Edo Carnio, PhD student in the Physics Department, had been selected by the Royal Society and the University of Warwick, to attend the 66th annual meeting of Nobel Laureates in the southern German city of Lindau. Here is his report:

The 66^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting has taken place from June 26 to July 1 2016 on the beautiful island of Lindau, Germany, where 29 Nobel laureates, 400 young scientists and many other distinguished guests were welcomed.

The scientific programme followed a clear pattern consisting of a science breakfast early in the morning, followed by the Nobel lectures and the discussions between the young scientists and the Nobel laureates, respectively before and after lunch. The afternoon was usually complemented with other scientific happenings, be them panel discussions or master classes. The tightly-scheduled days ended with dinners offered by the various sponsors supporting the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Foundation.

The Nobel lectures were not necessarily about the research for which the Prize was awarded; on the contrary, some laureates preferred talking about their current research and others opted to talk about broader themes. Among the latter I enjoyed the perspective on Einstein's legacy for the centenary of General Relativity, given by David Gross, as well as Roy Glauber's recollections on the Manhattan Project.

While all young scientists attended the Nobel lectures, each of us decided which discussions and master classes to attend. For me the decision fell on the theme of energy and climate change, which involved the Nobel lecture by Carlo Rubbia and the discussion and master class led by Steven Chu (see Edo next to Steve in the photo). I also took the occasion to attend the dinner sponsored by Mars Inc., where I listened with great interest to the talk by Dr Santer on the challenges of working with Big Data when studying climate change.

I will not elaborate on the absolute privilege that has been attending the meeting and listening to the Nobel laureates. I should instead move the spotlight to the other main ingredient to this successful meeting, namely the contact with so many brilliant young scientists from all over the world. For the kind of scientist I am, this has been a great boost to my motivation and my drive to push the boundaries of knowledge and to contribute to the advancement of technology.

The meeting has confirmed, once again, the lesson that you do not need to be a once-in-a-century genius to pursue scientific research. What struck me while talking to the other participants was always the same trait: curiosity. This thirst for knowledge will propel the scientific innovation of the future, but only when allowed to freely roam in the realm of the unknown. The warning from the Nobel laureates came loud and clear: hardly any scientific revolution came from walking down safe and known routes. We need to own the courage to map new, unexplored paths, while maintaining enough lucidity to recognise dangerous or blind alleys.

To conclude, I think the Meetings fully meet their objective to “Educate. Inspire. Connect” and I am sure they will continue to successfully engage with an increasingly diverse audience. For the opportunity to attend this event I thank the University of Warwick and the Royal Society for sponsoring my application and the Institute of Physics for financial support.

Edo was not the only one with prior Warwick experience to attend the Lindau meeting. Biplab Pal, from Kelyani University in Calcut, India, is a previous visiting guest student at Warwick, working in the same group as Edo for three months in 2015. Biplab's report can be found published in Nature India.