Inaugural ceremony for KIT’s new president, Jan S. Hesthaven
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 29-Apr-2025 21:08 ET (30-Apr-2025 01:08 GMT/UTC)
Professor Jan S. Hesthaven has been President of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since October 1, 2024. Now the official inauguration ceremony has taken place, with over 400 invited guests in attendance. Petra Olschowski, Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science, Research and the Arts, and Professor Michael Kaschke, Chairman of the KIT Supervisory Board, presented Hesthaven with the chain of office at the event, which was held in the Audimax at KIT.
A new scientific study published in the journal Foresight concludes that human civilisation is on the brink of the next ‘giant leap’ in evolution. However, progress could be thwarted by centralised far-right political projects such as the incoming Donald Trump administration.
"Industrial civilisation is facing 'inevitable' decline as it is replaced by what could turn out to be a far more advanced ‘postmaterialist’ civilisation based on distributed superabundant clean energy. The main challenge is that industrial civilisation is facing such rapid decline that this could derail the emergence of a new and superior 'life-cycle' for the human species", commented Dr Nafeez Ahmed, author of the paper, member of The Club of Rome, member of the Earth4All Transformational Economics Commission and Distinguished Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems.