Antje Boetius is a German polar and deep-sea researcher. As director of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and professor of geomicrobiology at the University Bremen, she is particularly concerned with communicating scientific topics to society. In addition to her involvement with the Leopoldina National Academy, she makes her research accessible to a broad public through publications, lectures and media appearances. She has received several awards for this.

Volker Gerhardt is a senior professor of practical philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where, after professorships in Münster, Cologne and Halle, he has been working to rebuild philosophy since 1992. He teaches and researches on questions of ethics, politics and theology, and is a member of various academies and their commissions. He directs the Academy editions of the works of Kant and Nietzsche. His recent monographs are: Partizipation. Das Prinzip der Politik (2007), Öffentlichkeit. Die politische Form des Bewusstseins (2012), Der
Sinn des Sinns. Versuch über das Göttliche (2014), Licht und Schatten der Öffentlichkeit. Voraussetzungen und Folgen der digitalen Innovation (2014), Glauben und Wissen. Ein notwendiger Zusammenhang (2016) and Humanität. Über den Geist der Menschheit (2019). He holds honorary doctorates in philosophy from the University of Debrecen and in theology from the Faculty of Theology at the University of Leipzig.

Judith Schalansky, born in Greifswald in 1980, studied art history and communication design. Her work, including 'Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands' (2012), the 'The Giraffe’s Neck' (2014), and 'An Inventory of Losses' (2020) has been translated into more than 20 languages and has received numerous awards. She is the editor of 'Naturkunden' (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) and lives as a designer and freelance writer in Berlin.