Horizons lecture series
Main content
Lectures in 2026
| Date & Time (2026) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| March 24, Egget, Studentsenteret | Darwin Day/Horizons lecture: The Selfish Gene at 50 - A philosopher’s perspective | Samir Okasha |
Lectures in 2025
| Date & Time (2025) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| February 12, Egget, Studentsenteret | Darwin Day/Horizons lecture: The search for habitable planets in other solar systems | Carina Persson |
Lectures in 2024
| Date & Time (2024) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| September 16th, Egget, Studentsenteret | Odd Erik Garcia | |
| February 12th, Egget, Studentsenteret | Darwin Day/Horizons lecture: The evolution of learning and the origins of consciousness (recorded event) | Eva Jablonka |
Lectures in 2023
| Date & Time (2023) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| April, 20th, 16.15, Egget, Studentsenteret (refreshments from 15.45) | Seabed Mining and Biodiversity Conservation in the Deep Sea: Where Science meets Policy | Lisa A. Levin |
| February 13th, Egget, Studentsenteret | Jarle Breivik |
Lectures in 2022
| Date & Time (2022) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
Monday 25th of April, 16.15, in Egget, at Studentsenteret | Yadvinder Malhi |
Lectures in 2021
None - due to COVID restrictions
Lectures in 2020
None - due to COVID restrictions
Lectures in 2019
| Date & Time (2019) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| Wednesday 20. February at 16.00, Auditorium 1, Realfagbygget, Allegt. 41 | Prof. Stephanie E. Combs | |
| Tuesday 30. April at 16.00, Egget, The Student Centre, Parkveien 1. | Prof. Rainer Helmig | |
Tuesday 3. September at 16.00, Auditorium 1, Realfagbygget. | Prof. Thomas W. Ebbesen | |
| Wednesday 18. September at 16.00, Egget, The Student Centre. | Niels Bohr, life behind the physics and war and peace | Vilhelm A. Bohr |
Thursday 14. November at 15.45, Egget, | Probing Antarctica's glacial history | Professor Sydney R Hemming |
Wednesday 27. November at 15.45, Egget, | Panel debate (in Norwegian) Forskningsfrihet under press | Panel debate |
Lectures in 2018
| Date & Time (2018) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| Tuesday 20. February at 16.00 at the VilVite Centre | Why is life the way it is? | Nick Lane |
| Thursday 24. May at 16.00, Egget, The Student Centre | Plasmonics: Photonic Nanoscience for Sustainability and Societal Impact | Naomi Halas |
CANCELLED Thursday 01. November, Egget, The Student Centre | River networks as ecological corridors | Andrea Rinaldo |
Lectures in 2017
| Date & Time (2017) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
Thursday 9. February at the VilVite Centre | Thomas Kiørboe | |
Thursday 4. May at 16.00, in Egget, Studentsenteret | ||
Thursday 22. June at 15.00, in Egget, Studentsenteret | Daniel N. Baker | |
Friday 25. August at 14.00, in Auditorium 1, Realfagsbygget, Allégaten 1 | Albert-László Barabási | |
Tuesday 31. October at 16.00, in Auditorium 1, Realfagbygget, Allégaten 1 | Hunting the past with ancient genomics Watch the lecture here (skip 30 minutes for the lecture to start) |
Lectures in 2016
More lectures to come!
| Date & Time (2016) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
Monday 15. February at 15.45 Universitetsaulaen (in Norwegian) | Nils Chr. Stenseth, Geir Atle Ersland, Bjørn Blomberg | |
| Tuesday 3. of May at Universitetsaulaen (in English) | Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes - the most energetic photon phenomenon in the atmosphere | Nikolai Østgaard |
| Thursday 9. of June in Egget, Studentsenteret | How are fearful memories stored in our brains? | Marianne Fyhn |
| Thursday 10. of November in Egget, Studentsenteret | Single-cell RNA sequencing: A modern microscope | Rickard Sandberg |
| Thursday 1. of December in Egget, Studentsenteret | Auditory hallucinations: To hear voices that do not exist | Kenneth Hugdahl |
Lectures in 2015
| Date & Time (2015) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
Thursday 12. February at 16.00 Egget, Studentsenteret | Marta Mirazon Lahr, University of Cambridge, UK | |
Thursday 16. April, at 16.00 Egget, Studentsenteret | Simon Dankel (stand in for Melina Claussnitzer) | |
Tuesday 5. May, at 16.00 VilVite | Michael Kelly, University of Cambridge, UK | |
Thursday 28. May, at 16.00 Egget, Studentsenteret | Yuan T. Lee, Academia Sinica, Taiwan | |
Thursday 15th of October in VilVite at 16.15 | Raymond S. "Ray" Bradley | |
| Thursday 12th of November in VilVite at 15.15 | What happens in a few billionths of a billionth of a second? | Anne L'Huillier |
Lectures in 2014
Date & Time (2014) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| Thursday 13. November at 16.00 at Egget, Studentsenteret | We are Made of Star Stuff | Jocelyn Bell Burnell |
| Thursday 23. Oktober at 16.00 at Egget, Studentsenteret | Unconventional Oil and Gas and its Impact on the World | Margot Gerritsen |
