The Path of Nobel Laureates – Prof. Kurt Wuthrich Public Seminar

It was a lucky chance and an absolute honour to go and listen to a 2002 Nobel Laureate’s talk about his life and his discoveries. The topic  he chose to dig deep in is about haemoglobin and proteins, I was quite astonished, because the topics he chose to dig in has included quite an amount of everyday knowledge, with a combination of Biology and Chemistry. I was also very impressed by his way of living choices, as he chose to live a peaceful life even with his fame and reputation in science, he even chose his subject due to his hobby as a soccer player, hoping to improve his body and skills through the use of science. Hence, I am truly pleased to be sitting in that hall and I have learnt a lot from him.

A few days ago I went to attend a talk by 2002 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner. From the talk, I noticed that he was the chemist that invented the machine which can see the 3D structure of protien. I chose Biology in the subject selection and I studied about protein before, that’s why I felt honoured to attend it. The most memorable part of the talk is that he answered a question towards the motivation of keepiing him to move on in his 50 years of studying chemistry. He answered “interest”. Although this answer was very common, it still impressed me because it supports him for 50 years just because of interest. He mentioned that Chemistry is just his hobby since he was a football player, however he still made a big success in this hobby. This makes me realize that everything is possible in life. You will never know what suits you the most. The only thing I can do is to let nature take its course and do not regret.

I found the speech delivered by Professor Kurt Wuthrich was incredibly inspiring.

His sharing on his path towards his research is definitely intriguing, he mentioned while in his teenage years, he was a sporty and athletic person who dreamt to take part in the olympics and winning a medal from it. Without any intentions to devote into science or even had ever thought of being awarded with a Nobel Prize.

The professor spent most of his time taking part in various sport and outdoor events such as high jump, soccer and even doing outgoing big game fishing. And yet he also had interests in science, and people said to him that it is impossible to fulfil both fields in a single lifetime. Professor ignored those opprobrium and simply took both paths as a lifelong complement. He did his research on his scientific fraternity while taking sports as leisure professionally, albeit he did not won any olympic medals, he was published on a magazine’s front cover, in which somewhat is a complement for the Professor.

During his speech, he used catching “big fish” as a metaphor as a culmination of life. It does not come easily, often half to a decade long. Incontrovertibly, that is a long period of time. So how on Earth is he going to spend his time during those periods when his research reaches to a stagnant, plateaued point where there are not much progression on his findings? It is frustrating if I have made thousands and thousands of attempts which does not alleviate the situation at all. What Professor Kurt told us was to embrace the tiny little things around you that betides to us every single day. Bit by bit, they will be your best remedies throughout those adversities and hardships, which will eventually take you to those “big catch”.

That also applies on me pretty well; as a student, we are just so blindly concentrated on what lies a step ahead of us. Not on the marginals, be concerned on what really is important. And most importantly, what lies in the blue yonders of tomorrow.

I am honoured to attend this Nobel Prize winner seminar. I knew less about the Nobel Prize before, but now I changed my view about it. The presenter was Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2002) Prof. Kurt Wuthrich. He told his childhood and background information. He had development of nuclear magnestic resonance (NMR) techniques for determining the 3D structure of biological macromolecules in solution. He shared his an avenue to success to students. He taught to teenagers attempt and trust themselves. I hope that students learn from Prof. Kurt Wuthrich, don’t be afraid of losing and having the courage to take a challenge.

After I listen to the talk, his speech inspired me a lot and I think of how to improve myself. I find out that it is not easy to complete a Scientific research. He raised up some examples and try to make us understand. Unfortunately, if is not easy to do that. I think when he was young, he tried his best to do research and study. Therefore, I think I should be more hard-working and being curious to Science theries. Then, I will meet my expectation.