Leiden City of Science 2022: preparations are in full swing!
In 2022, Leiden will be the European Capital of Science. An enthusiastic team from our Faculty is already busy planning the activities. Today we speak with Marin Visscher. As a project coordinator, he seeks the connection between university and society.
Who are you?
My name is Marin Visscher and I studied Biology and Industrial Ecology at Leiden University. If I've learned anything about myself in that period, it's that I can't be caught in one discipline: I find all science interesting. That makes it all the more fun that I recently started working at this University again. This time to put our Faculty's research in the spotlight for 2022, when Leiden will be the European City of Science.
What do you do at the Faculty?
I have just been appointed project coordinator for Leiden 2022 at the Communication and Marketing department. Here I will use my experience as a science communicator to steer all preparations for next year in the right direction and to ensure that there is a fun and inspiring programme ready for everyone who is interested. For now, this mainly means talking to people to get to know the Faculty even better, and brainstorming about what 2022 will look like.
‘As Faculty of Science, we cannot be absent at Leiden 2022’
Wat is City of Science?
In 2017 in Strasbourg, Leiden won the title 'European City of Science' for 2022. This means that next year we will be the host city for the largest interdisciplinary scientific congress in Europe, namely the EuroScience Open Forum. Apart from that congress, the organisation of Leiden 2022 thinks big, with an event every day for 365 days. This will allow us to bring science to society. Inhabitants of Leiden and the surrounding area can participate and be inspired by all the wonderful Leiden research. As Faculty of Science, we cannot be absent.
How can you participate?
I would like to invite everyone from the Faculty to think with us: how can we all spread our research in and around Leiden? If you have a good idea, please send me an email. Ewine van Dishoeck and I will also be visiting the various institutes this month to talk to you about possible plans. On 25 June we will present at the Observatory, and on 1 July at LIACS.