All posts by Oliver Lehmann

Start of ticket sales for #SciBall23

Ball 2023
The world’s largest pea will be visiting the Science Ball in honor of Gregor Mendel’s 200th birthday./ Photo: Boku

Starting today, tickets for the 8th Vienna Ball of Science on January 28, 2023 are available in the webshop.

The chairman of the ball committee, Oliver Lehmann, recorded a remarkably high level of interest even before tickets went on sale, from both Austria and abroad. Tickets can be booked now at https://www.wissenschaftsball.at/shop/. The prices: € 100 for regular tickets, € 30 for students. Tables and boxes can also be booked at https://www.wissenschaftsball.at/shop/.

Lehmann: “After two years of pandemic-related break, we dare the experiment. The Science Ball represents the diversity, size and excellence of the universities, universities of applied sciences, private universities and research institutions in the greater Vienna area. This season, the ball illustrates in a special way how we all benefit from research.”

The program in the ballrooms on the Beletage of City Hall promises a mix of cleverly crafted presentations, surprising tastings and music ranging from waltz and jazz to soul and tango, including the opening committee and midnight quadrille. Thanks to the commitment of the 400 orchestra and band musicians, dancers, event technicians and catering staff, the Science Ball makes a significant contribution to Vienna’s cultural and event scene.

Lehmann: “In the past months we  designed a colorful and clever program. Music from all directions from waltz to swing, world and tango to hip hop awaits you from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. on five stages. Presentations from the world of science (including, in honor of Gregor Mendel, the world’s largest pea!) will transform City Hall into an open-air laboratory of enlightened pleasure.”

Once again, the rectors, presidents and heads of all Viennese universities, private universities, universities of applied sciences as well as the ÖAW, IIASA and IST Austria will form the honorary committee, thus underlining the relevance of Vienna as the most important university and research location in Central Europe. Highlights of the program will be announced in the course of the coming weeks, as will the Ball Ambassadors from science, business, culture and society.

The marketing measures for the ball are meanwhile fully started. Central information base is the homepage www.wissenschaftsball.at as well as the channels on the social media under @SciBall.

Free photos of the Ball 2020 for download: https://www.wissenschaftsball.at/fotos-sciball20-lieferung-2/

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Enquiry notice:
Oliver Lehmann, ball organizer
E-mail: lehmann@wissenschaftsball.at
Homepage: www.wissenschaftsball.at
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @SciBall

Congratulations to Anton Zeilinger!

Ball 2023, General

He was one of the very first supporters of the Science Ball – and has been a regular ever since! Today, he has received the well-deserved Nobel Prize for Physics 2022. We are very happy for him and we are looking forward to his visit to the Science Ball 2023 on 28 January 2023! Here is his ball message from December 2014:

“What would Vienna be without its balls? Definitely not Vienna. To have ‘one’s’ ball in this city means to play a visible role in the life and self-perception of the city. The sciences and research have long played a significant role. Now they are also visible in the ball calendar, alongside the traditional balls of Viennese universities. Seen in this light, the Vienna Ball of the Sciences is actually long overdue. It is good that it now exists.”

o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. DDr. h.c. Anton Zeilinger, President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Photo by Jacqueline Godany

Photo by Jacqueline Godany

8th Science Ball 2022 cancelled

Ball 2022, General

Omicron dynamics not calculable • Organizing committee follows research findings •  New date planned for January 2023

The current Covid forecasts leave us no choice but to cancel the Science Ball in January 2022 and to consider a new date on Saturday, January 28, 2023.

As a science ball, we are committed to research and its findings. Due to the omicron variant, it is currently very difficult to predict the dynamics of infection development. Therefore, we as the organizing committee have decided – like our colleagues from the TU-, WU-, Blumen- or Opernball – to cancel the Science Ball for this season.

We would like to thank all the artists, scientists, ball ambassadors and contributors who have participated in the planning with great energy. We thank all the experts with whom we developed an excellent security and access concept. And we would like to thank all our customers, whose bookings have once again demonstrated their enormous interest in the Science Ball. Tickets can be canceled free of charge until early February. As of February 10, 2022 the tickets are transferred to the 2023 ball.

We hope that as many people as possible will be vaccinated or boostered in the coming weeks. In this way, they will protect themselves and their fellow human beings – and ultimately enable us all to enjoy a ball season in the winter of 2022/23.

Elke Ziegler: reason to celebrate

Ball 2022
Ursula Hummel-Berger, ORF

Science is the basis of a sustainable modern society. It provides the tools to understand the dimensions of the challenges we face. It proposes solutions, highlights their potential and thus prepares the ground for reasoned political action – from pandemics to climate warming to species extinction. Trust in science means understanding the path to knowledge and appreciating results. This basis should be put beyond dispute in the political debate – then science and society would have reason to celebrate far beyond the pandemic.

Elke Ziegler is science editor with Ö1 and was awarded the Robert Hochner Prize 2021 for her coverage of the pandemic in journals, features and podcasts. The jury found that Ziegler had “tirelessly prepared the sometimes contradictory wealth of information for radio listeners in a factual, comprehensible, balanced, level-headed and always cutting-edge manner”.

The Power of Science

Ball 2022, General

The 8th Vienna Ball of Sciences will take place on January 29, 2022 at the Vienna City Hall. Under particularly strict Corona rules. And thanks to the power of science.

The one piece of good news: according to the current rules, the ball will take place. Why are we, as the organizing committee, daring the experiment? Because we are imposing particularly strict rules based on the findings of science. Continue reading The Power of Science →

Tango as science

Ball 2021, General
Milonga in the Grey Salon / Photo: Roland Ferrigato

It happens frequently that the Science Ball becomes the object of research. A particularly fine example is a musicological publication by Stefano Elefante, who since 2018 has left an extremly elegant footprint on the dancefloor of our Tango Bar with his excellent Tango Argentino dancers. In the extraordinarily well-researched paper (“Gran Balli e Millonghe”), which appeared in the most important Italian tango blog in the fall of 2020, Stefano Elefante et al explain the similarities and differences between milongas in Buonos Aires and balls in Vienna: Continue reading Tango as science →

Many thanks!

Ball 2021, General
Uups…

Thank you very much for your interest in our premiere last Friday! Due to the great response, the server of our homepage collapsed for a short while. Therefore, here below is the link to our recording. And on Friday, February 12, the Vienna Ball of Science 2021 Corona Edition ft. Science Busters will be broadcast again on the city station W24 at 9:30 pm. Continue reading Many thanks! →

I got it from Agnes: Viennese version

Ball 2021

 

The great song “I got it from Agnes” by the legendary Tom Lehrer concisely explains how chains of infection are created (see the original version: https://youtu.be/R6qFG0uop9k). At the 7th Vienna Ball of Science Corona Edition ft. Science Busters the lesson in epidemiology was performed by Anne Wieben, accompanied by Nuno Maulide. And as an encore, we have specially created a karaoke version in Viennese! Have fun! Continue reading I got it from Agnes: Viennese version →