Talented young researchers meet Nobel Laureates Chemistry PhD student Moritz Wolff selected for Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

Moritz Wolff is a research associate at the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at TU Braunschweig, where he works in the research group of Professor Stefanie Tschierlei. She nominated him to participate in the Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau. From 29 June to 4 July 2025, more than 30 Nobel Laureates and more than 630 young scientists from all over the world will meet there for this year’s focus on chemistry. Moritz Wolff was nominated and successfully passed the selection process.

Moritz Wolff. Photo credits: Studioline Wolfsburg/Moritz Wolff

“It is a great honour and privilege for me to attend. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are highly regarded and, as the name suggests, supported by many Nobel Laureates. For me, this is a unique opportunity to meet the most important researchers of recent years and decades in one place” says Moritz Wolff from TU Braunschweig. He is particularly interested in the research of Professor Moungi Bawendi because of the important role quantum dots play in photochemistry. The German Nobel Laureate Benjamin List recently launched a major photochemistry project. The aim is to develop an approach for splitting CO₂. “He would be another interesting person for me to talk to at the conference.”

PhD in photochemistry

Moritz Wolff is working on the photochemistry of transition metal complexes for his PhD. “These molecules use light to enable otherwise inaccessible reactions to take place under mild, environmentally friendly conditions. In terms of climate change, the holy grail of photochemistry is artificial photosynthesis, where light alone could be used to produce so-called solar fuels from CO₂ or water.” His research is mainly fundamental, says Wolff.

For more than 70 years, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have provided a unique forum for dialogue between Nobel Laureates and young scientists. Each summer, more than 600 of the world’s most talented young scientists and more than 30 Nobel Laureates are invited to Lindau on the German side of Lake Constance to spend a week full of inspiration and scientific encounters. In 2024, Laura Patzke, a master’s student in theoretical physics at TU Braunschweig, was a guest at the Lindau conference.

About the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

Since 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have promoted dialogue between scientists of different generations, cultures and disciplines. Each year, the focus alternates between one of the three Nobel Prize disciplines in the natural sciences. Every five years, an interdisciplinary conference brings together the three natural sciences, including chemistry and physics. In addition, an economics conference is held every three years. The Nobel Laureate Meetings are organised and hosted by two institutions: a Board of Trustees and a Foundation. Many of the meetings are open to the public.