Jena, 05.05.2026. The renowned public lecture series „Noble Gespräche“ (Noble Talks) brings top-level research to the public in Jena on May 20. Guest at the Abbe-Zentrum Beutenberg is the award-winning archaeogeneticist Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause with exciting insights into human evolutionary history.
- What: Public lecture „The Journey of Our Genes: Where We Come From and Where We Are Going“
- Who: Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)
- When: Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 5:00 PM
- Where (In-person): Lecture hall of the Abbe-Zentrum Beutenberg, Hans-Knöll-Str. 1
- Digital: Event via Livestream of the Uni Jena
Tracing Human Evolution
Where do the ancestors of today’s Europeans come from, and what traces have major historical events such as prehistoric migrations left in our genetic makeup? These fundamental questions are the focus of the upcoming „Noble Gespräche“. With Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, one of the world’s leading experts in this field has been secured as a speaker. For his outstanding scientific achievements, he was recently awarded the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the most important research funding prize in Germany.
The event is traditionally aimed not only at a specialist audience, but explicitly at interested citizens. Those who cannot make the trip to the science campus also have the opportunity to follow the lecture digitally in real time. The Multimedia Center of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena is setting up an open livestream for this purpose.
Background: Archaeogenetics and the Beutenberg-Campus
Archaeogenetics is a relatively young branch of research that combines methods of modern molecular biology with classic archaeological questions. By sequencing and decoding very old DNA from skeletons or teeth thousands of years old, scientists today can precisely trace migration routes, pathogens of the past, and kinship relationships of earlier cultures.
The lecture series „Noble Gespräche“ has its fixed place at the Beutenberg-Campus, the scientific heart of Jena. Numerous research institutes of the Max Planck, Leibniz, and Fraunhofer Societies are concentrated on the site in the southwest of the city. The goal of the regular lecture series is to bring highly complex scientific findings from the institutes into society in an understandable way and to promote direct, low-threshold exchange with top researchers.
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The Journey of Our Genes: Where We Come From and Where We Are Going
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