Nobel Effect

Every year in July, Lindau, a small town, east of Germany, transforms into a nucleus for the scientific community. A confluence of Nobel laureates from across the world comes together to discuss and address student scholars. “The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (LNLM) is an amazing opportunity for students to interact with, and be inspired by, some of the world’s most prominent figures in science,” says Anjali Devi Das, a Chemisty student doing her Masters at Delhi University. Devi Das is a part of 22-student researcher team visiting Lindau this year.

Since 2006, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) or DFG, promotes research in Germany. It sponsors a group of 22 Indian students, who are passionate about scientific research. For two weeks the students tour Germany, attending seminars and lectures, interacting with Nobel laureates and exchanging ideas with students from other countries. The meetings focus on different disciplines of science and are held a three-year cycle, for instance, physics in 2012, chemistry in 2013, and physiology and medicine in 2014.

These meetings have helped many young scholars expand their knowledge about various areas of scientific research. Student scholars also get to visit research facilities at various institutes. An official from the DFG who accompanies the student researchers on their visit informs, “Students get to visits labs on campus which are equipped with the most advanced and recent instruments. Many return aspiring to pursue research either in India or abroad.”

For instance, Dr Nasreen Akhtar, assistant professor, physiology, faculty of dentistry, Jamia Millia University, has decided to dedicate herself to research in physiology. “The visit opened my mind to research. After completing MD and being in academics, I still want to pursue a post doctoral fellowship in Germany where there is ongoing research on Physiology,” she says.

The visit has inspired even the current lot of scholars. “I have been working on the structural transition of the human prion protein. Atomic level understanding of proteins is a key step in drug discovery,” says Shwetha Srinivasan, a third year student at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali.

Apart from a mere exchange of ideas and inspiration, the student scholars find the LNLM culturally enriching experience that provides them an opportunity to make valuable friendships across countries and fields of study.