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Aggie Grad Students Gain Inspiration at Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Texas A&M graduate students joined emerging scientists worldwide at the 2026 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting to learn, network, and collaborate.
Lindau Harbor on Lake Constance, Germany, featuring the historic lighthouse, marina, and waterfront district.
Patrick Kunkel
For Texas A&M doctoral student Joshua Rushlow, the 2026 Nobel Laureate Meetings began with a simple surprise: Nobel laureates were far more approachable than he expected.
Although Rushlow had been told by Texas A&M faculty and administrators that the world’s most accomplished scholars would be eager to share their wisdom and lend their ears to the next generation of scientists, the level of engagement still exceeded his expectations. “I thought there would be some barriers between the students and the Nobel laureates,” Rushlow said. “But it turned out that they loved interacting with us.”
By the end of the week, Rushlow had discussed chemistry, artificial intelligence and more with Nobel Prize winners and fellow researchers from around the world. “I sat with them at meals and chatted at sessions,” Rushlow said, “about their science, my science and life.”
Elsewhere at the Lindau meeting, MD-PhD student Mailin Li was bonding with Nobel laureates about overcoming failed experiments, rejected grants and career setbacks. Physics doctoral student Ajithamithra (“AJ”) Dharmasiri was finding that some of his most inspirational conversations came from scientists in other disciplines than his own.
Dharmasiri, Li and Rushlow, alongside Aggie undergraduate student Isabella Oaks and postdoctoral researchers Dipankar Sen and Kayla Goforth, were among 35 young researchers from the U.S. chosen to attend the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, an international gathering that brings together Nobel Prize winners and emerging scientists from around the world to exchange ideas, forge new partnerships and be inspired to become future leaders in research.
For all three students, the experience was more than an opportunity to meet some of the world’s most accomplished scientists. It was an invigorating reminder to always embrace the curiosity that drew them to scientific research in the first place, and that collaboration drives discovery, or, as Li put it, “we’re in this together.”
Joining a Global Scientific Community
Before traveling to Germany, students from U.S. institutions selected to attend the Lindau Meetings participated in the Lindau Spring Preparatory Meeting hosted by Texas A&M, where they met fellow attendees from across the United States.
That early connection proved valuable once they arrived in Lindau. Mailin Li likened the experience to the first week of college.
“You have 600 new people trying to figure out who to sit with at lunch,” she said. “So it was comforting to see friendly faces.”
The spring meeting helped the students establish relationships before they found themselves surrounded by hundreds of researchers from around the world. Those relationships quickly evolved into groups of friends that only expanded at Lindau and will extend far beyond the conference itself.
Rushlow remains in contact with researchers he met at both the College Station spring meeting and in Lindau who are exploring how AI and machine learning can be applied to chemistry. Li has already begun collaborating with other scientists on research presentations and professional projects. Dharmasiri said the program introduced him to a community of talented young scientists he expects to remain connected with long after graduation.
“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe in the future we’ll work together.”
Joshua Rushlow networks with fellow attendees during a symposium event.
Michaela Stache
From a Small Undergrad Institution to Lindau
Rushlow, whose interest in chemistry was sparked by an eleventh grade AP course, took an unconventional path to a gathering like Lindau.
He attended Millersville University, a liberal arts college in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education with an enrollment of about 7,000. Originally a teacher’s college with few graduate students, there’s not much of an emphasis on research output at Millersville, but research is built into the science curriculum.
“As part of the chemistry degree plan,” Rushlow explained, “you have to do at least two semesters of research. And without the grad students, you’re working very closely with the professor, so the research foundation is there.”
His interest and aptitude as a researcher led to an opportunity to attend a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Tennessee, where he discovered a passion for coordination chemistry. He chose Texas A&M for his graduate study for the opportunity to work with world-renowned chemist Dr. Hong-Cai Zhou.
Now a doctoral student in chemistry, Rushlow studies highly porous metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. Researchers whose work advanced the field of MOFs won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2025, including Dr. Omar Yaghi, whom Rushlow was able to meet at Lindau.
“The way I always describe the material I work with is to think of a sponge,” Rushlow said, “but only better. Unlike a sponge, we can control and tune the environment inside it, engineering it to capture specific gases, harvest clean water from the atmosphere and support a variety of other applications.”
Meeting researchers from outside chemistry proved to be one of the most valuable aspects of Lindau.
“I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to go when the meeting was interdisciplinary,” he said. “Moving into the future, sciences are going to get much more interdisciplinary.”
Conversations with Nobel laureates and fellow researchers reinforced his belief that solving society’s most pressing challenges will require collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
The experience also strengthened another passion: science communication.
