The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is the largest yearly gathering of Nobel Laureates in the world - thus, I assumed the conference was going to be pretty cool, but it turned out to be a lot more than "just" that. To anticipate my thoughts at the ending of this meeting: I could have stayed for at least anther week to get to know all 400 young scientist and to talk more to all the ones I met, but everybody was so tired, that it was a good time to close the conference.
When I arrived on Lindau, my seatmate wished a "happy holiday" and I didn't really know what to reply. Indeed, most people go on vacation on Lindau - which makes sense as the Alps frame the Lake Constance which is great for swimming, surfing, SUPping, sailing, ... There's also a mainland part of Lindau where my host family lives.
After an opening ceremony on Sunday, the actual conference started on Monday morning with 30-min talks from the Nobel Laureates. There was a talk about soap bubbles, the climate change, LEDs, ... it was a huge, but very interesting variety. But the breaks inbetween were at least as important as the presentations themselves! I got to know many other enthusiastic young scientists from all career levels, backgrounds and countries. It was super inspiring to exchange ideas and future plans. I even met people with similar research projects and problems!
Prof. Stefan Hell talked about his motivation for experimental physics and he mentioned that he wanted to help is parents and not become a taxi-driver ;-)
As studies show, sleep is important for learning and memorizing, as Prof. Carl Wieman found out during his research on learning and education - after winning the Nobel Prize in 2001 for the Bose-Einstein-Condensate.
