I am delighted to say that I was invited to attend the Lindau Nobel Prize Meeting in Physics this year in-person.

To be amongst some of the brightest young physicists on the planet and 38 Nobel Prize Winners in physics is extremely humbling and at the same time an amazing opportunity – I look forward to the sharing and learning from them all.

Upon registration I was given my own personalised events calendar alongside the intense timetables for the week and business cards! Isn’t that cool! Although, my email address at KCL doesn’t exist anymore.

Looking around the faces of so many gathered it was clear that we were all excited and eager to engage with each other.  Everyone dressed in a formal attire and some championing their national dresses too.

Normally, I always found networking and socialisation an strenuous exercise but the organisers I think made it very easy. There was a un-uttered truth: we have to maximise our contact with each other and we have to talk and learn from each other. We should do so unreservedly and unashamedly.

For me the magnitude of it all was honed in, with the presentation of 73 year history of Lindau and by the address by Donna Strickland, when she said “unfortunately you won’t be able to come back to Lindau, you’ll need to win the Nobel Prize to be invited again…”.

The opening session was all focussed on the values of Lindau and it was clear that this was not just about physics but addressing the larger set of problems we face as humanity.

Speaking with some of the delegates, I was pleasantly surprised how many were actually undergraduate and masters students. Full of youthful excitement and hunger, the former maybe lacking in me and thus apparent.