Annual-Report-2024 - Flipbook - Page 44
Suraya Kazi’s #LINO24 Story
One Precious Week of
Questions and Inspiration
Suraya Kazi is a PhD student working on plasmonic and electrically tuneable
nano-antennas in conducting polymers at Linköping University, Sweden. She gave
the Young Scientist farewell address at the close of the 73rd Lindau Meeting.
I first came to know about the Lindau Nobel Laureate
Meetings in 2018 during the last application period for
a Physics Meeting. I was studying at the University of
Dhaka in Bangladesh. I did not have the courage or qualifications to apply for such a special meeting. Still, I looked
up more information, I watched all the videos of previous
Young Scientists sharing their experiences of a Lindau
Meeting. And I thought to myself, wow, that must have
felt like a dream. Little did I know it will be my dreamcome-true experience someday.
The next year, in 2019, another dream came true when
Uppsala University offered me a scholarship to pursue a
master’s in physics in Sweden. There, I got to see my first
Nobel Laureate in real life, Barry Barish, when he visited
us for a lecture.
Once I met my first Nobel Laureate in person, I was
keen to meet many more but sadly the pandemic intervened. Things were difficult in many ways, especially not
being able to see my family for three years and surviving
Swedish winters all by myself. In addition, I was particularly sad that there would be no Nobel Laureate visits
42 | Different Generations – Shared Experiences
anymore. Sometime during that time, I thought: What if
I work hard, achieve everything, and join the next Lindau
Physics Meeting in 2024 and meet all the Nobel Laureates?
(Considering we all survive the pandemic first, of course.)
So, for the last four years, I looked for opportunities,
grabbed them all, and made the best out of them. I applied to Lindau well-prepared, and it worked! Now that
I have spent one precious week with all these genius
minds, I can safely say that I have not met a single soul
here who did not inspire me in one way or the other. I was
amazed by the brilliant questions asked by the Young
Scientists to the Nobel Laureates which the Nobel Laureates themselves found challenging to answer. I think we
all will return home with this unique experience, more
confidence, and a lot of stories to tell.
When asked if I would be interested in giving the farewell speech on behalf of the Young Scientists, I hesitated.
Then I thought: Wait a minute, didn’t I just make it all the
way to Lindau? This should be easy! I will be repeating
this to myself many times in my life when I need a bit of
a push to keep going.
