Post by Joachim Hornegger

#FAUKnowlegeToGo Today is the 200th anniversary of Joseph von Fraunhofer’s death, but did you know that Joseph von Fraunhofer was also part of FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg history? He is an unusual figure in the history of science. He did not come from a university. He came from craftsmanship. He worked with glass, light and instruments. He tried things out. He observed carefully. He drew conclusions from what he saw. That may sound simple. But this is how science often moves forward. The name Fraunhofer is present all over the world today. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft connects basic research with practical use. This bridge is not easy to build. But it matters - today more than ever. For FAU, there is a special link. In 1822, four years before his death, our FAU awarded Joseph von Fraunhofer an honorary doctorate. This fact is mostly unknown and not widely remembered. I find it worth remembering. Our university honored a scientist whose path had not started in academia, but whose work had already changed science. I thought about this recently at the Stiftung Jugend forscht e. V. federal final at Schaeffler in Herzogenaurach. There were young people with ideas, questions and first prototypes. Not everything was finished. Of course not. That was part of the charm. You could see what happens when someone has an idea and starts working on it. This is close to the FAU spirit. We want to recognize talent early. We want to help good ideas grow. And for everyone who takes comfort in the success stories of famous university dropouts, I may add with a smile: a university degree has never hurt either. Fraunhofer’s story is a useful reminder. Talent can start in a workshop, in a school project, in a lab, or with a question that does not go away. At FAU, we call this Moving Knowledge: ideas should not stay where they were created. They should find their way into society and into practice. So today is also a good day to say this to everyone working on an idea: Keep going.