PRESS RELEASE Light Symposium Wismar 2020/21 (LSW 2020/21) 24th February 2021 – for immediate release

Online Light Symposium – The Future of Daylight and Artificial Lighting in Healthy Built Environments. (Wismar / World) This three-day international online forum "Light Symposium Wismar 2020/21" brings together the latest insights into the future of daylight and artificial lighting in healthy built environments with respect to research, theory, technologies, design and applications.

The title of this year’s LSW 2020/21 event acknowledges a world that is changing dramatically, with human health and well-being at the forefront of global interest and concern. The impact of illumination and the opportunities this presents are hard to define right now, which is why they are the subject of our debate. Also, today and in the future, daylight and architectural lighting design need to better acknowledge the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, medical researchers, the lighting industry, and lighting designers. Therefore, education and continuing education in the form of such an event is, and will remain, the basis for all developments in the field of lighting design as a discipline and profession.

The LSW 2020/21 will be held from Wednesday, March 10th through to Friday, March 12th, 2021. The original date in October 2020, which was planned to be a face-to-face event at Wismar University, was postponed to March 2021, to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. However, this symposium will take place on the Zoom online platform, to meet Corona framework conditions.

Lighting and health experts from Germany and abroad Fifteen renowned speakers from countries including Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain (UK) and the United States of America (USA), with insights about their field of expertise (architecture, daylight, lighting design, environmental science, biology, astronomy, and medical science) will present talks related to research and practice.

This year there will be four keynote speakers who will present as follows: Assoc. Prof. Marie-Claude Dubois from the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Lund University, Sweden, and then Prof. Dr. George C. Brainard from US-based Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University, will present their talks on Thursday, 11th March. Then Mark Major, a lighting designer and founding partner of the multi-award winning international design practice Speirs Major from the UK will speak, followed by Prof. Dr. Eva Schernhammer from the Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health in Austria, on Friday, 12th March. New partner, Aalborg University Copenhagen (AAU)

Moreover, Aalborg University Copenhagen (AAU) will be announced as a new partner who will host the next Light Symposium, planned to take place annually in the Baltic region, from 2022. It will be in alternation with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and the Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design in Germany.

1 LIGHT 4 HEALTH Public Workshop at Light Symposium Wismar 2020/21 The international research project “Light4Health”, implemented since 2018, within the framework of the EU funding program “Erasmus + Strategic Partnership”, invites you to the presentations and panel discussion on Wednesday, March 10th, 2021. Please join our representatives of international leading universities and European architectural schools in the field of lighting design from Hochschule Wismar (Germany), Aalborg University (Denmark), KTH Royal Institute (Sweden), Thomas Jefferson University (USA), Creative Lighting Department ITMO University (Russia), and the University of Wolverhampton (UK).

The L4H project develops a novel educational course to teach health research methods and findings to lighting designers at the graduate level. These educational resources will be accessible soon, as open access to all parties interested in the project. Further information on the "Light4Health" project can be found on the project homepage at www.light4health.net. At the end of the session, a 30-minute film “Daylight Trilogy. Part 1: Humans” will be streamed, which was produced by the Swedish Lund University.

Broad and international support for the Light Symposium A large network will again contribute to the success of the event this year. The organizers receive broad support from eleven sponsors in diamond, gold, and silver categories, as well as five event partners, eight international media partners whose editorial focus is on light and / or architecture, six well-known associations and institutions in the specialist sector, and last but not least, two German and ten international universities. The list of supporters can be found on the conference website.

The seventh Light Symposium has been organized by the Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design, in cooperation with the university’s own research company FGW. For more information on the Light Symposium Wismar 2020/21, please see the symposium web page at: www.lightsymposium.de

Or contact: Asst. Prof. Dr. Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska E-mail: [email protected]

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