Participants By Last Name
 A-I | J-N | O-Z

This was a wonderful experience for me and reinvigorated my interest in science. The main message of the meeting (from both students and Laureates) was to do what you are most interested in. This has given me the reassurance to take some chances in my academic career that I otherwise may have avoided.  The lecture that had the most value for me was one given by a physicist who won the prize in medicine and physiology for his work with MRI.

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The biggest benefit was the perspective offered by the Laureates. I especially found meaningful those talks that emphasized the importance of continuing to ask questions. I think as a graduate student it is quite easy to become completely focused in one's own little corner of the world. I was struck by the Laureates who not only mastered a specific question but kept there eyes on the "big" questions in their field and how their work related to these. They seemed keenly aware of questions and issues they did not know the answers to and sought to investigate these in their work.

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To meet the Noble Laureates was a great experience. Meeting the Laureates gave me added confidence in my abilities as a scientist and motivated me to achieve my fill potential. Whenever I am in a scientific slump I can also look back on this experience for motivation and encouragement.

There were two Laureates who attended the meeting (Heeger and MacDiarmid) that won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2000 for work on polymers. Both their talks were very interesting to me since my research is in the area of polymers. The best informal discussions that I had with Laureates was at the dinner sessions. Overall, my experience in Lindau was excellent. I would recommend it to all my friends. It was a great meeting and will always be a memorable experience for me. 

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I think the best thing about meeting the Laureates was hearing about their experiences as scientists and absorbing the useful advice they had for a successful career in science. I also enjoyed learning about them as people outside of their lives as scientists. I obtained the most value from Manfred Eigen's lecture because it was nice to see a mathematical formulation of competition in evolution.

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Meeting and speaking with the Laureates was refreshing. Their stories of when they were struggling grad students really helped me to put things in perspective and helped me come away from the meeting with a more optimistic view. The most wonderful thing I heard at the meeting was during Charles Townes' talk when a student asked him how you deal with failures in your research. He smiled, told us about some of his failures and pointed out that nearly every "failure" is a success in itself if viewed correctly.   I found this very inspiring.  The very best part of all the discussions was listening to the Laureates tell stories about their lives as students and their interactions with many of the people that we've heard of through our lessons. It felt often more like sitting around the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and your grandfather and learning about the way their lives were and the experiences they had. It was great.  This meeting was wonderful.

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Their inspirational words touched me in a special way and now I count with the courage to finish what I started and to assess the increasing importance that science has in our society as we tackle worldwide problems today and tomorrow. Persistence and the seeking of truth lie at the heart of our work as scientists, and our being exhorted to question everything will likely lead to us come forth with steadfast solutions to the questions we now face.

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Germarie Sanchez-Pomales (University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras)

The opportunity to hear their views on different topics such as ethics, managing a research laboratory, life and fame after the Nobel Prize, starting new research projects, and life outside the laboratory, among others, was very enlightening.  The meeting gave me the chance to renew my scientific curiosity and my passion for my research work and it allow me to realize that hard work, perseverance and dedication are the right paths towards professional success.  One of the highlights of my trip was the opportunity of organizing a lunch for Latino-American students. German and American students joined others from Chile, Venezuela, Spain, Argentine and Puerto Rico, and the lunch served as a very interesting cultural exchange. I truly believe that this trip was an unforgettable experience. Meeting many of the world’s top scientists is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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Mandy Sapp (Oregon State University)

It was truly eye opening to listen to so many of the Nobel Laureates speak on the topic of climate change, sustainability and development of renewable energy sources. Conversations with the Laureates and students at the conference helped me realize how little I know about this topic as well as politics, international environmental policy and much more. I’ve returned home refreshed, with added excitement for my research, and a new hobby—learning about climate change and environmental policy! I plan to get informed about my local environment and climate change on a broader scale so that I can engage community members and state government representatives in dialogue.

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I was REALLY inspired by the discussion of science and policy--the call by the Laureates to us as younger scientists to make sure we are heard and participate in government decision-making.  My dream is to go into environmental technology policy, so I really, really enjoyed the talks about global warming and was very inspired by the call to action from scientist to scientist. 

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As for my experiences with the Nobel Laureates, I found most of them to be quite charming and charismatic. They particularly wanted to engage the students around them in great discussions which were quite an honorable experience for me. As a result of knowing so many of them, I now feel no intimidation about meeting with any scientist despite their stature.

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I attended all the plenary lectures and the discussion lectures of Martinus Veltman, Charles Townes, and Paul Crutzen. Townes meeting was the most enjoyable thing of the entire meeting. He shared his experiences over his career in physics, how he did things others dismissed out of hand.

