They are among the most coveted prizes in the world. But how do the winners learn the good news? From our archive
taffan Normark has a strategy for getting his phone calls past secretaries. "We tell them this is a very important call. A. Very. Important. Call." He enunciates each word carefully before moving on to the clincher. "From Stockholm." So far, he has always been put through.
Normally, from the list of numbers handed to Normark by his secretary, one will work. Even if, as happened to Robert Lefkowitz , it is 3am your time, you have your earplugs in and it is your wife who answers. Normark likes to think the reason this is seen as the most distinguished of all prizes is simply because it only goes to the most distinguished people. "It’s hard to understand, from outside, the work that goes into finding the most worthy laureate." For the scientific prizes, the process begins with a call for nominations, sent to 3,000 scientists and affiliates of the academy. From this, a committee of five will come up with around 300 names. Then the investigations begin.
And after winning, a laureate leads an anointed life. Within their university, they become untouchable, a totem of the university’s own prestige, with a value often far beyond any further research they do. Just ask Brian Josephson . After winning the Nobel, for a quantum mechanical discovery made when he was 22, he has devoted his life to what might charitably be described as the fringes of science—investigating telepathy and the paranormal.
The third way people answer that phone is in expectation. Some Nobels really are obvious: Peter Higgs, of boson fame, will probably not stray too far from a landline on Tuesday October 8th. Whether it comes as a surprise or not to the recipient, for Normark this is still the best part of his job. It can also be somewhat stressful.
"I didn’t get a call by mid-morning. So I thought, 'Oh well', and I went off, curiously, to a meeting with Jim Watson." That meeting was to begin with one Nobel laureate present and end with two.
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