Queen’s Lecture 2025 by Professor Adam Amara: Cosmic Origins and Alien Worlds: The Next Era of Space Exploration
This year's Queen's Lecture will take place on Thursday, 6 November 2025, at 5pm in the main auditorium (Audimax) at Technische Universität Berlin, Str. des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin.
For thousands of years, humans have been preoccupied with two fundamental questions: Where do we come from? And are we alone in the universe? Today, space exploration is bringing us closer than ever to the answers, while driving technological innovations that are changing our lives on Earth. How exactly – that is explained by this year's speaker, Professor Adam Amara.
In his lecture, Professor Amara first takes a look at the ambitious programmes of ESA and NASA, before focusing on two pioneering projects: Euclid, which after two decades of preparation is now delivering its first data and mapping the geometry of the universe to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy; and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA's next major flagship mission, which will search for signs of life on distant exoplanets. These missions require groundbreaking developments in optics, detector technology and data science – technologies whose impact extends far beyond astronomy.
The event will be held in English.
If you are not able to come along to the TU on the day, you can watch the live stream. We will share the link in due course.
Adam Amara
Adam Amara, renowned astrophysicist and Director of Space Strategy and Head of the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Surrey, was recently appointed Chief Scientist at the UK Space Agency. In this role, he provides independent expert advice and strategic guidance in areas such as astronomy, astrophysics, planetology, solar science, space weather, lunar and Mars science, and Earth and climate science.
The Queen's Lectures series
The Queen’s Lectures were founded by Queen Elizabeth II as a gift to the City of Berlin on the occasion of her state visit in 1965. Since 1997 the Queen’s Lecture takes place at the TU Berlin. Each year a renowned British scientist delivers a lecture on her or his area of expertise. The Queen's Lecture is a collaboration between Technical University Berlin, the British Embassy in Germany, and the British Council Germany.