33 Nobel Prize winners met over 600 young female and male scientists from all over the world at Lake Constance: the occasion was the 74th Nobel Laureate Meeting (Chemistry) in Lindau at the beginning of July. Dr Alessandro Innocenti and Dr Adriana Sacristán Martín, two young researchers from Ulm, were also there. For the follow-up visit, 18 young chemists from 13 countries came to Ulm University. There they learned about the promising career opportunities in the Cluster of Excellence POLiS and the Collaborative Research Centre CataLight.
When the international greats of a subject meet young talents from all over the world, it is an unforgettable experience for young scientific talent. Dr Alessandro Innocenti and Dr Adriana Sacristán Martín, who travelled to LINO25 from Ulm - both environmentally friendly by train and with a ticket for Germany - thought so too. The two had qualified for participation in a strict selection procedure. Innocenti is a postdoc at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), where he is researching the further development of lithium-ion batteries. "The conference was an invaluable experience for me. I was particularly pleased to meet Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2019 for their work on lithium-ion batteries," said Innocenti, who studied energy engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and came to the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for his award of a doctoral degree at KIT. "I was also very impressed by the wonderful atmosphere and the opportunity to socialise with young researchers from all over the world," said the Italian scientist, who now works in Ulm. The dinner with Nobel Prize winners Kurt Wüthrich and Johann Deisenhofer was also a special experience for him. The dinner was organised by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, which also supported the participation of the two Ulm researchers in LINO25.
Dr Adriana Sacristán Martín also believes that this experience will stay with her for the rest of her life. The scientist is a postdoctoral researcher at Professor Max von Delius' Institute of Organic Chemistry I. She was also very impressed by the personal contact with the laureates: "It was incredibly motivating to hear their personal life stories and to learn about their appointments," says the Spanish chemist, who studied chemistry at the University of Valladolid and completed her doctorate before coming to Ulm University as a postdoc. She also attended the dinner with Wüthrich and Deisenhofer. The scientist also very much enjoyed the international get-together with other young researchers. "Although many of us have different backgrounds, there are so many shared experiences," says Sacristán Martín.
Young researchers from all over the world visit Ulm University
The follow-up event after the LINO week showed that young chemists from all over the world were also interested in Ulm's green energy research. After the conference, 18 PhD students and postdocs from 13 different countries - five of them from the USA alone - made their way to Ulm to find out more about research in the POLiS Cluster of Excellence and the Collaborative Research Centre CataLight.
The visitors' interest in Ulm's battery research and photocatalysis was so great that the tight schedule for the laboratory tours in the rooms of the University and the Helmholtz Institute Ulm could hardly be kept to due to the many enquiries. The guests were able to see for themselves that Ulm is one of the world's top locations in the field of sustainable energy storage and conversion. Quite a few were impressed by the level of research and the equipment in the laboratories. It is quite possible that some of them will decide to continue their scientific career between the Albrand and the Danube.
Further information:
Martina Riegg, Ulm University, ProTrain U, e-mail: martina.riegg@uni-ulm.de
Susan Czogalla, Ulm University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, e-mail: susan.czogalla@uni-ulm.de
Text and media contact: Andrea Weber-Tuckermann