The german effective altruism network, 'Netzwerk für Effektiven Altruismus Deutschland' (NEAD), is excited to announce an upcoming online talk and Q&A with Aron Mill and David Denkenberger from the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED).

Key Points

What: Webinar with Q&A, with researchers Aron Mill and David Denkenberger from ALLFED

When: November 26th, 18:30 CET (Berlin Time), duration ~60 minutes in total

Target group: Anyone interested in X-risk reduction or ALLFED's work in particular. We are particularly excited about people who are interested in contributing to ALLFED's mission in any way.

Where: A link to join the call will be sent via email. You might need to download the zoom client or app.

Application Form: Click here

ALLFED & Speakers

ALLFED's stated mission is 'to increase the preparedness, readiness (knowledge, resources, technology) of world bodies, governments, corporations, NGOs/people to be able to feed everyone in the event of a global catastrophe'.
To this end, ALLFED researches ways to scale up food production, the feasibility of many alternative foods and does outreach to increase preparedness and response in the case of catastrophes.

David is the co-founder and director of ALLFED. He received his M.S.E. from Princeton in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Building Systems Program. David is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in mechanical engineering and has previously been on the 80000 Hours podcast, the Future of Life podcast and several radio programs to talk about his research.

Aron recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He started volunteering for ALLFED early 2019 and started working for ALLFED as a research assistant shortly after. His research concerns the engineering problems humanity faces when scaling up the production of alternative foods after a global catastrophe.

Main Event

In the first half of the event, Aron will present ALLFED's mission and research agenda.
He will address which problems ALLFED deems important and why, as well as which risks ALLFED is particularly concerned about.
A larger part will present the specific research questions currently being worked on by ALLFED staff and volunteers. Aron will also talk about which questions ALLFED would like to see answered, but currently does not have the resources to do so.

After this overview of open research questions, the focus will shift to how participants can contribute to ALLFED's mission, either directly or indirectly.

The talk will end after about 30-45 minutes. Participants will be able to pose and upvote questions throughout the talk, which will be addressed during the Q&A.

For the Q&A we will be joined by David, so we can take on an even wider variety of questions.

How can I participate?

Please fill in this short form, so we have a rough understanding of our audience. If you have any questions for Aron and David, please mention them in the form, so they can prepare accordingly. We encourage you to participate even if you don't have any questions yet, as you will also have the opportunity to ask questions during the call.

Application form

If you are interested in learning about ALLFED as preparation for the webinar, the aforementioned podcasts would be a good starting point. Preparation is completely optional, although we recommend a certain level of familiarity with concepts in Effective Altruism in general and existential and global catastrophic risks in particular.

You will get a confirmation email shortly after your submission and an invitation email a few days in advance of the event. If you sign up later than that, we will send both emails as soon as possible.

The call will be recorded for feedback purposes.