Patrick Cramer

Will we be able to develop alternative energy sources and thus avert the climate catastrophe? Will our democracies be able to meet the challenges posed by new forms of communication and artificial intelligence? Will we be able to provide medical care for an ageing society?

In his search for answers to these and many other ‘questions of the future’, Patrick Cramer visited the 84 institutes of the Max Planck Society before taking over its presidency. He met passionate researchers and got to know future worlds that are only just emerging in their minds. From astronomy and climate research to biomedicine, artificial intelligence and energy research – Cramer takes us into the engine rooms of research and provides exclusive insights into the science of tomorrow.

Patrick Cramer has been President of the Max Planck Society since 2023. He received his doctorate in chemistry in Heidelberg and habilitated at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he was later also appointed Professor of Biochemistry and Head of the Gene Center. In 2014, he was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, where he has headed the Department of Molecular Biology ever since.