Nobel Prize

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 would say a fundamental discovery really becomes true when you can apply it to something concrete.” Michel Devoret reflects on the excitement of seeing the fruits of research. He also talks about his co-laureate , one of his role models, together with Lord Kelvin. Devoret describes how he…

Finding out the news. October 2025 “Oh my God… I have no words.” Listen to the emotional moment this year’s laureate Maria Corina Machado finds out she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, shared the news with her directly before it was announced to the…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “I’m very proud to be in the line of some really great writers and poets.” In this interview, new literature laureate László Krasznahorkai shares his happiness about his Nobel Prize, which came as a surprise. Krasznahorkai speaks about how bitterness is an important driver for him, and also highlights…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “This is the mind of the researcher in Japan, don’t switch off the light, even at night.” In this short conversation recorded the day after the announcement of his Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Susumu Kitagawa about his approach to tackling grand challenges, and how to keep a lookout for…

First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2025 “Some people thought it was a whole load of rubbish. But it didn’t turn out that way.” Richard Robson’s new concept for molecular architecture, which occurred to him while building models for teaching, was the starting point for the burgeoning field of metal–organic frameworks. In this conversation, he recounts…

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, October 2025 “My wife is very kind to me, so she didn’t wake me up for a couple of hours.” John Martinis talks about the excitement of learning how to investigate problems with his co-laureates and , four decades ago, and how that experience taught him what to aim for when…