Nobel Prize

Rudolph A. Marcus’ speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1992 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, I deeply appreciate the great honor that Your Majesties and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences are bestowing on me today. I believe that it is the entire field of electron transfer, which reaches into many…

Elias J. Corey’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1990 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, There is a children’s poem by Julia Carney entitled “Little Things,” one verse of which reads: Little drops of water, little grains of sand Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land Thus the little minutes,…

Sidney Altman’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1989 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, My colleague, Thomas Cech, and I offer our most profound thanks to you for the honour you bestow on us today. Our colleagues, present and past, at Yale University, at the University of Colorado and elsewhere, are…

Jean-Marie Lehn’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1987 (in French) Majestés, Altesses Royales, Chers Collègues et Amis, Mesdames et Messieurs, J’ai le grand honneur et le réel plaisir de dire, au nom de Charles Pedersen, de Donald Cram et en mon propre nom, notre profonde gratitude et notre émotion d’être ici, avec vous,…

Bruce Merrifield’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1984 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very proud to be here today to experience this marvellous occasion. The hospitality and friendship of the Swedish people will not soon be forgotten. I have asked myself why am I here – how…

Henry Taube’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1983 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the honor to represent the science professed by Alfred Nobel, an honor enhanced by the presence here of so many of the Nobel family. My friend professor Lindqvist earlier today referred to chemistry as a…

Roald Hoffmann’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1981 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Fellow Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Students of Stockholm, Students of all Sweden! I salute you for all that you represent: For your youth, your beauty and your strength – symbolic of mankind’s constant renewal! For your devotion to knowledge, your…

Kenichi Fukui’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1981 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the privilege to speak on behalf of Professor Roald Hoffmann and myself and to express first of all our deepest gratitude for the high honour and warm hospitality that have been given us on this…

Paul Berg’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1980 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the privilege and distinct pleasure to speak on behalf of the three Laureates in Chemistry and to express to you all our gratitude for the very high honor and warm hospitality that has been given…

Peter Mitchell’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1978 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, Emile Zola described a work of art as a corner of nature seen through a temperament. The philosopher Karl Popper, the economist , and the art historian K. H. Gombrich have shown that the creative process in…