Feature

Meeting the Nobel Prize Winners

Fahim Hassan

THE “Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates” is a global rendezvous of scholars. Each year this conference is arranged to accumulate the Nobel Laureates and academicians as well as young researchers from all over the world beside the Lake Constance in Lindau, Germany. The theme of this conference is mainly four broad topics in which the Nobel Prize is awarded: Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, and Economic Science.

This scientific program encompasses various policy debates, interdisciplinary platform discussions, and lectures presented by the Laureates. It provides the scope for getting acquainted with great thinkers of this time and for experiencing cross-cultural pattern of academics. Demonstration of the groundbreaking research works by the Nobel Laureates welcomes young minds to exercise their talent and broaden their spectrum of knowledge. This conference not only deals with textbook notions but also focuses on application and implementation in real world.

In 2008 the 3rd Meeting of the Winners of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was held by the Lindau authority in collaboration with University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. I was one of the fortunate participants in the “Young Researcher” category. It is a great honor and privilege for me to be the sole participant representing my country as well as my institution, University of Dhaka.

Apart from the two Bangladeshi participants, Dr. Abu Shonchoy (Fellow, Australian Academy of Science, Australia) and me, there was Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace prize, 2006) in the meeting of Nobel laureates as the first Bangladeshi ever.

On the first day of the event, a symphony by a group of musicians proclaimed the opening of 3rd Lindau Meetings of Nobel laureates, 2008. After the opening address by Countess Bettina Berandotte, Dr. Joseph Ackermann was declared as a new member in the Honorary Senate by the authority. Then a panel discussion was arranged highlighting “Systemic Risks in Financial markets”. The moderator was David Wessel, Editor, Wall Street Journal. The panelists were: Prof. Mcfadden, Prof Yunus, Prof Scholes and Prof Stiglitz. The inter-active discussion session was mainly focused on the financial activities of Europe and United States.

Afterwards a lecture by Prof. Yunus revealed the new possibilities of micro-credit to eradicate extreme poverty from the globe. He highlighted the theme “Social Business is the Solution”. His speech convinced the audience and gave an optimistic view to do social business, a new concept of non-profit business (to be more specific, business without any monetary benefit).

All in all, the event was awe inspiring in terms of the potentials it promised. It is a dream come true for any young researcher.

(Student of Economics Department, DU)