The 27 Nobel Laureates walked in a line into the famous Inselhalle hall
at Lindau, Germany to a standing ovation from about 592 young
researchers from 69 countries. The 62nd Nobel Laureates Meeting from
July 1 to July 7, dedicated to physics, was then opened on Sunday by
Countess Bettina Bernadotte, the President of the Council for the Lindau
Nobel Laureates Meeting.
In her welcome speech, Ms. Bernadotte urged the student researchers to
fully utilise the opportunity as the Laureates have come to Lindau to
educate and interact with them. “Gain inspiration and establish valuable
new contacts and networks,” she told the young researchers. Numerous
lectures, discussion sessions, panel discussions and science master
classes are lined up for the next one week.
Eighteen students from India who are doing their post-graduation, and
doctoral and post-doctoral programmes are participating in the meeting
this year.
Ms. Bernadotte urged the participants to experience “the spirit of
Lindau” – “a shared enthusiasm for science and a shared desire to
address challenges facing the world. You will discuss research questions
and relevant issues, just as generations of Laureates and excellent
young scientists have done since 1951.”
The three core ideas of the meeting are to “educate and inspire” the student researchers and “connect” them with the Laureates.
“Your stay at Lindau will result in valuable lessons learnt, and gaining
inspiration for scientific work that will be useful for a lifetime,”
Ms. Bernadotte reminded the students. Though 27 Laureates are gathered
here, unlike other conferences, the Lindau meeting is held for the
benefit of young researchers attending the programme. The focus is to
provide them a platform to interact closely with the Laureates and raise
questions and receive guidance from them.
“The idea of CERN was initiated at Lindau,” the Countess told the
students, adding, “we want you to take full advantage of this meeting
[by raising questions]”.
Science and technology and innovations using cutting edge technologies
have become vital for achieving sustainable solutions for many of the
challenges that people are facing today. There is hence a need to raise
public awareness. The Lindau meeting is ideally placed to connect
science and society at large.
For the second year in a row, teachers have been invited to participate
in the programme. The main intention behind this is not only to
recognise their contribution but to ensure that they go back and share
the spirit of science with their students. This will, in the long run,
help in attracting more and better students to science, she said.
“Science cannot perform miracles,” warned Annette Schavan, Federal
Minister, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) in her
welcome speech. The need is for countries and political establishments
to become serious. Research policy makers are facing challenges now from
climate change, energy supply and global health. Germany has increased
its budget for science by 53 per cent during the last seven years.
“We need sustainable solutions,” Ms. Schavan said. “Transforming the
energy systems is one of the priorities in Germany.” Setting new
priorities in research will go a long way in making better use of
renewable energy.
“The end is to phase out nuclear energy and complete the transition to
renewable energy,” Ms. Schavan said. “This way Germany wants to make an
effective contribution in fighting climate change.”
Green technologies have therefore gained centre stage. The central idea
is to use natural renewable resources so as to makes sure that the
actions of the current generation do not destroy the resources of future
generations. It is for this reason that energy that has been chosen as
one of the key subjects of this year’s meeting. The other two main
themes identified are cosmology and quantum physics.
As a mark of recognition of their valuable contribution to science and
technology and innovation, Tony Tan, President of the Republic of
Singapore and Ferdinand K. Piech, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
Volkaswagen AG were inducted as new members to the honorary Senate of
the Foundation Lindau Nobel Laureates meetings at Lake Constance.
(This Correspondent is one of the two journalists from India
participating in the 62 Nobel Laureates Meeting at Lindau, Germany, at
the invitation of the German Research Foundation, Bonn.)
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