“The task of science is to provide answers to new challenges, and thus prevent threatening contradictions and develop values and technologies in the education system to ensure peace and well-being in society. These are questions to which Professor Dr Mainzer has devoted himself in his work for several decades. Alma Mater Europaea – ECM expresses its gratitude to him,” says the Alma Mater Europaea – ECM president, Dr Ludvik Toplak.

Dr. Željko Knez served as the nominator and presented the outstanding achievements of esteemed recipient Dr. Mainzer.


Professor Dr Klaus Mainzer was born in 1947. He is a German philosopher and scientist. 

Mainzer graduated from the Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium in Opladen and studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy. In 1973, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy and mathematics fundamentals ("Mathematical Constructivism"). In 1979, Mainzer got his habilitation in philosophy with a thesis on "Space, Geometry and Continuum" at the University of Münster. In 1980, he received a Heisenberg grant. He was a professor of the foundations and history of exact sciences at the University of Konstanz from 1981 to 1988. He was the Vice-Rector of the University of Konstanz between 1985 and 1988. 

From 1988 to 2008, Klaus Mainzer was a professor of the philosophy of science and director of the Institute for Philosophy. Since 1998, he has been the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Computer Science at the University of Augsburg. Between 2008 and 2016, he held the chair for philosophy and philosophy of science at the Technical University of Munich. Mainzer was appointed director of the Carl von Linde Academy. He was the founding director of the Munich Center for Technology in Society at the Technical University of Munich. Since 2016, Mainzer has been "TUM Emeritus of Excellence." Since 2019, Mainzer has been a Senior Professor at the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He is also a co-founder of this institute. 

He was a member of the Advisory Board of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, Principal Investigator of the TUM Cluster of Excellence Cognition in Technical Systems, and a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos in Applied Sciences and Engineering. He is a member of the Research Center for Education and Information (Beijing University), the Academia Europaea (London), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg), and their Dean of the Class for Natural Sciences 2018–2019, member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering. Mainzer was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Daimler and Benz Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Studies at TUM. Since 2020, he has been Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Udo Keller Foundation Forum Humanum (Hamburg), 

He gave guest lectures or carried out visiting professorships in Brazil, China, India, Japan, Poland, South Korea, the US, and Russia. He was a visiting scientist at the Euler International Mathematical Institute (St. Petersburg), the Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics (Bonn), and the Leibniz Center for Informatics at Schloss Dagstuhl.

Klaus Mainzer initially published on the concept of a number, the foundations of geometry, space, time, symmetry, and quantum mechanics. He became known as a fundamental theorist of complex systems and artificial intelligence, who considers their social consequences in the age of digitization. He elaborated mathematical models of complex systems that organize themselves in nature - from molecular and cellular systems to organisms and brains. 

Professor Dr Klaus Mainzer is the editor and author of several books translated into several languages. Besides the huge number of books, he is the author of the widely translated, cited, and reviewed book Thinking in Complexity. 

Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. The most prestigious ones are: 

Heisenberg-Grant

TUM Emeritus of Excellence

Senior Professor University of Tübingen

Merkatzer Philosophy Prize for outstanding overall and lifetime achievement in the field of philosophy

Golden Medal of the International Center of Education for lifetime achievements in the fields of mathematics and complex systems science with outstanding performance as president of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

Patron of the EU Science Festival on the occasion of the appointment of Katowice (Poland) as Science City 2024

Besides this, he is a member of Academic Societies: 

European Academy of Sciences and Arts / Salzburg. In November 2020, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts elected Mainzer as its new president. He succeeded Felix Unger, who had served as president for three decades. 

Academia Europaea /London, 

National Academy of Science and Engineering Berlin/Munich.

Laudatory speeches were given by  Dr. Felix Unger, Honorary President of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dr. Marko Robnik, Member Easa Founder and Director CAMTP, and Dr. Lenart Škof, Dean of Alma Mater Europaea Institutom Studiorum Humanitatis.

A special booklet with all the ceremonial speeches published on this special occasion is HERE.