By Frieda Meding

Dog-pics and dragon-boats: Scientists outside their natural habit

Elizabeth Blackburn (USA, middle), winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009: “I actually did play the piano a lot, but apparently nobody seems to like it. And then I got a thing for lousy mystery stories“. Blackburn, who asked us to join her for picnic on the Mainau island enjoys sharing experiences especially young female scientists from all over the world who see a dignified role-model and true science-popstar in her. „If I am photographed winning an award, the picture makes the point that there‘s a woman winning a science prize – that aspect of an award is important to me.“
Ruairi Robertson (middle) from the London School of Medicine co-chaired a panel-discussion on the second day in Lindau. And when he doesn‘t do that, well: “I play a lot of tag-rugby. And I am a terrible singer, but we have this thing called Gospeloke in London, you sing Karaoke with a whole Gospel choir behind you. One of the best times of my life!“
“I spend a lot of time on cooking and photography. So this might have been an alternative career outside the world of life sciences. Being here in Lindau I like taking pictures of dogs. My wife couldn‘t join me as she is working in Okinawa, Japan, but she likes dogs, so I‘m sending the pictures to her.“ Sir Tim Hunt, who won a Nobel prize for his research on cell cycles in 2001, insisted on cleaning the table himself after eating and might be awarded a prize for being the most amusing and photogenic Nobel Laureate.
Born and raised in India, Ila Datar is a cancer researcher at Yale University today. “Well, the lab takes a lot of time – and then I am pregnant, this seems a lot to me already. If I didn‘t work in science, I‘d like to study photography.“
“I like video games, mostly the difficult ones and if it wasn‘t for science, I might have become a chef, the fancy type of cook“, says Pedro Marques, the first scientist we met in Lindau. He was overwhealmed by around 100.000 IQ points buzzing around the island. His answer on the obvious question if he was planning on winning a nobel prize: "Oh, absolutely, yes.“
“My father was a professional guitarist, so he gave me a guitar when I was 12. Since then I play the guitar – I even brought it to Lindau, it is in my hotel room right now.“ American Nobel laureate Martin Chalfie (right), whom we could hardly talk to as he kept being encircled by a fascinated crowd of young scientists, provided us with an inspirational quote even non-scientists can understand: “Life is n=1, there is no control group. Enjoy what you do and take advantage of the circumstances."
Anton and Michael, currently working at the University of Vienna and the KAUST Saudi Arabia just met a few days ago. Apart from their research on age-related diseases and brain metabolism, Anton told us he likes dragon-boat-races and Michael, who‘s originally from Romania, enjoys water sports as well: "I do wakeboarding in my free time outside the lab.“
“I‘m interested in constitutional law. I ask myself the question if – especially in an immigrant country like the USA – one constitution can hold all the citizens together. I haven‘t found an answer yet but I find it fascinating.“ - Michael Rosbash, awarded with the nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine just last fall. Being asked if one can expect winning a nobel prize, he admits: "Did I think it was it possible? Yes. Did I think it was likely? Not really. Did I think that morning, the phone was ging to ring? No way.“
Michael Young (middle) won the Nobel Prize together with Mr. Rosbash, and he shared a personal story with us: “Me and my wife own a house close to Santa Fe, New Mexico, we take long walks around there. The place is 6 miles away from the main road, you never meet anybody but find interesting artefacts like spears from the native Americans. So, besides chronobiology I find Geology very interesting, as well as Anthropolgy.“ Additionally, his daughter is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology. “She asks me to proof-read her papers and I enjoy discussing sociological topics with her.“
“I can wiggle my bump very quickly – you know, I can twerk.“ We met Brenda, who explores tropical diseases in Gambia and London, right before she jumped into her taxi. She entered it laughing and then asked: “So this quote will end up right next to my picture and name?“

When we attended the 68th Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau last week, one thing was clear from the very beginning: We were certainly going to meet lots of brilliant minds. But contrary to our inital expecttions it soon became clear that neither the young researchers nor the Nobel laureates were all nerds solely interested in science. We collected their hidden talents, unexpected hobbies, alternate professions* and passions.

(*Tim Hunt shared with us that he likes the word career just a little as we do)

Futur drei @ LINO18

Bei der Nobelpreisträgerkonferenz in Lindau diskutieren junge Wissenschaftler*innen mit ihren Idolen. Frieda und Phillip beleuchten in dieser Artikelreihe aus verschiedenen Perspektiven das Event und die Themen, die aktuell in der scientific community diskutiert werden.

Pictures/Credits: Julia Nimke/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Pictures/Credits: Christian Flemming/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Pictures/Credits: Frieda von Meding/Futur drei

Futur drei @ LINO18

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