College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Rubbing shoulders with scientific greatness

Graduate student meets with Nobel Laureates at Germany conference.
This past summer may have been the best of Ryan Olson's young life.

The graduate student in physical chemistry (with a specialization in theoretical/computational chemistry) spent almost a month in Europe. A long-time fan of bike races, he was able to take in the final day of the Tour de France and witness Lance Armstrong's triumph first hand.

He also visited Washington, D.C. for the first time in his life.

Oh, and by the way, he had the opportunity to sit next to a Nobel Laureate at lunch one day.

All this was possible after Olson was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as one of 18 outstanding research participants to attend the 53rd International Convention of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, June 30-July 4.

"The very best part of the experience was meeting with the other DOE students," Olson said. "We really bonded together and we still keep in contact with each other."

While in Lindau, Olson participated in activities with Nobel Laureates relating to biology and medicine. Since 1951, Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine have annually convened in Lindau to have open and informal meetings with students and young researchers from around the world.

"It was a little overwhelming at first," Olson said, "to be participating with a panel of Nobel Laureates."

The students heard lectures from the Laureates on topics related to biology or medicine, including biochemistry, biotechnology and biophysics, in the mornings during the conference. In the afternoons, Laureates presided over informal roundtable sessions.

It was there that Olson said the students had the opportunity to quiz the Laureates.

"The one thing you take away from that was, as good of a scientist as these individuals are, they are just people," he said. "When you win the Nobel Prize, people think you should have answers for everything - even things far from your field. As scientists I realized that these individuals are really focused on just one area."

Olson and the other DOE participants joined 10 other students to represent the United States at the meeting. The other students were sponsored by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and the University of Arizona. They spent three days in Washington, D.C. for a meeting at DOE headquarters before flying overseas.

After the Nobel Laureate conference was completed, Olson took the opportunity to travel throughout Europe before he attended the International Congress on Quantum Chemistry, which was also held in Germany.

At Iowa State, Olson is studying with Mark Gordon, distinguished professor of chemistry and the director of the Ames Laboratory's Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences Program.
Olson is currently assisting with three different projects in Gordon's research group including looking at high-energy density materials, small gold clusters, and various programming projects associated with Gordon's GAMESS software.

Last spring, Olson and two other graduate students joined Gordon in Australia when Gordon was collaborating with Australian scientists as part of a Fulbright Fellowship. In November, Olson will discuss his work with GAMESS at the Supercomputing Conference.

"Ryan is an extraordinarily good programmer, and he has already written some very nice new code that will enhance our ability to do parallel computing," Gordon said. "Some of his new code enhances the possibility that we can explore grid computing using quantum chemistry in the future."