At Lindau, Nobel laureates meet the science stars of the future
Every year on Germany’s Lindau Island, Nobel laureates meet young scientists who will pick up the torch and carry it into the future.
It’s every young scientist’s dream. A week on the picture book island of Lindau on Lake Constance in southern Germany, meeting Nobel prize-winning scientists and hearing what they have to say in lectures, face-to-face meetings, during walks and over coffee.
More than 600 young scientists from around the world, including 11 from Australia with the backing of the Australian Academy of Science, met 38 physics and chemistry Nobel laureates for six days last week at the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.
The event was billed to Emily Kerrison, a University of Sydney astrophysics PhD student, as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience” and it was. “It’s unlike any conference I’ve been to before, because there’s a broad range of science being discussed and also the sociology around science,” she said.
Barnali Das, an astrophysicist from India now working at the CSIRO, said that, before coming to Lindau, she found it hard to imagine herself speaking to Nobel laureates. But, after being there several days, the experience brought back to her why she loved physics. As a child, she said, she asked so many questions and Lindau had reawakened her.
“I’m asking questions again. It kind of revived the love for physics. It’s really inspiring, and I hope it will stay with me,” Dr Das said.
Duy Nguyen, also at the CSIRO but working in water and environmental science, wants to take back his expertise to his home country of Vietnam one day and help to solve its water problems.
Grace Tabi, originally from Ghana and now doing a PhD at the Australian National University researching solar cells, also wants her work to bring benefits. She is working on solar cells made of pereskovite materials, rather than silicon, which promise higher efficiency at lower cost.
Sarah Bradbury, an astrophysics PhD from ANU, said that, before the meeting, people were excited at the prospect of meeting Nobel laureates. But, for her, it proved to be more than that. It was rewarding to meet other young scientists, even those not in her field.
“I think it’s broadened my idea of physics because a lot of people here are really good at communicating their science. And so I’m hearing all of these really complicated fields that I’ve got next to no understanding about explained in a way that it’s really easy to understand,” Ms Bradbury said.
Simon Weng, who is on the verge of completing his PhD in astrophysics at the University of Sydney, said the week was “motivating”. “I’ve learned so much, not just about the exact science that I do, but about how to do science, which I think is very important,” he said.
Jake Horder, who is doing a PhD in quantum optics and photonics at UTS, said the week had given him “a lot to think about” for his future direction. And he had learnt that Nobel prize winners didn’t have all the answers either. He said he had deep questions to ask about the mysteries of quantum mechanics, such as what does the phenomenon of “entanglement” mean? He then heard a laureate talk about it. “He’s like, ‘We did this experiment. The outcome was like this. What does it mean? I don’t know’.”
Some of the young scientists learned a lot, or brought a lot to the table, about interdisciplinary research. Claire Yung, who is researching glacier melting in the Antarctic in her PhD at ANU, said she had been excited by how interdisciplinary people’s research was and the approaches they were taking to the world’s big challenges “both in climate with renewables and carbon storage. and also in medicine”.
Eugene Sachkou is an example of interdisciplinarity. His PhD broke new ground in studying the dynamics of superfluid helium films. His PhD research led to a book and, at Lindau, he sought out 2016 Nobel prizewinner Michael Kosterlitz, whose work is closely related, to sign his book. Dr Sachkou recently worked on a project at La Trobe University applying data science and machine learning to sport. He created a data repository for sports practitioners to upload information about athletes’ performance which will help create better training regimens and offer educational resources about using data effectively in sport.
Mark Watson also works at the intersection of disciplines, doing a PhD in biophysics at the University of Queensland using quantum techniques to probe cells. He enjoyed learning about the work of others in the Australian group. “It’s been very interesting to talk to them about their work, especially since their work is quite different to mine,” he said.
Sarah Lau, older than most of the other young scientists, developed her love of physics due to a “fantastic physics teacher” at Moreton Bay College. It made her decide to teach and, after a double degree in education and science at the University of Queensland, she did work briefly as a teacher. But by this time she was also fascinated by research and went back to university to do a PhD in quantum optics, working on quantum communication using photons which, by its nature, is impossible to eavesdrop.
She also spent three years working in the technology industry before returning to research in her current position at the CSIRO.
Dr Lau was originally due to go to the Lindau meeting in 2020, the year it was cancelled by Covid, but was invited back this year.
She says she is encouraged by the many passionate researchers she is meeting, and the challenging discussions being had about tough issues such as climate change and nuclear war. On the closing day of the meetings, the laureates signed a declaration warning of the growing risk of nuclear annihilation which called on countries never to use nuclear weapons.
“I think the future is bright for science,” Dr Lau said.
Young scientists can only go to Lindau once unless, they were informed in jest, they one day win a Nobel prize and return as a laureate. At the close of the week Bill Phillips, who won a 1997 physics Nobel for discovering how to cool atoms with lasers, wished the young scientists the best for their careers. But the one thing he advised them against doing was holding a fixed ambition to win a Nobel as a pinnacle of their life’s work.
The overwhelming majority of scientists don’t win that ultimate prize, and success as a scientist and as a person doesn’t depend on being a Nobel laureate. But, for everyone there, it sure was fun meeting them.
Tim Dodd travelled to Lindau courtesy of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.
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Paying staff to research what they like? Ancient history, pal
The management reality that there are not enough students to pay all the present teachers in HASS, hence the current job cuts.
Melbourne, Sydney in top 10 student cities
Seoul, South Korea, dethrones London as the top student city in the world.
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