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In a world gripped by war and crisis, uncertainty is on the rise, with many looking to science for guidance. How scientists can contribute to public opinion-forming in times of global crises is the central theme of the current Nature Marsilius Visiting Professorship for Science Communication, which Vanessa Vu will hold in the 2025/2026 winter semester. The journalist will give several workshops and a public lecture at Heidelberg University. The courses offered by the visiting professorship is a joint initiative of Holtzbrinck Berlin, the Klaus Tschira Foundation and Heidelberg University.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 26 November 2025
How Science Can Help Us Navigate Times of Crisis
Journalist Vanessa Vu becomes Heidelberg University’s next Nature Marsilius Visiting Professor
In a world gripped by war and crisis, uncertainty is on the rise, with many looking to science for guidance. How scientists can contribute to public opinion-forming in times of global crises is the central theme of the current Nature Marsilius Visiting Professorship for Science Communication, which Vanessa Vu will hold in the 2025/2026 winter semester. The journalist will give several workshops and a public lecture at Heidelberg University. The courses offered by the visiting professorship – a joint initiative of Holtzbrinck Berlin, the Klaus Tschira Foundation and Heidelberg University – aim to support young researchers, in particular, to communicate their academic work to the public and contribute to a societal dialogue about the significance and responsibility of science.
In Vanessa Vu’s experience, German researchers are often more restrained on contentious topics than public intellectuals in Anglo-Saxon countries – partly out of concern about being oversimplified or misread in the media. “But many people look to science for guidance and answers – for example, when it comes to understanding and assessing current events such as the war in Gaza, questions of migration or the rightward shift in politics,” says the Nature Marsilius Visiting Professor. In her lecture “The Role of the ‘Public Intellectual’ in Times of War and Crisis”, on 20 January 2026, Vanessa Vu will explore how expert knowledge can be communicated in an accessible and responsible way. She will also address what Germany can learn from the culture of debate in English-speaking countries, and what opportunities today’s diversity of platforms offers to credibly explain scholarly positions and, where necessary, correct misunderstandings.
The workshop program within the current Nature Marsilius Visiting Professorship begins with a course on “The Art of the Op-Ed”. Also focusing on language and style, Vanessa Vu will show how to shift from expert to explainer. Interview training will help researchers prepare for media enquiries so they can convey their “message” clearly and convincingly. In the course “How to Podcast”, the journalist will demonstrate how to turn an abstract topic into a compelling audio piece, with participants producing a pilot episode in the second part of the course. The program, which is aimed at different groups across the university, concludes with a workshop on the “Foundations of Science Communication”. Using case examples, Vanessa Vu will outline the possibilities and limits of different media formats – from social media to television features.
Vanessa Vu, an editor at ZEIT ONLINE since 2017, works as a journalist at the intersection of storytelling, art, and science. She studied Social and Cultural Anthropology, International Law, and Southeast Asian Studies, and subsequently graduated from the Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munich. In her feature articles, analyses, and essays, she explores topics such as racism, migration, and social justice. She co-created the Viet-German podcast “Rice and Shine”, which explores post-migrant lived realities. Her journalism has been recognized with, among others, the Theodor Wolff Prize awarded by the German digital publishers and newspaper publishers, and the Lessing Prize for Criticism.
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