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After Claudia Kleinert completed her training as a bank clerk in 1990 and worked at a Cologne-based bank for three years, she began studying business administration in 1994 and graduated in 1998. While still a student, the aspiring presenter topped up her finances as a program presenter at WDR. In 1996, Claudia Kleinert presented the weather show on “Wetter und Reise TV” and the n-tv travel magazine, followed later by the WDR cooking program “Kleinert kulinarisch” was added. When the weather forecasts for ARD came from Switzerland in 2002, Jörg Switzerland, Jörg Kachelmann brought the media-savvy businesswoman into the sales management of Meteomedia AG/Switzerland. Claudia Kleinert later took over the management of Meteomedia AG. In with Jörg Kachelmann, she presented “Das Wetter im Ersten” and “Wetter nach “Weather after the Tagesthemen”. From 2012 to 2019, “Wetter im Ersten” was broadcast before the Tagesschau and in the Tagesthemen was produced in the Bavaria Filmstudios/Munich. From 2020, the production will find a new home at the ARD Weather Competence Center at Hessischer Rundfunk will find a new home. To date, Claudia Kleinert has alternated with Sven Plöger, Karsten Schwanke and Donald Becker to present the weather programs of ARD and the affiliated public broadcasters. public broadcasters. Claudia Kleinert has also been presenting events for business and financial and financial companies, from galas and award ceremonies to trade fair events to summits and conferences in German and English. She conducts employee training sessions in a results-oriented and entertaining manner, management training courses and panel discussions. Claudia Kleinert is also in demand as a business coach and key note speaker on the topics of “climate change” and “communication and impact training”. Ambassador for Kindernothilfe Ambassador for Lebenshilfe NRW Ambassador for Save the Children Since March 2023, Claudia Kleinert has been the recipient of the NRW Order of Merit.

Hi, we are PopChorn! Our choir was originally founded as a private neighborhood choir in the Frankenberger Viertel. In the meantime, however, numerous members from all over Aachen and the surrounding area also sing with us, who make the journey for the nice, relaxed atmosphere and the casual but not indiscriminate character of this choir. At the moment we are about 50 singers. Our repertoire consists of pop songs from 1950 to the present day, which are often arranged especially for us by our choirmaster Ina Hagenau. The special thing about our choir is that anyone can sing with us, with or without experience, and we have a lot of fun growing together with new challenges.

Matthias Wessling has been Vice Rector for Transfer at RWTH Aachen University since 2018. He has also headed the Chair of Chemical Process Engineering (AVT.CVT) at RWTH Aachen University since 2010.

Johannes Riegger has been in charge of data analysis for Borussia Mönchengladbach's licensed team since 2019. Immediately after studying sports science with a non-specialist focus on mathematics and computer science at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, he started as the first data analyst in the sports department at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Over the past five years, he has succeeded in expanding the area of data analysis in sport at Borussia into a team of four, with the core topics of match analysis, scouting, athletics and the NLZ. As an integral part of the licensed team, Johannes Riegger tries to use his passion for soccer and data to provide faster, better information in order to ultimately make better decisions in many areas of sport.

Andreas Beck was born on March 13, 1987, in Kemerow, formerly part of the Soviet Union, and relocated with his family to Aalen-Wasseralfingen, Germany, in 1990. He discovered his passion for soccer as a child and joined the junior division of the Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 2000. Beck made his debut in a Bundesliga game in 2006. On July 1, 2006, he received a four-year contract as a professional player at VfB Stuttgart and made four Bundesliga appearances during the 2006/07 season. As such, he was part of the Stuttgart squad that won the league. On February 21, 2007, Beck played his first game for the German U-21 national team against Italy, having previously played three games each for the U18 and U19 and four games for the U20 of the DFB. On July 4, 2008, he transferred from VfB Stuttgart to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, which had just been promoted to the Bundesliga. He immediately became a regular starter, helped the club win the fall championship, and played 30 league games in his first season for Hoffenheim. In 2010, he became the youngest captain in the Bundesliga and went on to lead Hoffenheim for five seasons. On February 5, 2009, Andreas Beck was called up for the first time by national coach Joachim Löw to the German national team and played his first international match six days later in Düsseldorf against Norway. On March 28, he played in the World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein, making him the first Hoffenheim player to be fielded for Germany in a competitive match. His greatest international success was winning the 2009 U-21 European Championship in Sweden under national coach Horst Hrubesch. Beck’s decisive goal to make it 1-0 against Italy opened the way for Germany to win 4-0 against England in the final. Beck played a total of nine games for the senior national team, the last of which was in November 2010. For the 2015/16 season, Andreas Beck transferred to the Turkish first division club Beşiktaş Istanbul. With Beşiktaş, he won the league twice in a row. In 2017, he returned to VfB Stuttgart and was part of his team’s starting lineup. On the 30th matchday of the season, Andreas Beck tore his right anterior cruciate ligament, which meant the end of the season for him. After his comeback, the defender played 24 league games for Stuttgart in the 2018/19 season but missed the last two games of the season and the relegation play-offs against Union Berlin due to injury, and the club was relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga. In July 2019, the defender signed a three-year contract with KAS Eupen in the Belgian Division 1A. In his first season, shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Beck participated in 27 of 29 possible league games for Eupen. Andreas Beck officially ended his career as a professional soccer player in December 2022 after 17 years as a professional and over 500 competitive games.

