CRC on board with Nobel laureate

A glamorous touch inhered in the morning of Friday, June 29th when the “MS Sonnenkönigin” took off from Lindau. “Being on board with about 20 Nobel laureates certainly is an exceptional and inspiring experience”, Janis Müller admits. He works as a postdoc at the Institute of Molecular Virology. Institute director and CRC speaker Frank Kirchhoff presented CRC 1279 together with his postdocs Janis Müller and Dorota Kmiec at the concluding event of the 68th meeting of Nobel laureates.

This year, the meeting was dedicated to the disciplines of Physiology and Medicine and took six days in total. Around 600 undergraduates, PhD students, and postdoc researchers from all over the world had the opportunity to meet 39 laureates. 18 of them joined the boat trip on the last day. Dorota Kmiec proudly reports: “I had the chance to talk to Walter Gilbert who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for DNA sequencing. Seeing people like him showing interest in our work was very uplifting and motivating.”

Not only scientists, but also the provincial government, represented by Ulrich Steinbach (Director at the Ministry of Science, Education and Arts) participated in the trip to “Insel Mainau” and discussed the goals of CRC 1279 with Frank Kirchhoff. In addition, various members of the local universities, university hospitals and research centers presented their projects and study programmes. Also the winners of the youth science competition „Jugend forscht“ of Baden-Württemberg were invited.

 Far from the prejudice of being penny-pinching, the Swabians afforded a delightful event and stimulated fruitful discussions on board and onshore. Maybe it is no coincidence that till date, as much as 12 Nobel Prize laureates come from this region. At least, the central slogan of the event claims: “Your first step to Stockholm: Baden-Württemberg”.