Sunday, August 23, 2015

HLF2015 / The Calm Before the Forum

This blog post originates from the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Blog. The 3rd Heidelberg Laureate Forum is dedicated to mathematics and computer sciences, and takes place August 23-28, 2015. Abel, Fields, Turing and Nevanlinna Laureates will join the forum and meet 200 selected international young researchers.

My husband and I are sitting in the restaurant of the historic brewery and hotel, Kulturbrauerei, where the wifi is good. Now that we've recovered from having essentially no sleep Friday night while we traveled from Ottawa to Heidelberg, it's time to get excited about the upcoming activities at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum. Although I am in fact a young researcher (a part-time PhD student at Carleton University, to be specific), that's not why I'm here. I was invited to blog for the event, and I'm really looking forward to sharing my experiences with you.

A view of the castle and bridge appropriately called Old Bridge.

After we arrived in Frankfurt Saturday morning (which, I feel obliged to point out, was only midnight our time), we sleepily made our way to Heidelberg by train. We decided to walk from the train station to our hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed the pleasant hour-long stroll along the river where we spotted a play park our daughter would have adored, and many lovely homes with a great view. We were lucky enough to get our hotel room early, so we checked in, had lunch, and napped.

A outside-in view of the restaurant at Kulturbrauerei.

The rest of our Saturday consisted of a wonderful media get-together at Kulturbrauerei, and some after-dark exploration. We ended up at Schloss Heidelberg (Heidelberg Palace), where we got some lovely views of the city at night. We're looking forward to the opportunity to get inside during one of the many social events hosted by the Forum.

Schloss Heidelberg is lit up very nicely at night.

Today, the Forum kicks off with opening ceremonies and a reception. Then we have a week of intellectual stimulation to look forward to, with lectures from the laureates as well as opportunities to engage with the young researchers. I have a feeling our departure on Saturday is going to come all too soon...


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