Offspring Magazine - The Podcast (Max Planck PhDNet)

#2-12 - The Life and Career of an Engineer ft. Prof. Johann-Dietrich Wörner

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Episode notes

In this episode, Srinath and Leonie talk to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich “Jan” Wörner, President of the German National Academy for Science and Engineering (Acatech), and former Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA). 

Jan tells his story of the very indirect path that took him from studying Civil Engineering in Darmstadt to his current position.  He discussed various highlights across his career such as a visit to a nuclear plant in Japan, research into earthquake safety, airplane hangars design, and the conception of the Moon Village.

As a former DG of ESA, Jan talks about what Space 4.0 means, and the importance of taking responsibility for cleaning up space junk. At his position at Acatech, Jan also emphasises some of the most important principles when communicating science to politicians, and discusses the advantages of the digital transformation due to the pandemic.

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Intro - Outro music composed by Srinath Ramkumar: https://twitter.com/srinathramkumar

Pre-Intro jingle composed by Gustavo Carrizo: https://www.instagram.com/carrizo.gus

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