Young Academy membership has enabled me to try to make a concrete impact on questions that I care about. For instance, I think climate sustainability in the academic system is really important. Through my membership in the German Young Academy, which began in 2018, I became the speaker of a working group on climate sustainability in the academic system of the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. We are currently working together on concrete recommendations on how the academic system can adopt more sustainable practices. I’ve also helped, for example, to draw up a statement that calls on researchers to promote sustainability in academia through the reduction of travel. And so my membership of the German Young Academy has hopefully enabled me to start making a very concrete impact on issues that I care about.
A project like that is not something I’d normally have had much chance to contribute to in my day job as an associate professor in theoretical physics at the University of Southern Denmark.
2022 marks my second year as a board member of the German Young Academy and I’ve also been elected as the speaker of the board.
Young Academy membership has benefited me in a number of different ways, but most of all it’s been incredibly inspiring to meet enthusiastic and interesting researchers from a broad range of disciplines.