality. Interactive negotiation role-play"

(Workshop announcement) Mozart-Saal

YESS community (Young Earth System Scientists community)

Eliza Lvova and Kathy Edersheim

"MPAA Reads: Everybody Lies by Seth Stevens-Davidowitz "

Book discussion, Warburg Saal

Join a discussion of this “…whirlwind tour of the modern human psyche using search data as its guide…” according to the Economist. Please read the book before the session to ensure we have a good conversation about why this information is important now.

Prateek Mahalwar

"Sustainable Start-Up Careers" Lynen-Saal

18.30 - 19.00 | Reception at Planck Lobby

19.00 - 19.30 | Closing Ceremony

19.30 - 21.00 | Cultural Running Dinner and Dance Off

Wednesday, 4^th September 2019

Departure