Roberto Viola at the 10th Science Evening of the Hector Fellow Academy

Roberto Viola, Director General DG Connect of the European Commission, will give a welcome address at the 10th Science Evening of the Hector Fellow Academy (HFA) in Düsseldorf on Thursday, July 10, 2025, from 6pm. Registration for the event entitled: “Brain, computer and AI - soon to be indistinguishable?” is still possible. The event will also be livestreamed.

The Hector Fellow Academy's annual science evenings aim to place current scientific issues in a socio-political context. Lectures by renowned speakers from science, politics and business build bridges between the research topics of the Hector Fellows and the central challenges of our time. Discussion rounds promote dialog between science and the public and help to initiate forward-looking discourse.

Two of this year's lectures come from Forschungszentrum Jülich: “How supercomputers make Artificial Intelligence” by Prof. Thomas Lippert (Institute for Advanced Simulation and Jülich Supercomputing Centre) and “Things about brain structure that we still want to learn” (Prof. Katrin Amunts). “The brain as a model for Artificial Intelligence - or vice versa?” is the title of the lecture by Prof. Rainer Goebel from Maastricht University. Judith Elsner, Managing Director of the Hector Fellow Academy, will conclude the official part of the event, which will be moderated by Wolfram Eilenberger, author, philosopher and journalist.

The Evening of Science is being held in cooperation with Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich. Participation in the event is free of charge. The event will be held in German. Simultaneous translation into English will be provided. Further information, registration and programme (German)