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DLA Annual Conference &
General Assembly 2025

22-23 May 2025
TUM-IAS, Garching (near Munich), Germany

Daylight Matters
Turning Knowledge into Change

The Daylight Academy’s Annual Conference 2025 explored ways of how we can translate our growing knowledge of daylight into meaningful action across a range of societal topics. The conference took place from 22-23 May at the Institute for Advanced Study located in the Garching campus of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Aside from a range of keynotes and debates, its diverse program saw a hundred participants engaging in various workshops, ideation sessions and debates on the topic of daylight. As is traditional, the conference also included side activities. This time in the form of a traditional Bavarian beer tasting event and dinner in Munich’s beautiful Englischer Garten park.

Missed the conference but are curious to find out more about what was discussed? Are you a participant who would you like to listen again to one of the keynote lectures? Or would you like to share what you heard with members of your network?

Don’t worry, you can find the relevant keynote and discussion videos in our special annual conferences playlist on the DLA YouTube account.

Programme flyer

Photo gallery

Poster abstracts

Speaker portraits

DLA Societal Topics framework

Moderation: Dr Rana Zadeh, Department of Human-Centered Design, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, USA

08:30
Registration & welcome coffee
09:00
Introduction
09:10
Sunlight: time for a rethink?

Keynote speech by Prof. Richard Weller, Centre for Inflammation Research, The University of Edinburgh, UK

09:30
Spotlight on DLA projects
10:00
Coffee break
10:30
Parallel sessions

See all descriptions

12:30
Common lunch & posters
14:00
¿One Health or Kawilal?: Insights on intercultural transdisciplinary approaches to foster societal transformations

Keynote speech by Dr Mónica Berger González, Medical Anthropology, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

14:30
Final discussions & future actions
15:30
The end
Back to the day selector

Dr Cláudia Naves David Amorim
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Brasília

Panellist (Day 1)


Dr Mónica Berger González
Medical Anthropology, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

Keynote speaker (Day 2)


Dr habil. Christine Blume
Centre for Chronobiology, University Psychiatric Clinics, Basel, Switzerland

Panellist (Day 1)


Prof. em. Gerd Folkers
Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Introduction to The Daylight Award


Prof. Christoph Küffer
Landscape Architecture School in Rapperswil, OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Moderator & panellist (Day 1)


Prof. Michael Molls
Director of TUM-IAS, Garching near Munich, Germany

Welcome from the host (Day 1)


Dr Siobhan Rockcastle
Baker Lighting Lab, University of Oregon, USA & Hans Fischer Fellow at TUM-IAS, Germany

Keynote speaker (Day 1)


Prof. Manuel Spitschan
Speaker of the DLA Steering Committee & Professor at Technical University Munich, Germany

Welcome from the Daylight Academy (DLA)


Dr Barbara Mizumo Tomotani
Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, The Arctic University of Norway

Keynote speaker (Day 1)


Prof. em. Bernhard Wehrli
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich and Department of Surface Waters, Eawag, Switzerland

Panellist (Day 1)


Dr Rana Zadeh
Department of Human-Centered Design, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, USA

Moderator & closing of the conference (Day 2)

Conference venue
TUM Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)
Lichtenbergstraße 2a
85748 Garching near Munich
Germany

Accomodation
Courtyard by Marriott Munich Garching
Walther-Von-Dyck Str. 12
85748 Garching near Munich
Germany

Conference dinner
Seehaus im Englischen Garten
Kleinhesselohe 3
80802 Munich
Germany