Maureen Kulanthavadivel-Lomb studied dance at the Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Following her studies, she started her international dance career, dancing in pieces by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Tony Adigun, among others. At the same time, she began to devote herself to science and is pursuing her doctorate in psychology. Back in her hometown of Aachen, she is mainly concerned with creating new structures as well as refreshing and uniting the local dance landscape. Her working method is interdisciplinary and located at the interface between science and art. From here she has the vision to open dance to the digital space and to re-establish it as its own form of communication at the city theater. With young and innovative ideas, Maureen turns artistic engagement into a unique experience that speaks to the audience in a personal way.

Luca Swieter has been one of the most sought-after slam poets in the German-speaking world for over ten years. She is a multiple participant in the German-speaking under 20 and over 20 championships and a finalist in the North Rhine-Westphalian poetry slam championships. In Cologne, she hosts the biggest monthly poetry slam ReimGold.

Marina Weisband – born in Ukraine – is a licensed psychologist and expert in digital participation and education. She served as the political director of the German Pirate Party from 2011 to 2012, where she was responsible for opinion formation within the party and its external representation. She is now active with the Green Party, focusing on digitization and education. From 2020 to 2022, she co-chaired the digitalization association D64 e.V. She is the author of several books, including “Wir nennen es Politik - Ideen für eine Zeitgemäße Demokratie” (2013, Tropen), “Frag uns doch - Ein Jude und eine Jüdin erzählen aus ihrem Leben” (2020, Fischer, co-authored with Eliyah Havemann) and “Was uns durch die Krise trägt” (2023, wbg, co-authored with Frido Mann) – and frequently speaks at events and in media about her work and topics such as political participation, digital society, media dynamics, and crises. Weisband’s interests extend to the arts – she translates poetry and embroiders expletives as part of her creative projects. Since 2014, Marina Weisband has dedicated herself full-time to the aula project – now aula gGmbH, which promotes political education and liquid-democratic participation among young people in their schools and extracurricular organizations (https://www.aula.de/). She also has a regular radio segment on Deutschlandfunk and provides advice on various aspects of digital change and democracy.

Ulf Buermeyer is co-founder & board member of Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Freedom Rights Society, GFF), a Berlin-based non-profit and non-governmental organization that protects human and civil rights by means of impact litigation. Together with journalist Philip Banse he hosts one of Germany’s most successful weekly podcasts on politics, “Lage der Nation” (State of the Nation). The show reaches about 500.000 listeners per episode, almost one million people tune in at least once a month. He is currently on leave from his position as a tenured judge at the Berlin Superior Court. He will resign from this role effective August 1, 2024, to pursue a career as a journalist with “Lage der Nation”. Judge Buermeyer’s work as a legal scholar focuses on matters of Constitutional Law as well as Criminal Law (including Criminal Procedure & Prison Law). He served as law clerk at both the German Federal Constitutional Court as well as the Constitutional Court of the Federal State of Berlin. Ulf Buermeyer is a fellow of the Centre for Internet and Human Rights (CIHR) at Europa-Universität Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder) und lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin’s Law Department. He obtained a doctoral degree (Dr. iur.) from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt/Main with a thesis on “Informational Self-Determination and Effective Judicial Review in Correctional Institutions”. 2013/2014 he was on leave to obtain a master’s degree (LL.M.) at Columbia Law School, New York City.

Dr. Domenica Dreyer-Plum is currently working on her habilitation thesis on the legal culture of the EU while teaching political science at the Institute for Political Science (IPW) at RWTH Aachen University. Her academic journey includes a doctorate from the University of Bonn, where she focused on border and asylum policy. Her studies, research, and teaching have spanned prestigious institutions including the universities of Cambridge, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Yale, Paris, and Aachen. Her research interests center on the history of European integration, the EU’s strategies for managing crises, and the accompanying discourses and narratives.

Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz). Professor at the Chemistry Department, University of Carabobo, Venezuela. Guest Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim, Germany. Lecturer at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mannheim, Germany. Senior Research Fellow at the Integrative Cell Biology Laboratory, Durham University, United Kingdom. Visiting Lecturer at ENSAT (Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Toulouse) Toulouse, France. Among some of the administrative roles at the Univ. Carabobo were: Head of the Graduate Students Office (2004–-05), Head of the Faculty Research Office (2005-–07), and Head of the Chemistry Department (2007–-2009). Since 2012, Founder and Director of the Environmental, Biology and Chemistry Research Centre. Main research focus is enzyme biotechnology and protein characterization through electrophoretic and zymographic methods. Philipp Schwartz Initiative Fellow at the Hochschule Mannheim, Germany, 2017–-2020. 2020-–2024 Education Manager, Collaboration Lead, and Team Lead at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, (EIT-Health, Germany). Since March 2024, appointed as Professor for Bioengineering at the Technische Hochschule Deggendorf.

Frank Albrecht is Head of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative and Academic Freedom Division at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Before setting up the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, in which he has been involved since 2015, he worked for the Humboldt Foundation in the areas of strategic planning and in the regional department for North America, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Prior to that, he worked for a consultancy firm in the UK, among others.

Since 2018, Prof. Dr Verena Nitsch is the Director of the Institute of Industrial Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Her research focuses on human-technology interaction in highly automated work systems. She serves as Vice President of the German Society for Work Science, Chair of the Professional Standards and Education Committee of the International Ergonomics Association, and is spokesperson for the Competence Center for Gainful Employment in Industry 4.0 (AKzentE4.0). Prof. Nitsch has extensively explored ethical issues in Dual Use research, notably as a member of the ethics committees at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics, as well as the Bundeswehr University Munich. Since 2022, she is Chair of the cross-faculty Ethics Committee at RWTH Aachen University.

Böschen, Stefan, Dr. phil. Dipl.-Ing. Professor for Society and Technology at the Human Technology Center (HumTec) RWTH Aachen University. Spokesperson of HumTec and Co-Director of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Cultures of Research”. Member of acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering. Member of the working-group “interdisciplinary science studies” at Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften. Prior to this senior research scientist and group leader for the area “knowledge society and knowledge politics“ at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at KIT. Training in Chemical Engineering (Diploma), PhD and Habilitation in Sociology. Special interests: sociology of science and technology, risk research, technology assessment, theory of modern societies.

Lukas Moll grew up in Aachen and has been working as a visual artist since 2015. He is living in Cologne since 2021. In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions and art fairs in Aachen, Cologne, Koblenz and Munich, he has also gained his first international experience in the Netherlands. In his artistic work, he focuses on the representation of queer themes and deals with the meaning of identity and the experiences of queer people in society. To strengthen the visibility of queer people in art, he founded an online platform for queer artists in 2024.

Betül Hisim is the author of the book "2.0.5.0." and is currently studying for a master's degree in sociology at RWTH Aachen University. In addition to her studies, she works as a research assistant at the WZL Aachen in the Human Technology Interaction research group. Since her bachelor's degree, her focus has been on artificial intelligence and technology assessment.

Sven Bliedung von der Heide is an experienced expert in the computer graphics and film industry and CEO of Volucap, the first commercial volumetric studio in Germany. He has established himself as an innovator in the field of AI and film and is shaping the future of the film industry with his focus on immersive media and projects such as “The Matrix Resurrections” and “Marvel's The Avengers”.

Jana Forkel initially wanted to become a linguist, as she has always been fascinated by language, and decided to study for a Bachelor's degree in Media Studies and English in Erlangen. “But the closer I got to graduation, the clearer it became: I actually want to write screenplays, because they contain everything that excites me about language - dialog, a mixture of fantasy and technical language and the visual aspect that language always carries with it.” She moved to Hamburg and studied film at the Hamburg Media School (HMS), specializing in screenwriting. Today she is a freelance screenwriter and works both alone and together in her screenwriting collective “Fassung Drei”. Her debut series “Angemessen Angry” will be released on RTL+ on 25 November 2024.

The actress Luise Befort is known for her leading roles in the series “Wir sind die Welle” (Netflix) and “Club der roten Bänder”. She appeared on stage as a child, including in the musical “Les Misérables”, and made her film debut in 2005. In 2020, she was honored with the Jupiter Award for Best National Actress. In addition to her acting career, she is actively committed to sustainability, is an ambassador for the Green Actors Lounge and works with Greenpeace. She was most recently seen in the Danish series “Oxen”. Between November 4 and 8, 2024 (the exact date has not yet been set), she will celebrate the opening of the immersive virtual reality film “Aufwind”, in which she plays the lead role of pilot Charlotte Möhring - a project on which she has already collaborated with talk show guest Sven Bliedung von der Heide.