Because of their research and studies, two MSU graduate research students are getting the chance to mingle with Nobel Prize winners in Germany.
Chemical engineering graduate student Dina Eldin and physical chemistry graduate student Deborah Davies, who are both working toward their doctorate degrees, will spend five days in Lindau, Germany with 498 other International graduate students and 58 American students at the 54th Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students.
"I'm really excited," Eldin said. "I can't believe I will get to talk to people who have won the Nobel prize.
"I want to see what they did as graduate students - how they came up with their ideas."
Once in Germany, Eldin and Davies will meet with more than 25 Nobel prize winners in physics, and have the chance to attend discussions and meetings with the laureates. The students will also have the opportunity to go to dinner and take a boat trip with the laureates, where they'll be able to have more intimate conversations.
"I wanted to get a broader knowledge of some of the hot topics in my research area," said Davies, who works at the Cyclotron. "There's a lecture about 'Lasers in Peace and War,' and I'm interested in listening to that."
The Lindau meeting, which celebrated its 54th anniversary this year, was first started by deceased German Count Lennart Bernadotte, whose wife Sonia now hosts the meetings to help get German students back in the world of science. The meeting was opened to students from other countries in the 1970s.
"The students will make friendships with people in other countries that will last a lifetime," said Roland Hirsch, program director at the U.S. Department of Energy.
"They'll be together in this island town and hopefully they'll set up collaborations with students from all over the world."
Eldin, who is doing research on multiphase turbulence, said she is looking forward to being able to speak with research students from all over the world.
In order to be eligible to be selected to go the meeting, students must have to be doing research funded by either the National Science Foundation or the Department of Energy. They must also be second or third year graduate students. Eldin was told about the event by an academic advisor, and Davies through a friend.
Davies was one of 48 students out of 80 sponsored by the DOE and National Science Foundation. And Eldin was one of 10 out of 90 students sponsored by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a group of colleges responsible for researching ways to help the environment.
"I think the meeting will help me because I'm meeting other students who might become professors," Eldin said. "I'm going to listen and get new ideas from them."
