Nobel Prize

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I’m not one of these people who keeps the phone on, and the champagne in the fridge” Peter Howitt certainly didn’t seem to be expecting the news of his 2025 prize in economic sciences. In this call recorded just after the announcement, he talks to the Nobel Prize’s Adam…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “It’s fantastic, Peter, isn’t that great? Yes!” Listen to Philippe Aghion telling Peter Howitt that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has been attempting to call him, captured as part of this call made shortly after the public announcement of their joint 2025 economic sciences prize. In this conversation…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I’m still trying to absorb it” “I had a whole list of people that I thought were going to win,” says Joel Mokyr, “And I wasn’t on it.” Waking early, he opened up his computer to find out who had been awarded the 2025 prize in economic sciences, and…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I set out to build beautiful things and solve intellectual problems”  Omar Yaghi was just changing flights when he had heard the news that he had been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In this conversation, recorded as he was departing on the next leg of his journey,…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I thought there was a grizzly bear nearby” Actually, what Fred Ramsdell’s wife was telling him, while on a hiking trip together, was that he had been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In this conversation, Ramsdell speaks about the benefits of working in the environment…

First reactions. Telephone interview with John Clarke, October 2025 “None of this work would have happened without the two of them.” In this interview shortly after the prize announcement, the new physics laureate John Clarke is still stunned by the news. He praises his co-laureates John Martinis and Michel Devoret, whom he worked together with…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “It hasn’t quite hit me yet” “My phone rang, and I saw a number from Sweden and thought, well that’s just spam of some sort, so I disabled the phone and went back to sleep.” Mary Brunkow clearly wasn’t expecting the call from Stockholm. This brief conversation with the…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I believe this will encourage immunologists and physicians to apply the Tregs to treat various immunological diseases” Shimon Sakaguchi, 2025 Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine, has always been driven by the desire to find new ways to combat disease. In this conversation with the Nobel Prize’s Adam…

Interview, December 2024 Interview with the 2024 economic sciences laureate James A. Robinson, recorded on 6 December 2024 during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. James A. Robinson answers the following questions (the links below lead to a clip on YouTube): – How did your upbringing shape you? – What do you enjoy most about economic…

Interview, December 2024 Interview with the 2024 economic sciences laureate Daron Acemoglu, recorded on 6 December 2024 during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. Daron Acemoglu answers the following questions (the links below lead to a clip on YouTube): – Where does your passion for economic sciences come from? – How was your childhood in Istanbul?…