Hans Reiter underscored the importance of academic freedom, stressing that it, as well as democracy itself, must not be taken for granted but rather actively upheld and defended. Dr. Mark Grundeken, representing the Young Academy, provided an insightful overview of our activities over the past year.

We also enjoyed an incredibly interesting keynote by Achim Menges on biologically inspired architecture using sustainable materials. And finally 7 prizes were given to outstanding young scienctists from different disciples, ranging from theology to chemistry.