The Festival
The International Science Festival – Geist Heidelberg is aimed at the general public and brings greats of national and international research to Heidelberg every year.
Our mission
The DAI Heidelberg’s Science Festival brings groundbreaking and current scientific findings out of the laboratories and into the hands of interested citizens. It stands for scientific enlightenment and education, diversity of research and a democratically engaged society and is the European answer to the New York World Science Festival.
Our topics
Over the course of ten weeks, renowned scientists, Nobel laureates, world-renowned authors, and talented young researchers discuss the pressing issues of our time with an audience of interested laypeople and experts, including evolutionary research, cosmology, empathy and emotions, biology, medicine, neurology, and digitization, as well as the connections between science and society.
In 2011, the International Science Festival – Geist Heidelberg was founded with the idea of “overcoming the popular separation of the brain hemispheres and reconciling them in creativity.” (Jakob Köllhofer, Festival Director and Program Director of DAI Heidelberg).
Our guests
With a top-notch lineup, the festival has attracted thousands of interested people from Germany and abroad to Heidelberg each year for more than a decade to share amazing and groundbreaking scientific discoveries.
Among the great guests in recent years are Nobel Laureates Sir Richard Roberts, Reinhard Genzel, Sir Paul Nurse, William Phillips, Shirin Ebadi, Aaron Ciechanover, Ben Feringa, John C. Mather, Kip Thorne, and beyond, the Dalai Lama, Marina Gedeck, Lawrence Maxwell Krauss, Lisa Randall, Eric Kandel, Noam Chomsky, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Vinton Cerf, Richard Dawkins, and many more!
Take a look at our festival program of the last years here.
On our YouTube channel you will find numerous events to watch at any time.
The Organizer DAI Heidelberg
The German-American Institute (DAI) Heidelberg is one of the most important cultural institutions in the region, with a diverse program. As a “place of the free spirit”, the central themes of science, literature and politics form the pillars of the institution. About half a million people visit the DAI’s programs each year. Lectures and readings, exhibitions, concerts and theater performances, seminars and conferences make up the cultural program. The DAI is an important center for intercultural engagement and intellectual exchange in Heidelberg.
