Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings: 291 Young Economists Meet the World's Top Researchers in Economics in Germany.

LINDAU, Germany -- 291 young economists from 40 countries will meet the world's top researchers in economics - 12 prizewinners of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - in Lindau in mid-August. The participants of the 2nd Meeting in Economic Sciences were selected in a multistage nomination process. Promising young economics talents from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa were chosen, including 81 women. German President Horst Koehler and Countess Sonja Bernadotte will open the four-day encounter on 17 August. A central aspect of the meeting will be the dialog between the different generations of researchers and participants from all continents.

"The focus will be on scientific excellence, personality development and international networking between highly-gifted people, the elite of the scientific world and industry", explains Thomas Ellerbeck, council spokesman and chairman of the foundation's executive board. The conference is "internationally a showcase for Germany as a seat of business and science." At the Laureate meetings, networks are born that extend far beyond the perimeters of the meetings. The dialogues cross the boundaries of countries, nationalities and cultures, contributing to the development of an international network of first-rate scientists. "A globalised world lives from a global awareness of responsibility. Here, global networks are the key", says Ellerbeck.

In this unique forum, the young researchers will visit lectures and, in personal encounters with the Nobel prizewinners, discuss issues concerning developments in the economic sciences and future global problems in economics. The topics will range from the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest to the effects of Chinese economic strategies on the global financial system. The goal of this unique meeting is the exchange of knowledge while stimulating a dialog between cultures. The idea is that the young researchers from around the world will be motivated in their work by the fascinating luminaries and contacts to colleagues from other countries.

The Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was endowed by the Bank of Sweden in 1968 in the spirit of the Nobel Committee and is awarded every year by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences together with the Nobel Prizes. The economics laureates meet every other year in Lindau, in 2006 for the second time. The annual Nobel Prizewinners Meetings in Natural Sciences, which run in parallel, have been taking place since 1951. The meetings are run by the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings presided over by Countess Sonja Bernadotte together with the Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings at Lake Constance, which counts 155 Nobel prizewinners from all over the world to its benefactors.

Notes for the media:

--Journalists' registration: www.lindau-nobel.de (select: Media Registration Form)

--Interview requests by email to: [e-mail]