From Quantum Chemistry to Lindau: EUTOPIA-SIF Fellow Ashima Bajaj Selected for Prestigious Nobel Laureate Meeting

Ashima Bajaj, a postdoctoral researcher at VUB and fellow of the third cohort of the EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowship (SIF) programme, has been selected to participate in the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, to be held from 29 June to 4 July 2025. This prestigious gathering, set on the shores of Lake Constance in Lindau, Germany, brings together around 35 Nobel Laureates and more than 600 promising young scientists from across the globe for a week of dialogue and inspiration.

Ashima, a computational chemist, works at the intersection of quantum chemistry and data-driven approaches, with a focus on predicting electronic structure and chemical reactivity ranging from molecules to modelling chemical processes. Her current research aims to accelerate these predictions using machine learning models, a direction inspired by the challenges she came across while working with traditional quantum chemistry based methods. Together with Frank De Proft, she is now focusing on the subfield of automated reaction discovery using conceptual DFT descriptors as a part of her EUTOPIA-SIF fellowship.

“The Lindau meeting is incredibly important to me. Both as a researcher and as someone inspired by the stories and discoveries of Nobel Laureates,” Ashima explains. “Unlike domain-specific conferences, Lindau offers a unique opportunity to learn from a wide range of scientific disciplines and perspectives, encouraging new ideas and interdisciplinary connections that can lead to new collaborations.”

The 2025 Lindau Meeting is dedicated to the field of chemistry, with a thematic focus on AI and its transformative role in the discipline. Of particular interest to Ashima is the work of 2024 Nobel Laureate John M. Jumper, who revolutionized the prediction of protein structures using artificial intelligence. “What strikes me today is the importance of big data to achieve a reliable and accurate machine learning model, but creating those datasets comes with a huge computational cost,” she notes. “I’m really looking forward to hearing how they approach this trade-off.”

Her selection for the Lindau meeting is both a personal milestone and a testament to the strength of the EUTOPIA-SIF programme. Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and co-financed by the universities of EUTOPIA, the SIF programme supports postdoctoral researchers as they develop interdisciplinary, impactful research projects. With built-in mobility across institutions and sectors, fellows carry out secondments at other EUTOPIA universities and with external partners. For Ashima, this included time at CY Cergy Paris Université and the University of Warwick, which she credits for helping her build both collaborative networks and leadership skills. “It’s not just about collaboration,” she reflects, “but also about developing leadership. I believe that my openness to collaboration, mobility and interdisciplinary engagement played a role in my selection for the Lindau meeting.”

She also sees the international nature of science as central to both her work and the Lindau experience: “Science has taken me across continents—I'm originally from India, did my first postdoc in the U.S., and now I’m working in Belgium while also undertaking research stays in UK and France. My journey isn’t just geographical, it reflects science is inherently international- the curiosity, the questions, and the collaboration all transcend borders. That’s what makes gatherings like Lindau so powerful. It’s a beautiful reminder that science progresses best when it’s open, inclusive, and globally connected.”

Ashima’s path to Lindau was supported by both regional and European institutions: the Flemish funding body FWO and her EUTOPIA-SIF affiliation opened doors to apply and receive support. This dual affiliation illustrates the added value of science diplomacy at multiple levels, from the subnational to the supranational.

As Ashima prepares to join the world’s most brilliant chemists in Lindau, her story serves as a powerful example of what research mobility and interdisciplinary fellowship programmes like EUTOPIA-SIF can enable. And with her eyes set on discussing AI’s future in chemistry, as well as attending a dedicated session on science diplomacy, she’s not just advancing the understanding of the chemistry of molecules and their interactions, but also helping shape the future of international scientific collaboration.