Crowning Glory of Research

As always, the audience was in high spirits - not only because they had snatched one of the coveted tickets, but also because there were once again plenty of interesting facts from the world of research to learn. Aids were allowed, but each slammer only had ten minutes to win over the hearts of the audience. As a reward, in addition to fame and honour, there was an artistic, golden trophy, which the Erfurt artist Johannes Gräbner had once again designed especially for the competition - this time as a joint work with other Erfurt artists.

This time, Thomas Sojer ("What society can learn from mushrooms"), Linda Schulz ("Making sharp cuts visible! An insight into the unknown world of restoration"), Philipp Sprengholz ("And if you don't want to, I'll use force - A psychological look at compulsory vaccination"), Christian Rombeck ("Meat without animal suffering") and Lina Aschenbrenner ("What is Hawaiian religion? On (Post)Colonial Contact and Hawaiian Hula Dance"). Moderated by Stefanie Bühling, who whimsically led through the programme - supported by co-moderator and "number girl" Michael Krug, who once again had the task of determining the audience's score in no time at all.

But as it is in a competition - in the end there can only be one who takes home the coveted trophy. And so the winner this time is Christian Rombeck, alumnus of Economics, Law and Social Sciences at the University of Erfurt. In his lecture, he explained to the audience the ecological effects of global (mass) animal husbandry and explored the question of whether in-vitro meat - i.e. laboratory-produced "meat" - can contribute to solving this problem. A serious topic, red-hot, but above all a very enlightening lecture, the audience found and crowned him Slammer King 2021. A fine evening that once again cries out for "more"...