“I want chemistry to be accessible to everyone and understandable to everyone,” Rushlow said. “I think that’s crucial if we hope to build a brighter future.”
Graduate student Mailin Li discusses research findings with conference participants during a poster presentation
Butch Ireland
Rediscovering Purpose Through Science
For Li, Lindau provided something equally valuable: perspective.
Born in China, Li moved to Massachusetts with her family at age four. She earned her undergraduate degree at Tufts University and spent years working alongside faculty mentors and postdoctoral researchers who helped shape her identity as a scientist.
Now in the final stages of her MD-PhD training at Texas A&M, she studies why some breast cancer patients respond more positively to treatment than others. Her research combines clinical data with advanced genetic and cellular analysis to identify patterns that may help physicians better tailor treatments for individual patients.
The path to becoming a physician-scientist is long, demanding and challenging. “There are lots of ups and downs,” Li said. “Sometimes you struggle.”
For that reason, Li said her Lindau experience was fortifying. “When you experience difficulty, it’s easy to become discouraged and a bit unsure of yourself. In those times it’s reassuring to learn that everybody else has the same kinds of struggles and insecurities about their work and their capabilities.”
One of the most impactful moments for Li at Lindau came while listening to Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó describe the setbacks and disappointments she experienced before her pioneering work helped develop mRNA vaccines.
“She had all these failures and obstacles, but she kept pushing boundaries,” Li said. “Then, when COVID happened, the work was ready when the world needed it.”
For Li, Karikó’s and others’ stories reinforce the reality that scientific breakthroughs and careers are rarely defined by uninterrupted success. Instead, they require the persistence it takes to pursue your curiosity. “It’s just helpful to have this network of people to share their experiences. You learn that others struggle just like you, but also that you are where you are because you have the same curiosity that drives you. You just have to trust yourself.”
AJ Dharmasiri presents research during the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany.
Image courtesy of Dharmasiri
Finding Wonder in Physics
For Dharmasiri, the origins of his scientific journey lie somewhere unexpected: magic.
Growing up in Sri Lanka, he became fascinated with street magic and sleight-of-hand performances. What captivated him was not merely the trick itself, but the mystery behind it.
“The special feeling in magic is the mystery,” he said.
That fascination stayed with him through undergraduate studies and eventually led him to physics, where quantum mechanics gave him the same sense of wonder and curiosity.
“I started getting the same feeling exploring quantum mechanics that I got from magic,” he said. “It sparked a similar curiosity about the mysteries behind how the universe works.”
After earning a master’s degree at Miami University, Dharmasiri came to Texas A&M to pursue a Ph.D. in experimental quantum optics. His research focuses on quantum sensing using microscopic diamonds with engineered impurities that allow researchers to measure tiny changes in temperature and magnetic fields. “These diamond-based systems are being developed for quantum computing (to tackle complex problems) and quantum communication (for increased security),” he said.
Along the way, he found creative ways to combine his passion for physics with his love of performing magic. He joined a student organization for magicians called the Aggie Magic Circle and later directed a group magic show at Rudder Theatre. One of his tricks uses two shuffled decks of playing cards to give audiences an intuitive feel for quantum entanglement. Although each randomly selected card appears unpredictable on its own, the trick reveals an unexpected correlation between the cards selected from the two decks, an effect that mirrors the mystery of entangled quantum particles.
To help make quantum ideas engaging and accessible, Dharmasiri now brings hands-on quantum demonstrations to broader audiences. As the principal investigator on a grant from the American Physical Society, he develops public demonstrations using research-grade quantum technology
At Lindau, he expected to be most interested in talks related to physics. Instead, some of the conference’s most memorable presentations came from Nobel laureates in biology and chemistry.
“I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the interdisciplinary part,” he said. “But I enjoyed it a lot.”
The experience broadened his perspective and reinforced the value of curiosity beyond one’s own field. “All of us as scientists benefit from meeting and talking to other scientists. You expand your views of what science can do. You see that everyone else is also searching for answers like you are. And through that engagement, we move science forward in meaningful ways, sometimes in ways entirely unexpected,” he said. “Then you bring a little bit of that inspiration and energy back to your labs and classrooms. It definitely has a ripple effect.”
Conference attendees gather for a group selfie, celebrating collaboration and new professional connections.
Image courtesy of Rushlow
The 76th Annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will be held June 27 – July 2, 2027, and will focus on Physiology and Medicine. The Lindau Scholars Spring Preparatory Meeting will be held in April, 2027. Texas A&M will send a call for applications/nominations this fall.
