Opening Ceremony

Robert Endre Tarjan, Efim Zelmanov, Tom Crawford

Welcome to the 13th Heidelberg Laureate Forum! 

Tom Crawford
Master of Ceremonies 

WELCOME ADDRESSES
Dorothee Bär
Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space 

Frauke Melchior
Rector of Heidelberg University 

Eckart Würzner
Lord Mayor of the City of Heidelberg 

Rafael Lang
Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation | Co-President of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung 

Agnes Szmolenszky
Executive Director and Member of the Board of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation 

THE AWARD-GRANTING INSTITUTIONS
Elisa Bertino President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 

Anders Malthe-Sørenssen
Vice President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA) 

Hiraku Nakajima
President of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) 

LAUREATE WELCOME
Robert Endre Tarjan
1982 Nevanlinna Prize | 1986 ACM A.M. Turing Award 
Efim Zelmanov
1994 Fields Medal 

MEET THE YOUNG RESEARCHERS

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM PREVIEW
Jessica Fintzen
Scientific Co-Chair of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation, Mathematics 

Albrecht Schmidt
Scientific Co-Chair of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation, Computer Science

HOW TO HLF

The 13th Heidelberg Laureate Forum took place from September 13–18, 2026. #HLF26 

The Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) is an annual networking conference where 200 carefully selected young researchers in mathematics and computer science spend a week interacting with the laureates of the most prestigious awards in their disciplines: the Abel Prize, ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, Fields Medal, IMU Abacus Medal and Nevanlinna Prize. 

The opinions expressed in the videos do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation or any other person or associated institution involved in the making and distribution of these videos.

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