Jan Löwe
Jan Löwe is director of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, which was founded by Max Perutz. Jan originally joined the LMB as a postdoctoral scientist in 1996 and was appointed tenured program leader in 2002. In 2010 he became joint head of the Structural Studies Division and served as deputy
director of the LMB for two years before being appointed director in 2018.
Jan’s research focuses on the bacterial cytoskeleton, which is used to position molecules inside cells during processes such as cell division, and which directs growth of the external cell wall. Using structural biology and biochemical methods, his group is studying cytoskeletal filaments to understand bacterial cell function and growth. They are also exploring the mechanisms of molecular machines, including structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) complexes such as cohesin and condensin. Together with Kim Nasmyth at the University of Oxford, Jan formulated the “ring hypothesis” describing how SMC complexes entrap DNA to facilitate sister chromatid cohesion and loop extrusion.
Jan is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2007. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of Darwin College in Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Structural and Molecular Microbiology at the University of Cambridge
Robin Perutz
Robin Perutz is professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of York, UK. The son of Max and Gisela Perutz, Robin was surrounded by science from an early age and
met many of the stars of structural biology.
As an undergraduate Robin became fascinated by inorganic chemistry. His discoveries of metal complexes of alkanes
and noble gases during his PhD studies under J.J. Turner in Cambridge and Newcastle, UK, are still cited today. Subsequently, Robin worked in Mülheim, Germany; Edinburgh, UK; and Oxford, UK, before joining the University of York in 1983. There, he was promoted to professor of chemistry in 1991 and became a professor emeritus in 2020. Robin studies chemical reactions of compounds of metals stimulated by light to under-stand catalysis and develop solar energy.
Robin is a Fellow of the Royal Society. For many years he has been advocating for women in science and supporting students with disabilities. He also has a long-standing interest
in the human rights of scientists fleeing conflict. He was the Royal Society’s representative on the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies from
2013 to 2023.
Andrea Wulf
Andrea Wulf is a historian and award-winning author of seven acclaimed books. She lectures widely across the world and is a regular on radio and TV in the US, the UK and Germany. She studied design history at the Royal College of Art in London.
Andrea’s book The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World is an international bestseller, -published in 27 languages. The biography won 15 international literary awards, including the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2016 and the 2015 Costa Book Award for Biography in the UK, the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the US, and the Bayerischer Buchpreis 2016 in Germany, as well as awards in China, France and Italy. The Invention of Nature is a New York Times bestseller and was selected as one of its “10 Best Books of 2015.”
In 2022 she published Magnificent Rebels, which was widely praised. She is currently writing about 18th century explorer and revolutionary George Forster. Andrea has written for many newspapers, including The Guardian, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She is a member of PEN America, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute in the US.
Helga Nowotny
Helga Nowotny is professor emerita of science and technology studies at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and founding member and former president of the European Research Council. She holds a PhD in sociology from Columbia University, US, and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna, Austria.
Helga has held teaching and research positions at universities and research institutions in several European countries. She continues to be actively engaged in research and innovation policy. Among others, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin; senior fellow at the School of Transnational Governance, EUI, Florence, Italy; member of the Council IEA de Paris; member of the Austrian Council for Sciences, Technology and Innovation (FORWIT); and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. She received multiple honorary doctorates including from the University of Oxford, UK, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Her latest publications are In AI we Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Polity Press, 2021) and Future Needs Wisdom:
An Intellectual Memoir (CUHK Press, 2024).
Helga is currently working as co-principal investigator of the research project “The Socioscope: A Pioneering Methodology for Understanding Societal Transitions,” supported by the NOMIS Foundation.
Johann Sundermeier
Johann Sundermeier is a recorder player and composer whose work combines traditional performance with beatboxing and live electronics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in recorder performance with Professor Stefan Temmingh at the University of Music Freiburg, Germany, and is now pursuing a master’s degree in composition and music production at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg.
His music has been featured at major events, including the Rudolstadt Festival, Open Recorder Days Amsterdam, Freiburg Jazz Festival and the Pierre Boulez Saal, among many others. As a soloist, he has performed with the Capricornus Consort Basel and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and played the
premiere of Henning Wölk’s Eternity Suite together with the
Atlas Vocal Ensemble. Johann has also composed and produced music for dance productions, including Residuals by the Sticky Trace Company Hamburg under the direction of Uta Engel. His passion for improvisation led to the creation of the duo Breath Beat with Max Gerwien.
A multiple recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium, Johann has also received support from the Klaus Thimm Foundation and YouTube Future Makers. He has drawn inspiration from masterclasses and private lessons with numerous world-class musicians such as Erik Bosgraaf and Dorothee Oberlinger.
