We are pleased to invite Ivy Circle members & alums to a Symposium in Munich, hosted by the MIT Club of Germany at the Amerikahaus on Fri. 22 May 2026.

We would be grateful if this invitation can be forwarded to all alums of the Ivy Circle members. Details are included in the attached pdf.

Bringing together alumni of leading US and UK universities, the symposium will explore one of the most pressing challenges of our time:

“Geopolitics & Transatlantic Cooperation – Navigating Global Power Shifts in Europe & Germany”

As the war in Ukraine — alongside escalating geopolitical tensions in the middle East  — continues to reshape Europe’s security architecture, the need for a deeper understanding of the strategic, technological and economic implications has become increasingly urgent.

The symposium will bring together senior voices from defence, policy, industry and academia to examine key dimensions shaping this new landscape, including:

• The war in Ukraine as a catalyst for global power shifts
• The emergence of defence innovation ecosystems in Europe
• Technology, sovereignty and strategic autonomy
• Information warfare and its impact on democratic systems
• The scaling of battlefield-proven technologies into industrial capability

Confirmed speakers include:

• Gen. a.D. Andreas Hoppe, former deputy Commanding Officer of the Bundeswehr, German Ministry of Defence
• Dr. Philipp Gerbert, CEO, TUM Venture Labs (PhD MIT)
• Quirin Herz, HENSOLDT (Defence & Deep Tech Strategy)
• Dr. Sae Schatz, expert on cognition, disinformation and security systems
• Nadiia Vasylieva, former MIT Fulbright Visiting Scholar, advisor on AI & defence innovation
• Dr. Benedikt Franke, Vice-Chairman & CEO, Munich Security Conference

The programme will culminate in a panel discussion on Europe’s readiness for a new era of conflict, followed by a closing perspective on resilience and transatlantic cooperation.

We would be delighted to welcome you for an afternoon of focused insight, meaningful exchange, and high-level networking, followed by a reception and dinner.

• Date: Friday, 22 May 2026
• Time: 14:00 – 22:00 (followed by a reception & dinner)
• Location: Amerikahaus München

Please register on our website under LINK – under “Ivy Circle, Münchner Kreis & partnered guests“ (ticket price for the Symposium, Drinks & Dinner: €100)

For any further questions please contact Wolfgang Ungerer via wolfgang.ungerer@MIT-Club.de

“Inspiring inspirers” is the motto of MIT Club of Germany’s Schule MIT Wissenschaft (SMW) Initiative. It is a program designed for secondary-school STEM (dt. MINT) teachers from all over Germany. At the SMW conferences, teachers attend an intensive training program consisting of workshops and talks given by high profile scientists and professionals from a broad spectrum of areas in science and technology.

This includes Nobel price winners from MIT. Beside national conference there are now also regional conferences in collaboration with the state ministries for education.

At the 2023 SMW National Conference in Kiel, there was a workshop on AI entitled “Generative AIs in the classroom – recognizing dangers – using potentials – enabling education“, which was very popular.

For the 2024 national conference in Saarbrücken, Prof. Bernt Schiele, founder and head of the “Computer Vision and Machine Learning” department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken is planned.

Lectures are recorded and can be found in the SMW media library: https://www.schule-mit- wissenschaft.de/mediathek.

There is a short information video on the homepage where all five Nobel Prize winners who gave a lecture at a conference are represented with a statement: https://www.schule-mit-wissenschaft.de/en/.

Another short video with impressions of last year’s national conference in Kiel can be found at https://www.schule-mit-wissenschaft.de/archiv/bundeskonferenzen/bundeskonferenz-2023-kiel-hybrid/.

 SWM and the MIT Club of Germany appriciate if everyone who is a parent and has kids at school, would share this information with their school. The teachers and therefore the students will benefit. If the organization you are working for wants to sponsor a SWM event and therefore help to improve the quality of the education in Germany, you are more then welcome to reach out to Rainer Linden at rainer.linden@mit-club.de.

To learn more about how the Ivy Circle Munich cooperates with prominet American and British universities to foster professional and educational know-how and to strenghten alumni networks, please contact Clemens Rinnebach via clemens.rinnebach@emarticon.de.

The MIT Club of Germany opened their Sustainability Mentorship Program for School also for the Ivy Circle Munich.

The Sustainability Mentorship Program of the MIT Club of Germany connects students and school projects with sustainability professionals from the MIT network. The program aims to find mentors from the MIT network for sustainability projects in schools. Mentors come from the MIT network and this includes also members of the Ivy Circle.

For further info please contact Clemens Rinnebach (clemens.rinnebach@emarticon.de).

The Ivy Circle Munich “Stammtisch” meets once a quarter and gives all participants the opportunity to deepen existing contacts and get to know new people with similar background. Over a beer or a good glass of wine alumni from different schools not just get new insights in business but also have the opportunity to gain new friends.

Additional community events over and above the “Stammtisch” (e.g. visits of cultural events, project presentations, leisure time activities, speaker events) take place on a case by case basis. All participating universities/schools are very welcome to initiate and/or support such additional community events.

All events are being announced by email via the participating universities/schools and also on this web-site.

Our last meeting / “Stammtisch” took place in June, 2025. The next “Stammtisch” will take place in Dec 2025.

More in person events are to come in 2025!

STAY TUNED!

For any details and/or inquires please get in touch with Clemens Rinnebach via clemens.rinnebach@emarticon.de