The speaker descriptions are being continuously updated here.
Session 1
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner became the President of the German Environment Agency on 1 January 2020. He is an internationally recognized expert on global governance, transformation pathways to sustainability, decarbonization of the global economy, sustainability and digital change, and international cooperation and societal change. Messner was Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn and Co-Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Dr. Volker Strauß earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He gained several years of experience in materials science at UCLA and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, and completed his habilitation in Colloid Chemistry at the University of Potsdam. He now heads the division for "Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, and Substance Testing" at the German Environment Agency (UBA). In this capacity, he is also responsible for the cross-departmental project group "Chemiewende," which focuses on the transformation of the chemical industry in Europe.
Session 2
Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter H. Seeberger, a chemist, was a tenured professor at MIT and ETH Zurich before becoming director at the Max-Planck Institute in Potsdam in 2009. Since 2021, he is in addition a Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and since 2023 the Founding Director of the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) that received initial funding of €1.25 billion. His research spanning topics from engineering to immunology has been documented in >730 journal articles and >60 patent families and was recognized with >40 international awards.
Peter Seeberger supports diamond open access publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is a co-founder of several successful companies.
Session 3
Dr. Katrin Ostertag (Head of Department Sustainability and Infrastructure Systems, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI) is a trained economist who has worked in the field of sustainability and innovation for over 30 years. Her department focuses on sustainability issues in mobility, water, raw materials, the circular economomy and the role of digitalisation / AI in those contexts. Impact assessments of novel solutions are part of this research including environmental and social impacts as well as effects on growth, competitiveness, resilience, innovation capacities and sectoral change.
Break-out Group 3
Dr. Bettina Rechenberg works as Director General of division “Sustainable Production and Products, Waste management” at the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt). She studied biology and has worked at the Umweltbundesamt since 1992 gaining experiences in chemical safety, water protection, sustainable production, resource conservation and material cycles. She is dealing with the analysis of environmental effects linked to raw material extraction, industrial production, consumption and waste management und is searching for sustainable and practicable solutions.
Session 5
Dr. Patrick ten Brink is the Secretary General of the EEB since July 2022, and before that EU Policy Director. He provides political leadership across all the organization's policy areas, oversees the daily management and fundraising of the association. He was the Director of IEEP-Brussels and head of its Green Economy Programme. He has published widely, with books on environmental harmful subsidies, the multiple values of nature, and on voluntary environmental agreements, as well as articles on better regulation, the benefits of EU law, sustainable development, biodiversity policy, transport policy, marine litter, ecological tax reform, green economy, eco-industries and environmental employment, the costs of climate mitigation and EU enlargement.
Closing Remarks
Antje von Broock is an expert in the field of environmental protection and currently Director-General of the Department of Circular Economy, Immission Control and Chemical Safety at the Federal Ministry for the Environment. She holds a Master's degree in Political and Communication Science, which she obtained from universities in Göttingen, Rennes in France, Berlin, and Potsdam. Her professional career is marked by challenging positions that highlight her skills and commitment to environmental issues. She has been the head of the regional office of a Member of the European Parliament and has worked at the organization "Friends of the Earth Germany". Here she started as a consultant for international climate policy, soon headed the climate policy department and finally served as managing director. Ms. von Broock is dedicated to a sustainable and environmentally friendly future. She believes that any conversations that help to understand the perspective and position of another parties are always of great value in order to make progress on the matter and find constructive solutions.