The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) offers a diverse program of public events, including colloquia, seminars, and workshops. Our Institute’s Colloquium is open and free to attend. Our other events often require registration or invitation—please check each individual event for details.
October 2026
- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
The Ethical Tension of the Oral Historian-Researcher (Workshop)
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Transmission of Mechanical Knowledge between Late Antiquity and Early Islam
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 141- 16:00 to 17:30
- Panel Discussion
Which Global China: Current Debates, Open Frontiers
- Lise Meitner Research Group (China)
- Several Speakers
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting Platform- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
How Do We Sustain Collaborative Research under Conditions of Postdoctoral Precarity? (Workshop)
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 14:00 to 15:30
- Colloquium
When Theriacs Became Alchemical Elixirs: The Reception of Complex Eurasian Compounds Within the Tibetan Medical System
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG Villa, Harnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom V005/Seminar Room & Online
November 2026
- 11:00 to 12:30
- Talk
Chinese City Views and City Plans in Early Modern Europe
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265- 11:00 to 12:30
- Reading Group
Multiple Lives of Quantification in the Modern World
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215/Online- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Knowing Orchids: Observation, Classification, and the Making of Botanical Knowledge in Song Natural History
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
The New Age of Philanthropic Science: Lessons from the History of Science
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 18:00 to 21:00
- Conversation Series
[Copy-Paste] Nature: Promises and Limits of Biomimicry
- Dept. AAK
- Several Speakers
Organizer(s)AddressJägerstraße 22-23, 10117 Berlin, Germany
RoomBerlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Shallow Blue Empire: A History of Pearl Diving in the Indian Ocean World, 1880-1925
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference Room- 14:00 to 15:30
- Colloquium
Pushing the Boundaries: The Role of Chinese Climate Scientists in Boundary Organizations
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting Platform- 16:00 to 18:00
- Lecture
Written in the Stars? The Philosophical Defense of Astrology
Organizer(s)AddressInnospace at Betahaus, Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse 23, 10969 Berlin, Germany
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Lecture
Global China and Post-Cold War Global Temporalities
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting Platform- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Water and a Mamluk Basin in Use
AddressMax-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
- 11:00 to 12:30
- Reading Group
Multiple Lives of Quantification in the Modern World
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215/Online- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Energy Literacy in Extreme Climates
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
Canceling Memory, Changing the Narrative? How to Keep Your (Political, Feminist…) Narratives Straight in Times of Far-Right and Neo-Libertarian Politics (Workshop)
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 14:00 to 15:30
- Colloquium
Temporality in the Environment Aspects of Spatial Orientation in Seventeenth Century Tibet
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG Villa, Harnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom V005/Seminar Room & Online
December 2026
- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
Platonic Landscapes: Atlantis in the German Scientific Imagination
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215