
Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius
Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) / Scientific Director of the SILBERSALZ FestivalProf. Dr. Antje Boetius is Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center of Marine and Polar Research; Germany’s national polar research center. She is a deep-sea and polar researcher and an expert of marine biogeochemistry, biological oceanography, deep-sea biology and marine microbial ecology. Her research focuses on the Changing Arctic ecosystem and on extreme habitats of the oceans.
She has participated in almost 50 expeditions on international research vessels and is currently focusing on issues of climate change impacts on the biogeochemistry and biodiversity of the Arctic Ocean.
Antje Boetius has been awarded with the Medaille de la Societe d’Oceanographie de France, the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize of the German Science Foundation, the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council, among many other honors. She is a member of the German National Academy Leopoldina (Section Geology), and of two European academies, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the American Academy of Microbiology. She supports the strategic development of Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD, "Science in Dialogue"), an initiative of the major German scientific associations, where she has been head of the steering committee since 2014. As a nonprofit organization, WiD promotes discussion and exchange about research in Germany.
Members

Prof. Peter Arens
Head of the Department – TV-show „History and Science“, ZDFProf. Peter Arens, born 1961, is head of the department „History and Science“ in ZDF, which includes brands like Terra X, Leschs Kosmos, ZDF History, nano, Scobel and 37°. He was responsable for documentary series like „2057 – Living in the Future“ (2007), „The Germans“ (2008 und 2010), „Saga of Europe“ (2017) or „Journey of mankind“ (2019) about the history of migration. He has published several books, such as about the German Migration (2002) and the Middle Ages (2004). Since 2008 he is leading the degree programm TV Journalism at the Film Academy of Baden Württemberg in Ludwigsburg.

Steve Burns
Founder | EP, Roller Coaster Road ProductionsSteve Burns rejoined Roller Coaster Road Productions as EP at the company he founded in 2011. Burns recently retired as Chief Content Officer for CuriosityStream, a 5-year-old factual SVOD, pay and liner service, now available in 13-million homes worldwide. He continues as Special Advisor to CuriosityStream.
His career spans more than 25 years from National Geographic cinematographer/ producer to EVP of Production and Chief Science Editor for Discovery Networks, including GM of Science Channel, returning to National Geographic as Executive Vice President of Global Content for NGC worldwide. Before CuriosityStream, Burns was a freelance Executive Producer for WNET/ NY's long-running Secrets of the Dead series for PBS, the Public Broadcast System in the U.S.
He has won multiple industry awards, including two Emmys for 5 Years on Mars and Spirit of the Rainforest. His teams have been nominated for two Academy Awards, won two Peabody Awards and well over 200 Emmy nominations, including dozens of wins, most recently Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places in 2017.
Mohamed Soliman Daoud
Science Communication & Development Officer I The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Cedric Engels
Producer | Host | ConsultantCedric Engels produces videos about science, technology and future topics published on his YouTube-Channel Doktor Whatson. With Twentytwo Film he is building his own production company in Cologne and works or customers as ZDF or the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Dr. Erez S. Garty
Head of Science Communications, Weizman Instiute of ScienceHe is one of the organizers of the national science communications conference, the national Darwin day celebrations and various outreach activities.
In addition he is a middle school science teacher for gifted children, he is married to Belky, a father of exceptionally smart kids and a crusader in the war against ignorance and science denial.

Ann-Christin Hornberger
Commissioning Editor, Science and Knowledge, ZDF / ARTEAnn-Christin Hornberger is a Germanist and PR-commissioner. She has been working for the German broadcaster ZDF since 1992. In past years and as one of the first ARTE-commissioners she works for several ARTE slots like travelling formats Entdeckung and Wunderwelten, Zu Tisch and Wissenschaft. The science slot is about 52’ long and broadcasted on Saturday evening. And last but not least, her commissions include a plethora of award-winning science documentaries.

Dr. Patrick Hörl
Founder I General Manager, AUTENTICDr. Patrick Hörl is the founder and Managing Director of the factual entertainment label Autentic GmbH. The company produces and distributes high quality factual shows and series for audiences around the world. Furthermore Hörl is MD of the two factual pay-tv channels Spiegel Geschichte and Spiegel TV Wissen, a joint venture between Autentic and Spiegel TV. Hörl is one of the founders of Vereins Documentary Campus e.V. and serves Chairman of the Board of Campus a pan-european advanced training programme for young filmmakers/aspirants in the fields of documentary film and factual entertainment. Additionally Hörl is member of the Board of Directors of the factual section of Produzentenallianz and of the Board of the World of Congress of Science and Factual Producers.

Patrick Klügel
Public Engagement Manager I Cyber Valley Initiative
Walter Köhler
CEO, Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbHWalter Köhler – Producer, Founder & CEO – launched his production company Terra Mater Factual Studios in 2011. Since then, he has gained international recognition with more than 230 film awards, including an Emmy Award, several Panda Awards at Wildscreen, and Grand Teton Awards at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Köhler’s last industry coup was for his film, The Ivory Game, to be recognized on the Academy Award Best Documentary Feature Shortlist. His latest festival coup was the world premiere of Sea of Shadow at Sundance Festival in January 2019.

Ivvet Modinou
Director, Outreach, Education & Engagement I Simons FoundationPreviously, at the British Science Association, she was the Head of Engagement overseeing their public programmes, including the British Science Festival and building their national community engagement portfolio. She also led the UK Science Festivals Network; a community of practice of over 40 independent science festivals across the country.
She spent 10 years working at the Natural History Museum, leading the development and implementation of the Museum’s science communication programme.
Ivvet has an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London, and she has developed and delivered science communication training for researchers around the world. She has also been a reporter for the BBC World Service and a sub-editor at The Times. In her spare time, she has co-founded music discovery website richseam.com

Louis Savy
Founder I Festival Director, SCI-FI-LONDONLouis Savy is the founder and festival director of the London Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film, better known as SCI-FI-London. Louis champions creators to blend science fact and fiction for both entertainment and education, seeing the medium of film as a simple and accessible way to put across hard scientific concepts and look at possible outcomes from new developments. He has produced several films and also runs a major filmmaking competition as part of the festival, tasking people to create original science fiction films in just a weekend.

Caroline Wichmann
Head of Department Press and Public Relations, Leopoldina - German National Academy of SciencesCaroline Wichmann is the spokesperson and Director of the Department of Press and Public Relations at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She has been active in science management and science communication for more than 20 years. After graduating in public administration, political science, and cultural affairs management she worked on numerous French-German cultural exchange projects and most recently as the spokesperson for the „Wissenschaft im Dialog“ Initiative (Science in Dialogue). In 2011 and 2015 Caroline Wichmann was elected German Science Press Spokesperson of the Year.