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The chance to meet the Nobel Laureates was a truly humbling and encouraging experience. The Nobel Laureates are our "celebrities" and to learn about their research, passions and personal lives was invaluable to me as a maturing scientist. I gained more confidence in myself by talking about scientific issues with several of the Nobel Laureates and even overcame my fear of asking questions.

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The lecture that had the most value to me was Prof. Sir Harold Kroto's "2010 a Nanospace Odyssey". His message was to remind all of us that science is for everyone and that even some of the most difficult concepts to grasp and new technologies can be taught to the general public and children.  The Laureates are just ordinary people who happened to dream up an extraordinary idea and where at the right place at the right time to make it happen. Any one of us could have an idea at any moment in time that could shape an entire field of science. The Laureates have a lot to teach the next generation, not just about what they do or have contributed to science, but about life itself.

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Meeting with the Nobel Laureates also inspired me because many of them overcame significant hardships in life/research and still accomplish significant scientific work. The close social interaction with Nobel Laureates allowed me to hone communication and networking skills that will aid me in the future.

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I think the most valuable thing I took away from this meeting is that the Laureates are just like everyone else (or at least as much as scientists are like everyone else). Simply winning the Prize doesn’t suddenly afford one new knowledge on all subjects; it does however mean that more people listen to them when they speak on a subject. I think these are important lessons to learn for scientists in training, not to be in such awe of anyone that you accept was they're saying as fact without thinking about it first.

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Claretta Sullivan (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Hands down, the most inspiring part of the trip was meeting Prof. Roderick MacKinnon. I attended the meeting with hopes of meeting him, and I was a bit worried by Friday that I might not get the chance. Thankfully, the return trip from Mainau presented an opportunity. He was sitting on the top deck talking with his wife and Professor Blobel. One student approached him with questions followed by others of us who were waiting for an indication that he was willing to talk. He graciously pulled up chairs to include all of us. When the rain began to pour, he ushered us to a covered area on the top deck. As the wind and rain increased, he found a place inside where all of us could sit and talk. He patiently answered every question and stayed with us until the boat pulled into the dock near their hotel.  It was wonderful!

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I particularly enjoyed the lectures given by Kurt Wüthrich, Robert Curl, Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon. Each of these lecturers was able to convey the idea that the future of the world lies in the basic understanding and the application of methodologies which address the essential needs of humanity.  I especially benefited from the lunches and dinners arranged by our sponsors with the Laureates, where I was afforded the chance to get to know them on a more personal level. I quickly realized that the knowledge that these guys possessed and the topics they were willing to discuss were not limited to their specific research areas. The topics of our informal discussions ranged from politics and stem cell research to life as a graduate student. At a lunch with Peter Agre, however, we managed to discuss all of the above in addition to religion, ethics, and the education of today’s youth with an emphasis on the encouragement of pursuing careers in science.

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It was such an honor to be selected for this wonderful opportunity. It was an inspiration to meet individuals that have accomplished so much in their own lives and the lives of many others. Their work was the foundation and/or stepping stone to the current state of our knowledge. The thought of making an impact such as that is nothing short of motivating and inspiring. I enjoyed the morning individual lectures. Being of a biology background, I was interested in hearing about other research fields, especially physics.

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It was useful to start thinking about all the career possibilities that come with science education- not just academics. The main thing I learned was that the laureates are normal people, and that they worked hard because they were studying something really interesting to them. Also, I already feel less nervous around famous scientists.

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Experiencing the pontifications of the laureates helped me to realize that laureates are just people, and not all knowing. It has given me more confidence in my ability and ambitions as a scientist. It was inspiring to see the humility and good nature of some of the laureates. This shows me that I do not have to be completely arrogant and dogmatic to be a high level scientist.  The lectures I remember most are the lectures on evolution and global warming. They showed me that the ability to think rationally has no dependence on titles.

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Maggie Walser (University of California, Irvine)

I found the round table discussion on Global Warming to be the most relevant to my own research and interests. I also gained from the lectures that were completely outside my own field. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own research, we forget that there is a lot of amazing science being done in a broad range of disciplines, so it was exciting to hear about a lot of different projects.

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The first Nobel Laureate that I actually met in person was Prof. Richard Ernst. He and his wife ate dinner at a table with me, two other American students, an Italian journalist, and a Japanese student. Ernst asked everyone at the table what school we were associated with and what type of research we conducted. The students were a bit shy at first but Ernst used a great deal of humor and charm to open up the table to discussion. At one point, he went back to the buffet line and brought our table two plates of strawberries and distributed them to everyone in a joking manner and followed that up by pulling out his laptop to show us all a slideshow of his Tibetan art collection. Ernst left us all with a very memorable first Nobel dinner and gave us a wonderful first impression of how unique and entertaining a Laureate could be.  Every moment that I spent with these brilliant scientists helped to build my own confidence and nurture excitement toward research in an immeasurable way.

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10/21/2005