Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2010—opening ceremony

First of all, allow me to share the view from my bedroom window.  My apartment is right next to the old town hall, and this is what I see when I wake up:

Lucky me!  In fact, that’s how I feel about this whole experience.  I almost can’t believe that I really am here.  On the way to the registration desk, I run into Jose, my fellow Hopkins attendee.  The registration process is a breeze, and we pick up this giant laureate portrait book.  In an email before the conference, we were warned that the book would be heavy.  But 16.5 pounds feel much heavier now that it’s actually in my hands.

  

Jose and I decide on the spot that we would ship these back to the U.S. rather than hauling them by ourselves to Torino, Milan, and Rome.  After putting these away in our hotel rooms, we head out for lunch.  I keep hearing about the amazing dÖner kebaps so we try one from the little shop next to the train station.  I cannot believe that for €3.30, I get this humongous sandwich nearly the size of my head (and I assure you, I have a rather large cranium!). 

Jose and I sit at a bench in front of the harbor to enjoy our lunch.  Birds gather at our feet to eat the crumbs.  They are not afraid of humans at all, even coming to our hands to take food, very cute.  This is the view during lunch:

We have a few hours before the opening ceremony begins, so we explore Lindau on foot, stopping occasionally for beer and ice cream.  On the other side of the island, we run into a family of swans chilling in the shade.  The babies look like fur balls.  Swans.  Did I really just casually run into some swans?

3p.m., it’s time.  The conference center is full of laureates, students, and journalists.  The air is buzzing with excitement.  I soon discover there are royal VIPs among us—Countess Bettina Bernadotte of Sweden, and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand.  At the conference center we find Dr. Peter Agre, who nominated us for this opportunity (thanks a million!!).  Dr. Agre won the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2003 for his discovery of aquaporin.  How he discovered aquaporin is quite an intriguing story.  Benyam is also here, representing Harvard.

During the ceremony, Countess Bettina speaks elegantly about the history of the Lindau meetings.  She and other speakers bring up the theme of communication and collaboration again and again.  This year’s meeting is the 3rd interdisciplinary meeting, where laureates and students in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine are all brought together.  Over 60 countries are represented.  The lectures, discussions, and conversations in the next few days will undoubtedly inspire and motivate us.  In science, when you are studying everything about just one thing, sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the small details and forget the big picture.  A step back and a fresh perspective often brings the best solution—look at the forest not the tree.  My lab is having a brainstorming retreat at the end of July, where each person will present one novel idea on breast cancer therapy.  I hope my fellow researchers, particularly those in chemistry and physics, help me find a cure.

After the ceremony, I have some free time while Benyam and Jose go to a Qiagen meet-and-greet.  I meet Tingting from China, and we chat over a cup of coffee.  She might be going to Stanford soon for postdoc training.  Maybe I will run into her in Palo Alto in the near future.  We explore the island a bit more, and come back to the conference center for dinner.  Oh delicious German food, I can never eat enough of you.

Swans of the edible kind:

The rest of the evening is, of course, devoted to World Cup matches.  Go Germany!