Vince Ebert explains applied research

Vince Ebert in the cleanroom of the Fraunhofer IPA. (Source: Fraunhofer IPA, Photo: Rainer Bez)

As a physicist, book author, columnist, moderator, but above all as a cabaret artist, Vince Ebert approaches the big topics of our time in his current stage program "The Future": work, life, Sudoku, and thermodynamics. In this series, only production technology and automation are missing. He now dedicates himself to these disciplines every month anew and stamps the slogan of Fraunhofer IPA "We produce the future" with his own, unmistakable mark.

"Let's start with a simple question: What do the Mars rover, carbon dioxide snow, and ISO class 1 have in common? The three are scheduled, believe it or not, in the purest cleanroom in the world. This is not the weekly meeting of anonymous house dust allergy sufferers, but a territory sealed off like Fort Knox in the heart of the Fraunhofer Institute Center in Stuttgart," begins one of the 12 videos that Vince Ebert shows, sometimes in a diving suit with a Sirex drill, sometimes in conversation with service robot Paul, or just in the aforementioned periphery.

The idea is to humorously and simply get to the point of sometimes complex, sometimes explanatory matters, while highlighting the industrial and societal benefits of the individual research fields. "I try to connect the natural sciences with the laws of humor. Research and science don't just mean applying dry formulas and equations, but asking exciting questions and developing imagination. Without the invention of the light bulb, for example, we would still be watching TV by candlelight..." summarizes Ebert.

Fred Nemitz, Head of Marketing and Communication at Fraunhofer IPA and idea generator of the video series, adds: "It was a real pleasure to see Vince Ebert in action. The best humor always came when he didn't work strictly according to the script but fully immersed himself in the topic and acted according to his own taste."

For many years, Vince Ebert has been a regular protagonist of the knowledge format "Wissen vor acht" ("Knowledge before Eight"), which deals with scientific topics in a similar format as the Fraunhofer series. Since last year, Ebert has also been writing a biweekly column for Spektrum der Wissenschaft online. And so, we can look forward to more adventures from him, which might end with the words: "Clean, pure, the purest... and then off into space. Moon, Mars, Venus. No matter. Mission possible, mission completed. The purest cleanroom in the world makes it possible."