Keynote Lectures
Keynote 1: Scientific Entrepreneurship: The lasting transfer of technology
Prof. Ralf Huss, Managing Director Innovation and Start-up Center for Biotechnology, Martinsried
Scientific breakthroughs have the power to change lives—but only if they make the journey from the laboratory to society.
In his keynote, Prof. Dr. Ralf Huss will explore how entrepreneurship transforms scientific discoveries into innovations that create real-world impact.
Drawing on his experience at the interface of research, biotechnology, and innovation management, he will provide insights into the opportunities and challenges of technology transfer, venture creation, and collaboration across academia and industry. The talk will highlight why entrepreneurial thinking is becoming an essential skill for the next generation of researchers and how science can drive sustainable economic and societal value.
Ralf Huss, MD, PhD, is Managing Director and CEO of BioM Biotech Cluster Development GmbH in Martinsried near Munich and spokesperson for the Bavarian Biotechnology Cluster. A board-certified pathologist with extensive experience in academia, the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, and biotechnology, Dr. Huss has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career. He has also been actively involved in entrepreneurship as a co-founder of several early-stage life science companies.
Before taking on his current role at BioM, Professor Huss was the founding Director of the Institute of Digital Medicine (IDM) and Professor of Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics at Augsburg University Hospital, Germany.
Keynote 2.1: “Why’s”, „How’s“ and „Where’s“ of a Scientific Journey
Prof. Dr. Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla, Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES), Helmholtz Munich and LMU Munich
I will discuss my experience throughout making and implementing my own choices in science, the ‘Wheres’, “ Hows” and “Whys” of the paths we take, weighing risks and decision-making of each step. I will complement this experience by embarking in an interactive discussion on what I view as key qualities for doing science while growing as a person and professional individual, being mentored and helped by others and mentoring and helping others. Through this discussion, I will encourage participants to reflect on their own experiences of learning, rewarding and challenging periods and how these have shaped them as opportunities for personal and professional growth. The goal is to provide Doctoral students with a solid framework, based on personal experiences, to help them recognise, articulate and confidently leverage the transferable skills they acquire during their PhD for their future careers.
Keynote 2.2: Crafting the PhD
Dr. Isolde von Bülow, GraduateCenterLMU
Doctoral journeys offer unique opportunities for intellectual, professional and personal growth, yet they are also shaped by uncertainty, changing priorities and unforeseen challenges. Empowerment during the PhD means recognising that, while not everything can be controlled, doctoral researchers have agency in shaping important aspects of their experience and development.
In this talk, I will explore the concept of "Crafting my PhD" and discuss how doctoral researchers can empower themselves by clarifying goals and expectations, anticipating common challenges, building supportive networks, and regularly reflecting on and adjusting their course as they grow. Rather than striving for a "perfect" PhD experience, empowerment involves making intentional choices and developing strategies to navigate complexity and uncertainty.
The aim is to provide doctoral researchers with a practical framework for empowerment, self-leadership and intentional development throughout their PhD and beyond.
Dr Isolde von Bülow is a biologist and former Director of the GraduateCenterLMU, the central unit for doctoral education at LMU Munich, a position she held from 2007 to 2026. Following a career in research and research management, she led the strategic development of doctoral education, quality assurance, and innovative qualification programmes for early career researchers. She has extensive international experience through her work with the European University Alliance EUGLOH, the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the European Commission, and the Karolinska Institutet. Today, she supports universities and research organisations as a trainer, consultant, systemic coach and mediator.
Keynote 3: Human-AI Collaboration
Prof. Frauke Kreuter, Chair of Statistics and Data Science, LMU Munich and University of Maryland
As AI enters everyday work, a new task falls to almost everyone: judging what an AI produces. People choose between outputs, flag errors, and correct suggestions, and these judgments quietly shape how the systems learn and behave. This keynote argues that evaluating AI is itself a skill, one that most people now exercise daily without ever being trained for it.
Survey methodology has studied the human side of this task for decades. Who chooses to respond, how a question is framed, and the attitudes a person brings all shape the judgments they give. Recent evidence shows the same forces at work when people review AI: a person's prior stance toward the technology predicts how reliably they catch its mistakes, and small changes in how a task is designed change whether they bother to correct it at all.
For a future workforce, this reframes what "AI literacy" should mean. Beyond prompting and tool use, people need the competence to evaluate AI critically, to recognize their own biases as reviewers, and to understand that their feedback teaches the system. Organizations, in turn, need to design review processes that draw on diverse evaluators and account for how humans actually behave. Building these skills is what will make human-AI collaboration trustworthy rather than merely fast.