Nobel Prize

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellences, Dear Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen: On behalf of David Thouless, Michael Kosterlitz, and myself, I would like to thank Your Majesties, the Nobel Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for honoring  our early work on “Topological Phase Transitions” and “Topological Phases of Matter”. The…

English Selma Lagerlöf’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at Grand Hôtel, Stockholm, December 10, 1909 (Translation) A few days ago I was sitting in the train, bound for Stockholm. It was early evening; there was little light in my compartment and none at all outside. My fellow passengers were dozing in their respective corners, and…

Swedish Selma Lagerlöf’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at Grand Hôtel, Stockholm, December 10, 1909 (in Swedish) “Kungliga högheter! Mina damer och herrar! Det var för några dar sen, då jag satt på tåget för att resa till Stockholm. Det led mot kvällen. Det var mörkt ute och rätt skumt i kupén. Mina medresande slumrade…

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard delivering her speech of thanks at the Nobel Prize banquet in the Stockholm City Hall, 10 December 1995. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1995 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is not easy to express how I feel at this time, which is truly a high…

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Min Vackra Fru, Ladies and Gentlemen. I thank the for finding my work worthy of this highest honor. In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence – but there is…

Glenn T. Seaborg’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1951 (in Swedish) Ers Majestät, Era Kungliga Högheter, mina damer och herrar: Jag ska försöka att säga några ord på svenska. Nobelpriset har ett högt värde hos vetenskapsmän i hela världen. Ja, det är den största ära som en forskare kan få. Varför…

Sir Peter Mansfield delivering his banquet speech. Sir Peter Mansfield’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 2003 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honoured Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen:- The sparkle, the jubilation, the sheer grandeur of the Nobel Fest, is a most splendid occasion in which we, by your grace, have been invited…

George Wald’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1967 Your Majesty, Royal Highnesses, Exellencies, Ladies, Gentlemen, and fellow students: A scientist should be the happiest of men. Not that science isn’t serious; but as everyone knows, being serious is one way of being happy, just as being gay is one way of…

Ragnar Granit’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1967 (in Swedish) Eders Majestät, Eders Kungliga Högheter, Ärade Festförsamling: Ingen kan ta emot ett nobelpris utan känslor av djup tacksamhet och glädje. Mitt tack riktar sig inte enbart till prisutdelarna – intill helt nyligen mitt eget lärarkollegium – utan också till personer och…

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honored Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen: During my long, and still ardent, affair with molecular beam technology, I have been able to make tape recordings of one-on-one conversations with some of its greatest practitioners. One of the most memorable of those conversations was with , a true citizen-statesman…