Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are annual, scientific conferences held in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany since 1951. Their aim is to bring together Nobel laureates and young scientists to foster scientific exchange between different generations and cultures.

Every Lindau Meeting consists of a multitude of scientific sessions like plenary lectures and panel discussions as well as a variety of networking and social events. The meetings assume a unique position amongst international scientific conferences: With 30-40 Nobel laureates attending they are the largest congregation of Nobel laureates (apart from the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies in Stockholm) in the world. The meetings are not centered on the presentation of research results, but instead, their main goals are the exchange of ideas and the discussion of topics globally relevant to all scientists. The Nobel laureates do not receive any kind of payment for their participation and are free to choose the topics of their presentations. More than 300 are members of the meetings’ Founders Assembly.

Billed by the organising Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings as their ‘Mission Education’, the aim of the meetings is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between Nobel laureates and young scientists but also among the international scientific community and the general public. The opportunity for participants to form international networks of scientists is also regarded as a prime objective by the organisers. The meetings’ leitmotif is ‘Educate, Inspire, Connect.’

After World War II, Germany was disconnected from the international scientific community due to the ramifications of the Nazi regime. During this time, hardly any scientific conferences of high value took place in Germany.

The two physicians Franz Karl Hein and Gustav Parade from Lindau, a small town located on the Bavarian shore of Lake Constance, conceived the idea of organising a scientific meeting to bring together German researchers and physicians with Nobel laureates. They convinced Count Lennart Bernadotte af Wisborg, a member of the Swedish Royal Family and proprietor of nearby Mainau Island, to call upon his good connections to Sweden’s Nobel Committee to support the undertaking. The first meeting, subsequently held in 1951, was dedicated to the fields of medicine and physiology and was attended by seven Nobel laureates, among them Adolf Butenandt and Hans von Euler-Chelpin. After the success of the initial meeting, the scientific scope was broadened to include the other two natural science Nobel Prize disciplines chemistry and physics. Thus, a mode of annually alternating disciplines for the meetings was established.

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