| Monday 8. September 14.00-16.00 at VilVite (in Norwegian) | Horisontdebatten 2014 - Er petroleumsforskning uetisk? | |
| Tuesday 26 of August 16.00 at VilVite | Cooperation in the climate change game | Manfred Milinski |
| Thursday 15. May 2014 at 16.00, at VilVite | Where can we damage? Biodiversity conservation and challenges for the future. | Kathy Willis |
| Tuesday 20. May 2014 at 17.00, Egget Studentsenteret | The Co-Evolution of the Geosphere and Biosphere | Robert M. Hazen |
| Thursday 20. February at 18.00 2014 | The evolving tree of life | Henrik Glenner and Andreas Hejnol |
Lectures in 2013
Date & Time (2013) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| Monday 28th October, at 16.00, Studentsenteret, Egget | David Kaplan | |
| Torsdag 17. oktober 2013 på VilVite, auditoriet, kl. 15.00 | Vær, vind og sjø langs norskekysten - et historisk perspektiv | Bjørn Gjevik, Universitetet i Oslo |
| Thursday 19th of September 2013 at 15.00 in VilVite, Auditorium | Understanding basic biology using outbred genetics | Ewan Birney (EMBL-EBI) |
| Thursday 12th of September 2013 at 16.00, Egget, Studentsenteret | Leonie Ringrose, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austria | |
| Wednesday 10th of April 2013 at 15.00, Egget | Professor Lawrence M. Krauss, Arizona State University, USA | |
| Thursday 21st of March 2013 at 16.00, Egget | Does the measurement device measure what it is supposed to measure? | Researcher Jo Røislien, Norsk Luftambulanse and University of Oslo |
| CANCELLED! Tuesday 12th 2013 of February at 18.00, Egget | Evolution kills: The adaption of disease-causing organisms and what to do about it | Professor Andrew Read, Pennsylvania State University, USA |
Lectures in 2012
Date & Time (2012) | Title of lecture | Speaker |
| Monday 5th November 2012 at 18.00, Egget, Studentsenteret | Can Machines Be Creative Enough To Invent Their Own Language? Se kalenderoppslag | Luc Steels, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona and director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. |
| Thursday 27. september 2012 at 15.00, Egget, Studentsenteret | Innovation in Space Discoveries: Is There Life Out There? | Lynn J. Rothschild, NASA |
| Fredag 7. september 2012 kl. 11.00, Egget, Studentsenteret | First sight of the Higgs particle? | Sergio Bertolucci, CERN (erstattet av Anna Lipniacka, UiB og CERN pga Lufthansa streik) |
| Thursday 7. June 2012 at 15.00, Egget, Studentsenteret | Climate Change and Global Food Production | David Battisti, University of Washington |
| Torsdag 24. mai 2012, kl. 15.00 i Egget, Studentsenteret | Symbols and Climate: Tracing the origins of behaviourally modern Homo sapiens in southern Africa | Christopher Henshilwood, UiB og the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa |
| Mandag 19. mars 2012, kl. 10.15 Auditoriet på Vilvite | The fingerprints of Vilhelm Bjerknes on modern climate science | Brian Hoskins, Imperial College |
| Torsdag 22. mars 2012 kl. 14.15, Auditoriet på Vilvite | På jakt etter dirigenten for klimaorkesteret - om naturlige og menneskeskapte klimaendringer | Odd Helge Otterå, Bjerknessenteret Uni Research |
| Mandag 13. februar 2012 kl. 18.00, kinosalen Tivoli, Kvarteret | Big History Today(foredraget av Spier inngikk også i UiBs Darwindag 2012. På hjemmesiden til Darwindagen 2012 kan du finne mer informasjon om Spier og hans bakgrunn.) | Fred Spier, University of Amsterdam |
More informasjon on Vilhelm Bjerknes anniversary in 2012 is found here and here.
The Horizons committee
From 2026
- Øyvind Fiksen (leader)
- Jarl Giske
- Christian Jørgensen
- Lise Øvreås
- Eystein Jansen
- Kristin Bakken
From 2019
- Jarl Giske (leader)
- Lise Øvreås
- Eystein Jansen
- Helwig Hauser
- Kristin Bakken
From 2018
- Lise Øvreås (leader)
- Bodil Holst
- Stéphane Rondenay
- Jan Martin Nordbotten
- Jens Helleland Ådnanes
- Trine Steensæth
- Gry E. Parker
From 2017
- Lise Øvreås (leader)
- Bodil Holst
- Hans Munthe-Kaas
- Stéphane Rondenay
- Kristin Bakken (on leave from 1. september 2017)
From 2016
- Rein Aasland (leader)
- Bodil Holst
- Hans Munthe-Kaas
- Stéphane Rondenay (from august 2016)
- Kristin Bakken
2012-2015
- Jan Petter Hansen (leader)
- Jarl Giske
- Dag Aksnes
- Kristin Bakken
Horizon lecture series
This is a lecture series for staff and students of The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and for all others that are interested in major scientific questions and challenges across disciplinary borders.
From 2022 the lectures are organised in cooperation with Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub.
From 2023 the lecture series receives economic support from Selskapet til Vitenskapenes Fremme.
Interested in upcoming Horizon lectures? Send an e-mail to Kristin Bakken to receive information by e-mail in advance of lectures or join us on Facebook.
Current Horizons committee
Jarl Giske (leader)
Lise Øvreås
Eystein Jansen
Helwig Hauser
Kristin Bakken
