Summary
Nico Marquardt (born May 24, 1994, in Potsdam) is a German politician, non-executive director and consultant.[1] At the age of 13, he became internationally known with his astronomy research work about the near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis.
Nico Marquardt | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Potsdam Parliament | |
| Assumed office 25 May 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 May 1994 Potsdam, Germany |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Education | Humboldt High School, Potsdam |
| Occupation | Politician, non-executive director, consultant |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Official website |
Life edit
Early life edit
Nico Marquardt was born in Potsdam, Germany as the son of Oberstleutnant (commissioned officer) Harald Broh and nurse Apolonia Marquardt and attended the Humboldt High School in Potsdam.[2]
Astronomy edit
In April 2008, at the age of 13, he took part in the competition Jugend forscht with his research paper The Killer Asteroid 99942 Apophis, in which he calculated the probability for the asteroid Apophis to collide with a geosynchronous satellite and the consequences of this event to the likelihood of an Earth collision. On the day of the award Marquardt was interviewed by German newspaper Bild which published an article stating a 100-times higher probability of an Earth-collision in the year 2036 than Marquardt calculated.[3] Afterwards, nearly all international press reported the news with false data caused by the review from Bild even though Marquardt denied it.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
The astronomer Fred Watson said that "Marquardt has done a marvellous job. A hundred years ago people used logarithms and hand-calculators and slide rules to work out asteroid orbits. But it says a lot for the world that we live in that a 13 year-old schoolboy can download the right software to do the job and actually find errors in NASA's work. It is quite extraordinary."[11]
Career edit
From 2013 to 2019 Marquardt acted as the Global Advisor for Social Media at Mars One.[12][13] Since 2013 he is CEO of the consulting firm Rabbit.[14] As of August 2014 Marquardt has been elected as non-executive director of the local energy and water service company EWP [15] and also as member of the supervisory board for the hospital Forst.[16] Marquardt co-hosts the podcast Exponential Talk, where he discusses the implications of digital transformation and accelerating change with personalities, including Nobel laureates such as Klaus Hasselmann.[17]
Political career edit
During his final year in high school, Marquardt ran for office in Potsdam as a candidate for the Social Democratic Party of Germany and won. This made Marquardt the youngest elected politician of any state capital in Germany.[18] In November 2015 Marquardt filed criminal charges against the far-right political party Der Dritte Weg (German for "The Third Path") in Germany on grounds of incitement to hatred.[19][20] In the 2019 elections, he was re-elected and has since served as the deputy chairman of the Committee of Participation, Transparency and Digitalisation and as a member of the Culture Committee.[21] Marquardt has been the chairman of the Digitalization Council of the state capital Potsdam since 2022.[22]
Awards edit
Marquardt won the first prize at the German competition Jugend forscht, got the Special Honor from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Special Award of the German Aerospace Center.[23]
References edit
- ^ "Website of the Social Democratic Party". Archived from the original on 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
- ^ Biography of Nico Marquardt (retrieved 27. October 2015)
- ^ "Ich habe den Weltuntergang ausgerechnet". Bild. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- ^ "NASA refutes story of boy who predicted asteroid collision". Radio-Canada. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "Ragazzino calcola la fine del mondo". Corriere della Sera. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "Niño alemán corrige cálculos a la NASA". CNN. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "13-year-old corrects NASA's asteroid figures". China Daily. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "Un petit génie allemand met la NASA en échec". RTL (French radio). 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "NASA says German whiz-kid got it wrong". ABC. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "Schoolboy corrects NASA 'killer asteroid' maths'". The Age. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "Prof. Fred Watson about Marquardt". itNews. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ Global Advisor Social Media Mars One (retrieved 27. October 2015)
- ^ Global Advisor Mars One (retrieved 5. February 2024)
- ^ CEO Rabbit Consulting Group (retrieved 5. February 2024)
- ^ Non-executive director energy company EWP (retrieved 27. October 2015) Archived 2015-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Member of the supervisory board hospital Forst (retrieved 5. February 2024)
- ^ Podcast Exponential Talk (retrieved 5. February 2024)
- ^ Nico Marquardt ist jüngster Stadtverordneter, at PNN, 28. Mai 2015 (retrieved 27. October 2015)
- ^ "SPD-Stadtverordneter aus Potsdam zeigt rechtsextremem Parteivorsitzenden an". Blickpunkt. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ "SPD-Mann zeigt Neonazis an". MAZ. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ Deputy Chairman Digital Committee (retrieved 5 February 2024)
- ^ Nico Marquardt ist seit 2022 Vorsitzender des Digitalisierungsrates der Landeshauptstadt Potsdam (retrieved 5. February 2024)
- ^ Jugend forscht: Sonderpreis für Nico Marquardt, at PNN, 8. April 2008 (retrieved 27. October 2015)
External links edit
- Official Website
- Nico Marquardt on Twitter
Reports about Nico Marquardt
- Guido Berg (12 April 2008), "Nico und der Weltuntergang", Der Tagesspiegel (in German)
- Alok Jha (16 April 2008), "Full marks for effort", The Guardian
- Christoph Seidler (17 April 2008), "Trubel um Asteroiden-Gefahr: Wie ein 13-jähriger fast die Nasa blamierte", Spiegel (in German)
- Lewis Page (16 April 2008), "Schoolboy's asteroid-strike sums are wrong", The-Register
- V. Kumara Swamy (29 May 2008), "The mother of all sciences", The Telegraph India, archived from the original on June 7, 2008
- Jana Haase (21 October 2010), "16-jähriger Schüler forscht an "Verdrillung der Raumzeit"", Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (in German)
- Jana Haase (28 May 2014), ""Ich will nicht zum Mars fliegen" Nico Marquardt ist jüngster Stadtverordneter", Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (in German)