Dr Thomas Gruber to Head the Executive Secretariat

Lindau, 14 June 2023

Press Release

Dr Thomas Gruber to Head the Executive Secretariat of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings From September

As of September 2023, Dr Thomas Gruber will take over the management of the Executive Secretariat of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. He succeeds Wolfgang Huang, who has held this position since 2010 and will take up a new career after the 72^nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in June 2023.

After obtaining his D. Phil. at Oxford and working as a staff member in the German Bundestag and public-sector consulting, Dr Gruber has been managing international events and the various publication series of Harvard University’s research center in Florence/Italy since 2017.

On his role in Lindau: “For me, it is a great privilege to return to a region that has been familiar to me since my youth. At the same time, I am looking forward to working with the team and being responsible for an event that has connected Lindau with the world of science for decades and offers young generations access to the top of their field in such a unique way.”

Countess Bettina Bernadotte, President of the Council: “The entire Council is looking forward to working with Dr Gruber. I am convinced that after taking over the office that has been so successfully managed and developed by Wolfgang Huang, Dr Gruber will proceed in shaping our meetings.”

“The entire team at the Executive Office and I personally look back with great gratitude on challenging as well as successful and collegially pleasant years together with Wolfgang Huang. We wish him all the best, both professionally and personally for the future”, sums up Nikolaus Turner, Member of the Boards of Council and Foundation Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. “I am glad that Dr Thomas Gruber will complete our team and take over the baton in September. His participation as a guest at the upcoming meeting will give him a good impression and is the ideal preparation for his future task.”

About the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

Since their foundation in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have developed into a unique international scientific forum. The annual meetings provide an opportunity for an exchange between different generations, cultures and disciplines. The theme of the Lindau Meetings alternates between Physics, Chemistry or Physiology and Medicine – the three Nobel Prize scientific disciplines. Every five years an interdisciplinary Meeting takes place, while the Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences is held every three years. Through the medium of various declarations (2020 for Open Science, 2015 on Climate Change, 1955 Against the Use of Nuclear Weapons) the scientists have repeatedly joined in the public debate with political appeals.

It was the Lindau physicians Franz Karl Hein and Gustav Wilhelm Parade who approached Count Lennart Bernadotte af Wisborg with the idea of a meeting of Nobel Laureates and proceeded to jointly implement this with him – since 1953 with the participation of young scientists. Some 35,000 students, PhD candidates and post-docs have since taken part. Their experience of the Meeting may be literally once-in-a-lifetime, but they remain permanent members of the Lindau Alumni Network and ambassadors for scientific dialogue.

All year long the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings continue to pursue their ‘Mission Education’ aimed at emphasising the importance of science and advocating science and research. This is also the purpose of the Lindau Mediatheque as a learning platform with teaching materials for schools.