FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2003
FY03-24-W2
UT Student Selected to Meet Laureates in Germany
OAK RIDGE, TENN—Joshua Sharp, graduate student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as one of 18 outstanding research participants to attend the 53rd international convention of Nobel Laureates.
The convention is taking place in Lindau, Germany, June 30–July 4, and Sharp will be participating in activities with Nobel Laureates relating to biology and medicine. Since 1951, Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics and physiology/medicine have annually convened in Lindau to have open and informal meetings with students and young researchers from around the world.
DOE participants are joining 10 other students to represent the United States and over 400 other international students at the convention. The other students representing the United States are sponsored by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine and the University of Arizona.
Participants are traveling to Washington, D.C., for a meeting at DOE headquarters on June 27. Then, they depart on an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where they are transferring to buses to take them to Lindau. On June 29, the students will tour Lindau, a historic medieval island city rich in western European culture and located at the common border of Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
The meeting begins June 30 with welcoming ceremonies and an evening dinner and gala. The following three days, Laureates will lecture on topics related to biology or medicine, including biochemistry, biotechnology and biophysics in the mornings. In the afternoons, Laureates will preside over informal roundtable sessions. During lunches and dinners, Laureates will join participants at local restaurants for additional informal discussions.
On July 4, participants will travel by ferry to Isle of Mainau for the closing ceremonies at the baroque Mainau Castle, the residence of Swedish patron Count Lennart Bernadotte who began the Nobel Laureates program in 1951. That afternoon, U.S. participants will return to Frankfurt for the flight home or continue traveling through Europe on their own.
A Web site has been set up to post daily information while students are attending the meeting. Each day, photos and a summary of events will be posted. The URL for this year’s meeting is www.orau.gov/orise/edu/lindau2003. The Web site and travel arrangements for all participants are being administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, which is managed by ORAU for DOE.
Sharp is a graduate student studying genome science and technology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, specializing in biological mass spectrometry. He is the son of Elizabeth and Mike Newman of Covington, Tenn.
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) is a U.S. Department of Energy institute focusing on scientific initiatives to research health risks from occupational hazards, assess environmental cleanup, respond to radiation medical emergencies, support national security and emergency preparedness, and educate the next generation of scientists. ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.