This year, 20 top scientists will once again present their breakthroughs at the international Falling Walls Conference in Berlin on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. An up-to-date list of confirmed speakers can be found here.
Millions of tiny, single-celled organisms inhabit our bodies. There are thousands of different species in these microbiological colonies in the intestine, mouth and on the skin and they exert an enormous and often underestimated impact on our health. Robert Knight from the University of California in San Diego is exploring this delicate interplay between man and microbiome and is working on a global gene map of these microbes in order to better understand the essential role that the smallest of creatures play on our planet.
Neil Gershenfeld is considered one of the pioneers of the ‘maker’ movement, which aims to harness the potential of new technologies in order to democratise manufacturing. The idea is to enable everyone to produce tangible objects using technology such as 3D printers and freely available blueprints. As the Director of the Center of Bits and Atoms at MIT in Boston, he is working with an interdisciplinary team to break down the boundaries between the digital and the physical world.
The French economist Hélène Rey is currently researching the organisation of the international financial system, the consequences of globalised trade and the classification of financial crises at the London Business School. Her theses on massive international capital flows and the consequences that their changes can have on economies challenge established paradigms and, according to The Economist, make her “the economist to watch in 2016”.
The Falling Walls Conference was first held in 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and has now developed into a highly acclaimed platform for international research. The conference is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Berlin Senate and numerous other academic institutions, foundations and companies.
