What is green chemistry? It is a term coined by Paul Anastas (formerly with the US Environment Protection Agency) in 1991 to denote sustainable chemistry that would follow a 12-point environment-friendly checklist formulated by Anastas and Warner. The theme at the Lindau Nobel Laureates meeting centred on this aspect of 'sustainable' chemistry, with Laureates delivering lectures related to their fields of research and students engaging with them, asking questions and sounding out their own ideas and future plans.

The lecture topics included Gprotein coupled receptors and challenges for drug discovery (Brian Kobilka), catalysis at surfaces by Gerhard Ertl, an easy way for carbon-carbon bonding by Akira Suzuki, photons in a box by Serge Haroche, the fuel of life by John Walker, how chemistry helps biology by Erwin Neher, towards adaptive chemistry by Jean-Marie Lehn, green chemistry and catalysis by Robert Grubbs, energy and climate change by Steve Chu, communicating climate change by Mario Molina, aquaporin water channels in the cell — from atomic structure to malaria by Peter Agre, ubiquitin systems by Avram Hershko, laser frequency combs by Theodor Hansch and more.

And then there was Swiss Nobel Laureate Richard Ernst, who is convinced that even the most astute scientific mind needs to be tempered with some kind of extracurricular activity that feeds the soul, so to speak. He shared with the audience slides of exquisite Buddhist paintings from his personal collection . He won the Nobel in 1991 for his contribution to the development of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

Breakfast meetings were organised between Nobel laureates and groups of students on how surface science could contribute to solving global energy issues, quantum information processing, and largely, on how solutions to global environmental problems could be driven by science.

While mornings were devoted to lectures, the afternoons were exclusively kept aside for student interaction with Nobel laureates , which meant intense discussions on research topics — an unforgettable and invaluable knowledge sharing experience. The Nobel laureates too see it as a way of learning to see things from the youth's perspective.

Often, these interactions lead to fruitful networking and opening up of opportunities that turn out to be life-changing .