The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is held annually in Lindau, Germany. This year’s meetings in Germany, an interdisciplinary meeting (the 70th), and a meeting in economics (the 7th), were postponed to 2021 due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Instead, young scientists/economists originally selected for participation met virtually from 28 June to 1 July 2020. The online programme combined the topics of the interdisciplinary and the economics meetings and presented the young scientists with opportunities to interact with the other participants albeit virtually. Similarly, academic partners like ASSAf had the opportunity to interact with the participants through an Expo and Networking day that had been organised as part of the online meeting programme.  

Funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), ten young South African scientists had been accepted to attend the interdisciplinary meeting and nine for the economics meeting.  

More about the Lindau Meeting: Once every year, some 40 Nobel Laureates convene in Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: 600 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster the exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. The meetings focus alternately on physiology and medicine, on physics, and on chemistry – the three natural science Nobel Prize disciplines. An interdisciplinary meeting revolving around all three natural sciences is held every five years. In addition, the Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences is held every three years.