Markita Landry is one of 75 graduate students who have been selected to represent the United States at the 60th Annual Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students in Lindau, Germany. During the meeting, students will attend lectures by the Laureates on topics in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine and will be able to participate in discussions with them.
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Markita Landry is one of 75 graduate students who have been selected to represent the United States at the 60th Annual Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students in Lindau, Germany. During the meeting, students will attend lectures by the Laureates on topics in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine and will be able to participate in discussions with them.
Markita Landry
Markita Landry
Landry, who obtained a BS in chemistry and a BA in physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is working on a PhD in chemical physics at the University of Illinois. An NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Landry uses state-of-the-art optical trapping techniques to investigate protein-DNA interactions at the single-molecule level. She is a member of Yann Chemla's research group.
During the conference, Landry hopes to interview Zhores Alferov, one of the 2000 Nobel Laureates in physics who has served as an elected member of the Duma, the Russian legislature, since 1995.
"I want to ask him a science-policy question that I've had for many years now," said Landry. "Why is there a consistent under-representation of scientists in politics? Here in the U.S., fewer than 1.5 percent of members of Congress are scientists. By maintaining a strong divide between science and politics, it seems inevitable that scientific issues will end up being poorly addressed in political circles."
Since 1951, Nobel Laureates have annually convened in Lindau, with the goal of fostering open and informal exchanges with students and young researchers from around the world. The U.S. representatives will be joined by more than 650 other international students at Lindau. During the meeting, the Laureates will lecture in the mornings and meet in less formal small groups in the afternoons. The Laureates will also join students at local restaurants during lunches and dinners for more informal discussions. Various networking events are also planned to allow participants to meet other attendees from around the world.
Landry will be reporting on her Lindau experiences on her blog. Physics Illinois alumnus David Pekker (PhD, 2007) participated in the 54th Lindau Meeting.
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Writer/Contact: Celia M. Elliott, Department of Physics, 217/244-7725.
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