A photo of one of the past meetings - the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (2015) - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Series dates back to 1951, when two prominent physicists at the time persuaded Count Lennart Bernadotte of Wisborg, who was a member of the Swedish royal family, to invite seven recent Nobel laureates to Lindau in southern Germany.
The meeting has become an annual event and has since grown to host over 40 Nobel laureates and 600 young researchers from across the world. The vision for these events is to bring together early stage researchers from across generational and cultural borders, and to promote research exchanges with Nobel laureates in their respective fields.
These meetings cycle over the scientific themes of the Nobel prize, namely Physiology and Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Interdisciplinary Research, as well as an additional economic sciences themed meeting taking place every 5 years. This year’s topics are Chemistry and Economic Sciences. The meeting series also brings together world leaders such as Angela Merkel (2014), Bill Gates (2011), and others, who actively interact with the young research leaders.
In recent years, Malta has consistently been invited to nominate exceptional early career researchers to take part in the various editions of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Series. In response, the University of Malta established the Selection Committee for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings which has been setup to determine nominees. For this year’s exciting event, the Committee is nominating Dr Ryan Vella for Chemistry and Mr Gilmour Camilleri for Economic Sciences.
Dr Ryan Vella is an atmospheric scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. He holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physics and Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Geosciences from the University of Malta. Following his Master’s, he worked at the European Space Agency as an Earth Observations scientist, focusing on atmospheric composition using satellite data. Dr Vella’s PhD research investigated the feedback between vegetation, atmospheric chemistry, and aerosols, shedding light on how these interactions are evolving in the climate system. He has published several papers in respected peer-reviewed journals. Ryan actively participates in outreach initiatives in Malta and is particularly interested in understanding and addressing the impacts of climate change on the Maltese Islands.
Mr Gilmour Camilleri holds the position of Chief Economist at the Malta Fiscal Advisory Council. He is also a Visiting Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Malta. Previously, he was Director at the Office for Competition and an Economist at the Economic Policy Department, leading the macroeconomic forecasting and analysis team. He holds a Master of Science degree in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in Economics degree from the University of Malta. Mr Camilleri is currently reading for a doctorate in Economics at the University of Malta in the areas of environmental economics and econometrics. He has a number of peer-reviewed publications and actively participates in local and international fora on matters related to economic developments and policy.
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Series offers a precious opportunity for local researchers to take part in global academic events of this kind, and to grow their research network through events featuring future leaders in their respective fields. These researchers will also be representing the recent academic successes that have emerged from Malta more generally, as well as demonstrating what is possible for the next generation of local researchers.
