Summer is in full swing in Bavaria. The beer gardens are full and flowing with weißbier and Aperol spritzers. It’s hard not be swept along by the holiday vibe.

In Lindau, however, a team are furiously busy, preparing to welcome 39 Nobel laureates and 580 young scientists to the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. On Saturday, I will be jumping on a train to join them in the picture-postcard town – also an island – at the edge of Lake Constance in Germany’s far south.

The focus of the annual meeting is rotated and, this year, it’s physics’ turn. Attendees include Nobel new kids Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou, who shared the 2018 prize for their pioneering work in laser physics. Illustrious regulars have included Werner Heisenberg and Paul Dirac.

A changing mission

When the meetings started in 1951, the organizers’ aim was to undo the isolation of German scientists that occurred in the Nazi era. Today, it’s still very much about bringing scientists together, but its reason for being has switched to nurturing conversations between different generations of scientists.

“The main goal of these meetings is to bring together young scientists with Nobel laureates,” says Rainer Blatt, this year’s scientific co-lead and professor at the Institute of Experimental Physics in Innsbruck, Austria. “In close encounters with them, the young scientists have the opportunity to learn first-hand from the laureates and get inspired.”

Making sure that the most talented minds can attend, wherever they are from, is also central to the meeting ethos. This year, young scientists are travelling from 89 countries and include the first from the Dominican Republic and Mozambique. All under 35, they are undergraduates, PhD students and post-docs. To win one of the highly coveted spots, outstanding achievement in academia and research is a prerequisite.

Many attendees go on to great things, says Nadine Gärber, who is head of Young Scientist Support and Academic Partner Relations. They include Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, a biochemist and the Portuguese Minister for Education, and German astronaut Alexander Gerst.

A geophysicist by training, Gerst sent greetings to the 2014 meeting from the International Space Station 400 kilometres above the Earth. It was the most moving Lindau moment for Gärber, a Lindau local who has worked on the meetings for 15 years. “He attended the Lindau Meeting the year before and brought his name badge on board the ISS and showed it to the camera,” she says. “It was broadcast during the opening ceremony and I was so overwhelmed.”

The meeting programme is unlike that of a typical scientific conference. To encourage more relaxed, face-to-face conversations between the young scientists and the laureates, it includes cosy lunches, afternoon strolls and, for a select few, the both fabulous and sweaty-palm-inducing opportunity to present their research to a laureate in a Master Class.

Lindau is not, however, just about the science. A chunk is devoted to careers, issues affecting research, and science and scientists’ role in society. I’m particularly looking forward to a discussion of the threat of nationalism (Br*xit, anyone?) to international collaborations in science.

Not listed on the programme is the undeniably special atmosphere, which I experienced first-hand last year. It bubbles with the enthusiasm of the young scientists. “(It) sweeps me away year after year,” says Gärber. I’m looking forward to sharing the experience with you next week – stay tuned!