Peer Bork, Eric Lander and Dinshaw Patel were the guests for NN dinner yesterday. The picture below was taken shortly after Eric Lander (center left) sat down. He caught the rapt attention of the students immediately even though not everyone knew the details about his contributions to genetics or heard the stellar plenary lecture he had given at the conference on Monday. Peer Bork (left) and Dinshaw Patel got their turn to talk later. We had many attends from the conference this time and filled the patio in the back yard of the Meierei .
Organizing these dinners was really rewarding. Particular in the context of a larger conference whose size is limiting interactions, sites like Nature Network provide a nice platform for local groups. Tonight, our guest will be Rudi Jaenisch and conclude the fringe dinners for the congress.
Wow, I’m so jealous I didn’t stick around. These dinners sound great. We’ll have to try and do more of this kind of thing around other major conferences.
It was pretty cool to have a chance talking to really impressive scientist, just like Oliver Smithies, Eric Lander etc, just to see, that they are normal people too.
In the beginning I was a little bit afraid of meeting that kind of important personalities in science, because I am only a student in my 6th term biochemistry studies. But looking back the those dinners, I have to say I learned a lot of things, for example how to become a great scientist.
Thanks a lot to Roland and Philip organizing these events. Hope to you see you both soon.
Everybody should take the chance next time ;)