Nobel Prize

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Guests: Written in 1895, Alfred Nobel’s will endowed prizes for scientific research in chemistry, physics, and medicine. At that time, these fields were narrowly defined, and researchers were often classically trained in only one discipline. In the late 19th century, knowledge of science was not a…

K. Barry Sharpless’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 2001 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, One hundred years ago the first Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to the Dutch Chemist . Although the citation on van ‘t Hoff’s award acknowledges him for “the extraordinary services he rendered by the discovery…

Rolf M. Zinkernagel delivering his speech of thanks at the Nobel Banquet in the Stockholm City Hall, 10 December 1996. Rolf M. Zinkernagel’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1996 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, May I express Peter Doherty’s and my own gratitude for having been chosen among many immunologists…

Alan Heeger’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 2000 Your Majesties, Nobel Laureates, Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Ladies and Gentlemen, Alan MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa and I are greatly honored to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the discovery and development of conducting polymers”. We would like to dedicate these…

F. Sherwood Rowland’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1995 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, My friends and colleagues, Paul Crutzen and Mario Molina, and I are most grateful for the honors bestowed upon us today, for the Nobel Prize is the ultimate in recognition in the scientific world. It is…

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…