Queen's Lecture at TU Berlin

Queen’s Lecture: Behind this term hides a series of lectures, on the occasion of the visit of Queen Elisabeth II, on the 27 May of 1965 in Berlin as a present of Great Britain towards the city of Berlin. Each year a renowned British scientist holds a speech regarding his area of expertise. Already one year later on the 26 May 1966 these series of lectures were started. Between the years 1966 and 1975 these series of lectures were regularly conducted. For a period of time after that, they were temporarily ceased.

More than 20 years later, on the 50th anniversary of refoundation of the Technische Hochschule Berlin as Technische Universität Berlin, the British Minister Counsellor Rosemary Spencer announced the resumption of the lecture series. On the 1st of December 1997, the Queen’s Lecture at the TU Berlin was continued. Since then, the series of lectures – whether for economic, cultural or scientific issues – have been an integral part of the cultural program of the TU Berlin.

In 2015, the 50th anniversary year of the Queen’s Lecture, it was a great honor for TU Berlin to welcome Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to our university to attend the ceremony commemorating "50 Years of the Queen’s Lecture". The guests of honor included German Federal President Joachim Gauck, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin.

The Queen's Lecture is supported by the British Embassy and the British Council Germany.

This year's Queen's Lecture takes place on 8 November 2023 at 5 p.m. in TU Berlin's Audimax. The lecture titled "Constructing the world’s most incredible machines: Quantum Computers" will be held by Prof. Winfried Hensinger of the University of Sussex.

You can find a detailed interview as well as the registration link here: https://www.tu.berlin/en/go240940/