No. 112/2021

The geneticist and molecular biologist Emmanuelle Char- pentier is the second woman in the Humboldt Network to be awarded a Nobel Prize. This brings the total number of Nobel Laureates amongst Humboldtians to 56. Together with Jennifer Doudna, Charpentier received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Both researchers were hon- oured for developing the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors, a method of altering DNA. Emmanuelle Charpentier is the director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. She received an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2014 and has conducted research in Germany ever since. She was a Humboldt Professor at Hannover Medical School and the Braunschweig-based Helm- holtz Centre for Infection Research until 2015, when she relocated to Berlin, initially as the direc- tor of the Department of Regulation in Infection Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. NOBEL PRIZE Humboldtian honoured COMMUNICATION LAB Reinforcing science communication Foto: picture alliance/dpa/Kay Nietfeld ADDITIONAL INFORMATION www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/explore/ organisation/reinforcing-science-communication The Humboldt Foundation has introduced a new series of events to reinforce science communication. At the Com- munication Lab for Exchange between Research and Media, Humboldt Fellows are given the opportunity to discuss the challenges of science communication with journalists and implement joint projects. Twice a year, ten selected fellows meet ten young jour- nalists from all over the world, themselves fellows of the International Journalists’ Programmes (IJP). They spend three days together working on journalistic products. The first ComLab workshop took place in summer 2020 and addressed the topic of science communication during the Corona pandemic; the second ComLab on the climate cri- sis and the European Green Deal was held in November. 32 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 112/2021 NEWS