Six minutes to shine in front of a Nobel audience

At the end of August, young scientists met with the world's most influential economists in Lindau, Germany. Dr Benedikt Janzen, graduate teaching and research assistant at the Chair of Public Economics at the University of Passau, was one of 300 young researchers from around the world who were invited to participate. Dr Janzen conducts research in Passau on applied microeconomics with a focus on environmental, health and labour economics.

What was your presentation at the conference about?

In his presentation, Dr Benedikt Janzen shows a graph from a study on the suitability of neighbourhoods for the installation of solar power systems. Photo: Christian Flemming/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

In the project presented, my former PhD colleague and I are investigating whether the environmentally friendly behaviour of one household contributes to neighbouring households also adopting more sustainable behaviour. Specifically, our data from Switzerland shows that when solar panels are installed in a neighbourhood, this has measurable social effects – the neighbouring households adjust their own energy behaviour. In order to prove this conclusively, we need, among other things, a value that indicates how suitable the roof surfaces in the neighbourhood are for the installation of solar panels. The graph I showed in Lindau illustrates how we calculate this value. In the middle, where all the red lines converge, you can see an example of a household in the canton of Bern. The colours of the surrounding roofs indicate their suitability for solar panels. Each red line measures the distance between the household in question and another roof area. This allows us to give greater weight to the closer roof areas. The more suitable roofs there are in the immediate vicinity, the more suitable the neighbourhood is for the installation of solar panels. We then calculated this value for around 250,000 households.

How did the audience react? Were there any questions?

Yes, and that's also very important. After each presentation, there was a three-minute question and answer session. Such feedback from the audience is also common at other scientific conferences. Because it helps us to further improve our work.

The atmosphere was very relaxed, very collegial. That took some of the pressure off, of course.

What was it like to present to such a prominent audience? After all, the hall was filled with winners of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize.

To be honest, I didn't really notice that much on stage. Because of the lighting, you can't see much of the audience from the stage. But it was a different situation than at other scientific conferences. The stage was huge and the room was much larger. But the atmosphere was very relaxed, very collegial. That took some of the pressure off, of course.

How did you prepare for this?

Keynote speech by Guido Imbens, who was awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in 2021 together with David Card and Joshua Angrist. Photo: Torben Nuding/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

Actually, I didn't have to prepare much because I've presented the project so many times before. The biggest challenge was the time: While seminars sometimes allow up to 90 minutes, this time I had to limit myself to six minutes. It's challenging to convey the content of the project and our methods in such a short time in a way that everyone can understand. Fortunately, I had the picture with me. That certainly helped.

And how did the exchange with the Nobel laureates go off stage?

It was a very informal atmosphere – during lunch together, or while playing table tennis. Then, for example, there were open exchanges, where the Nobel laureates sat in a room. You could join them for 90 minutes and ask whatever you wanted.

What impressed you most?

All of the lectures given by the Nobel Prize winners. I found the keynotes by Josh Angrist and Guido Imbens particularly interesting. Their methods have influenced my work. As an environmental economist, I was also very pleased that a panel discussion on climate policy was given a prominent place on the agenda. I also found the Next Gen Science Sessions, the format in which we young researchers were able to present our work, very interesting.

This text was machine-translated from German.