Meet the BRICS - the BRICS Seminar
Location: BRICS Seminar Room (045/046) on the ground floor
Time: 12 noon
Bernard Slippers: A new view on the Naturgemälde: what connects von Humboldt, AI and the future of forest health
University of Pretoria, South Africa, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)
Alexander von Humboldt’s Naturgemälde represents a holistic approach to understanding nature—one that connected observations across disciplines. Two centuries of increasing specialisation have generated enormous scientific progress, but also left gaps in our understanding of complex environmental challenges. Today, new computational and agentic systems enable the integration of vast amounts of data across disciplines. Using research on plant-associated microbiomes as an example, this talk explores how these approaches can reveal previously overlooked patterns and knowledge gaps, while opening new possibilities for connecting data, laboratory research and field observations. The talk asks: What comes next for scientific research, and how should we train the next generation of researchers?