FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2002
FY02-24a
ORAU/NIST/DOE Sponsor Students to Meet with Nobel Laureates
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), National Institute of Standards (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will sponsor a total of 39 outstanding graduate research participants to attend the 52nd convention of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, July 1–5. The 39 participants were selected from among ORAU’s university consortium members and from among students working at federal facilities or universities funded by NIST or DOE.
Continuing a tradition established in 1951 by Swedish patron Count Lennart Bernadotte, Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics, or physiology and medicine convene annually in Lindau to have open and informal meetings with more than 400 students and young researchers from around the world. The meetings rotate by discipline each year. This year’s event will focus on chemistry.
All participants will travel to Washington, D.C. for a meeting at DOE headquarters on June 28. That afternoon, they will depart on the overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where they will transfer to buses for the trip to Lindau. The students will have Sunday to get settled and tour the historic medieval island city, rich in western European culture, located at the common border of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
The meetings begin on Monday with welcoming ceremonies and an evening dinner and gala social event. For the next three days, the Laureates will lecture on topics of their choice related to chemistry during morning sessions. The primary purpose of the meeting is to allow participants—most of whom are students—to benefit from informal roundtable sessions. Therefore, each afternoon, they may approach any Laureate, each of whom will be sitting at his or her own table with a name tag. In the evenings, Laureates will join small groups of participants for informal dinner discussions at hotels and restaurants in Lindau.
Friday, the participants will travel by ferry to Isle of Mainau, and the baroque Mainau Castle, the residence of Count Bernadotte, for the closing ceremonies. That afternoon the U.S. participants will return to Frankfurt for the flight home or continue to travel through Europe on their own.
A special Web site has been set up to post daily information while students are attending the meetings. Each day, photos and a summary of events will be posted on the Web site. The URL for this year’s meeting is www.orau.gov/orise/edu/lindau2002.
The Web site and travel arrangements for all participants are being administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).
Selected ORAU-Sponsored Participants:
Jennie R. Atkins, Clemson University
Michael W. Blair, Oklahoma State University
Vernessa M. Edwards, Alabama A&M University
Glake A. Hill, Jr., Jackson State University
Richard Johnston, UNC-Chapel Hill
William R. Marion, University of Alabama-Birmingham
Nathan I. Nicely, North Carolina State University
Leah J. Siskind, University Maryland
Jonathan M. Sprinkle, Vanderbilt University
Shannon Willoughby, Tulane University
Selected DOE-Sponsored Participants:
Christine Aikens, Iowa State University
Amanda Bean, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Krys Bronk, Tulane University
Tanja Cuk, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
Matthew Douglas, Washington State University
Susan M. Dounce, University of Pennsylvania
Nouvelle Gebhart, University of New Mexico
Shelley Gilliss, University of Minnesota
Derrik S. Helfer, State University of New York, Buffalo
Bernadette A. Hernandez, Colorado State University
Daniel Horner, University of California, Berkeley
Rishi Lee Khan, University of Delaware
Maria J. Krisch, University of Chicago
James Lightstone, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Connie C. Lu, California Institute of Technology
Robin Macaluso. Louisiana State University
Randall McDermott, University of Utah
Michael McGuire, Michigan State University
Robert J. Meagher, Northwestern University
Jean R. Paddock, University of Cincinnati
Paul Rulis, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Zacharary Schultz, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign
Matt Sfeir, Columbia University
Jason Stairs, Pennsylvania State University
Laura A. Swafford, Vanderbilt University
Nathan VerBerkmoes, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Erica A. Woronowicz, Yale University
Selected NIST-Sponsored Participants:
Rose M. Hernandez, Pennsylvania State University
Gloria Thomas, Louisiana State University
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 86 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.