Good to be in Halle, great to join AGYA

In our annual meeting (this time in person), we met in Halle (Saale), Germany, between the 13-17 of March 2023. I was just elected into AGYA (the Arab Germany Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities) ca. 6 months earlier. In Halle, we were hosted at German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina which is the national academy in Germany. And what a location, and what a beautiful city, Halle. 

AGYA itself is hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) in Berlin. BBAW is one of the oldest science academies in Germany (founded in 1700). 

AGYA members are excellent young scientists from a variety of disciplines. AGYA active membership is carried out in a highly competitive process each year. The membership is for five years, with life-long membership in the Alumni-Network of AGYA afterwards. AGYA provides support for projects, networking and dissemination activities of its members with a generous support of the Federal Government of German. 

In Halle, we had very fruitful exchange within the working groups. We discussed several projects, meeting plans and outreach activities. Some of the projects I was most interested in were green hydrogen and issues related water in the Middle East. 

We had also quite interesting panel debates and visits. Here some memorable highlights:

•  We discussed academy life – e.g., in AGYA or the sister academies of GYA or die Junge Akademie. It seems that young academies are offering much for science. Young and excellent researchers with leadership potential get a “push” to explore more, and go beyond their comfort zones. 
• Life is not easy for young academics. Expectations, engagement, job instability and do not forget family. What to do? You do your best. Work on time management, optimize for productivity, and some colleagues suggested the use of AI to write generic emails. Interesting. 
• Climate change is on the agenda – for us all. Global environmental challenges have apparently reached every discipline, and this is quite interesting for me to witness. 
• In the Picasso exhibition of the Art Museum in Halle, I discovered that he sometimes used to write with no punctuation, and by combining Spanish and French – to let creativity flow. Also interesting. 

Picture below from Ziegelwiese Halle (Saale), Germany. It is captured during a high flood. A good reminder of climate change. 

Photo by Christian Jung on Unsplash