Nobel opportunity

Rice graduate students journey to Germany to meet laureates

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Any young scientist will tell you it’s a thrill to talk shop with a Nobel Prize laureate. So what must it be like to encounter 20 of them at once?

In less than a month, Andria Denmon and Ashley Leonard will have the answer.

	Andria Denmon, left, a graduate student in biochemistry and cell biology, and Ashley Leonard, a graduate student in chemistry, will attend the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Germany this month. Photo by Tommy LaVergne

The Rice University graduate students will be among a select group to attend this year’s Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau, Germany, June 28-July 3. The annual event, in its 59th year, brings 600 young researchers from around the world to hear from top scientists who’ve made breakthroughs in their respective fields.

This year the meeting will focus on chemistry, and Sir Harold Kroto, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Rice professors Richard Smalley and Robert Curl for their joint discovery of fullerene carbon compounds (aka the buckyball), will be among the speakers, addressing “Science, Society and Sustainability.”

That alone will be a thrill for Leonard, a fourth-year grad student conducting experiments on the use of nanomaterials in biomedical applications. She spent time with Smalley himself while visiting Rice before enrolling. “He made a lot of time for us, telling us his ideas and visions for nanotechnology,” Leonard said. “It’s pretty wild to see some of those visions, like drug-delivery systems, come to reality now.”

Leonard, who works in the lab of James Tour, Rice’s Chao Professor of Chemistry, also researches nanotech-based hydrogen storage systems for future energy needs. The Fort Worth native and Texas A&M graduate is looking forward to meeting the laureates and is interested in sharing ideas with the other students. “We all have a passion for chemistry and science, and it’ll be interesting to see the work they’re doing and maybe even start some collaborations.”

Denmon, a biochemist working to define the genetic mechanisms that allow disease-causing bacteria to function, anticipates meeting laureates Kurt Wüthrich and Richard Ernst, who earned Nobels for their advancements in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a key tool in her work.

She’s also excited about making the acquaintance of other participants. “It’s a good opportunity to meet other young scientists and learn how they do research in other countries,” said the San Diego native, a graduate of the University of California at Irvine.

Denmon, a student of Edward Nikonowicz, an associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, wants to find out what inspires the laureates. “How did they keep going when things seemed tough? In science, it’s very easy to become unmotivated when something doesn’t work, or you’re not getting the result you expected. So it’s nice to be able to talk to someone who’s been there and understands.”