The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings started in 1951 when two local physicists from Lindau convinced Count Lennart Bernadotte af Wisborg (member of the Swedish Royal Family and proprietor of the nearby Mainau Island) to take advantage of his good connections with the Nobel committee to support the idea of bringing young researchers together with Nobel Laureates for themes. The annual meeting has since grown enormously to encompass a meeting cycle of physiology and medicine, physics, and chemistry together with an interdisciplinary theme every five years and Economic Sciences which is held every three years. This is a unique international scientific forum in which participants have the opportunity to exchange ideas between generations, cultures and disciplines. The event convenes 30-65 Nobel Laureates in Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists (600 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world).
After the initial meeting in 1951, the series has brought some 35,000 students, PhD candidates and post-docs to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Alumni then become permanent members of the Lindau Alumni Network, and ambassadors for science and the open exchange of scientific ideas. Each meeting involves a one-week stay in Lindau and involves a number of different platforms in which to the interchange of ideas can take place. This ranges over Lectures, Agora Talks, Discussion Sessions, Master Classes, Panel Discussions, Science Breakfasts, as well as special events and host nation activities.
As of 2008, Countess Bettina Bernadotte has been president of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in which time she has championed further cooperation with research institutions around the world, and also introduced more educations aspects for the general public as part of the Lindau meetings. In addition to Nobel Laureates, the Lindau Meetings Series also attracts noteworthy guests on a yearly basis such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel who gave the opening speech at the Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences 2014, while the 2017 speech was given by then president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi. Other guests include Bill Gates, José Manuel Barroso and Tony Tan, among many others.
Further information can be found on www.lindau-nobel.org
