From the July 2014 Desktop News | Imagine meeting the winner of a Nobel Prize. Now imagine spending an entire week with 38 Nobel Prize winners. That is the opportunity of a lifetime that Brandon Hill, a doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences, had this summer.

Along with about 600 other young researchers from 80 countries, Hill was selected from a group of some 1,500 applicants to attend the 2014 Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, June 29-July 4. The researchers participated in discussions, master classes and panels led by Nobel Prize winners working in medicine and psychology.

Hill, whose long-term goal is to win a Nobel Prize for his research, said he was extremely grateful to attend a meeting where he can interact “with all of the great scientists that are paving the way” for him as he continues to pursue a career in biomedical research.

“This meeting will give me an opportunity to exchange research ideas pertaining to my dissertation project with the Nobel Laureates as well as meet talented young scientists from different universities all around the world,” Hill said prior to making the trip. “The meeting will also provide a global platform for me to network and establish contacts with the top scientists in the world. I am most excited about meeting the Nobel Laureates and understanding how their incredible work has broken down barriers in the science world in the most unimaginable ways possible over the last century. I am also excited to learn about how such great scientists have managed to achieve continued success in their respective fields, despite encountering certain challenges and obstacles toward the pinnacle of their careers.”

Hill’s research primarily focuses on engineering herpes simplex virus type-1 and nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery in treating cancer. This project is a collaborative effort between Dr. Carol Duffy, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; Dr. Yuping Bao, associate professor in the College of Engineering; and their respective labs.

Hill said he expects to finish his doctorate in 2015-2016, after which he plans to pursue a post-doctoral position that focuses on developing innovative drug delivery systems for cancer therapy.

For more information about the conference, visit www.lindau-nobel.org.