First Berlin Science Slam in Cairo

On the occasion of the  “German Weeks” from 17 April to 5 May 2012, the Liaison Office of Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with Technische Universität Berlin organized on 24 April the “First Berlin Science Slam in Cairo” at DAAD. Four doctoral candidates from different Graduate Schools in Berlin presented their research in an entertaining and understandable way. The event was moderated by Dr. Florian Kohstall, director of the Liaison Office of Freie Universität.

Science Slams have become very popular in Germany to promote the career of young scientists outside of classrooms and laboratories. Each presenter had ten minutes to explain his research. The „Slamer“  used many means, including Power Point Presentations, pictures of friends, or asked a volunteer from the audience to come on stage. Two candidates illustrated their scientific question with examples from the social life. For example, Ágnes Cseh, from theBerlin Mathematical School, explained stable marriages with the help of graph theory. OliverSandig, a doctoral student in physics at Freie Universität Berlin, was dressed like an electron to explain the storage capacity of hard disks. Magdalena Steiner, a doctoral student in biology at the Berlin School for Regenerative Therapies illustrated how her research team studied the aging of human skin and how a super protein could prevent this. Sebastian Krackl, a doctoral student in chemistry at the the Cluster of Excellence  "Unifying Concepts in Catalysis"(UNICAT)  explained the reaction of dimers and molecules as: "A Story of Love, Passion and Despair".

More than 130 participants attended the 1. Berlin Science Slam in Cairo. The audience was the jury that judged the presentations on content, clarity and entertainment. Four professors commented on the presentations as well. All presentations were of such high quality that a clear result could not be determined by the first vote. Only in the second vote Ágnes Cseh with her lecture on a stable marriage won the portable shisha. At the reception in the garden competitors and participants had time to talk about their research.

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