Nobel Prize Conversations

”I wasn't interested in learning stuff. I was just interested in understanding, because I could see what a fabulous shortcut it always was.” – Meet 2005 medicine laureate Barry Marshall in a dynamic talk with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith. Marshall tells us about his blog (something very few laureates had in 2005), his status as a yo-yo expert and his research that paved the way to a Nobel Prize. S...

”It's the insight, the work, the way you give yourself to the story that matters.” – We present a heartwarming chat with Canadian ’master of short stories’ and literature laureate Alice Munro.  This conversation between the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith and Munro took place soon after she was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. In the episode, she reflects on how she creates short stories,...

“I have always thought of myself as a detective,” 2023 economic sciences laureate Claudia Goldin tells the Nobel Prize's Adam Smith when speaking about her research: “The detective always believes there is a way of finding the answer!” Recorded shortly after the public announcement of her prize, this conversation begins with Goldin praising Professor Randi Hjalmarsson of the University of Got...

After the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature was announced, new laureate Jon Fosse was inundated with messages congratulating him on the award. In this call with the Nobel Prize’s Manisha Lalloo he speaks about one particular reader who told him that his work was “the reason she was still alive.” He also shares what writing means to him and his advice for aspiring writers. © Nobel Prize Outreach. Firs...

“This is a collaborative effort,” says Louis E. Brus when asked for his first reaction to the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, “partly physics, partly chemistry, partly material science.” In this conversation with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith he pays tribute to the many contributors to the field and discusses his own motivations for exploring the nature of nanoparticles in the productiv...

“It’s the middle of the night here!” Alexei Ekimov’s first reaction to hearing the news of his 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was reasonable enough: “I woke up,” he says! In this call with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith, made not long afterwards, Ekimov goes on to discuss the experiments he performed over forty years ago producing quantum effects in coloured glass. He explains how his experiments con...

“I’m supposed to teach at 9 this morning,” say Moungi Bawendi in this call recorded in the early morning, just after the news of his 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry had reached him, “and I’m not sure what’s going to happen!” Bawendi tells the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith how he received the call, speaks about his co-laureate and mentor Louis E. Brus, and discusses what he tries to teach his students. ©...

“My daughter called me asking, ‘Is that true, I see it on Google?’” That was how Pierre Agostini found out he had been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. In this conversation with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith, kindly facilitated by Dawn Larzelere of The Ohio State University (whose voice is heard at the start and end), Agostini talks of his surprise at receiving the prize now, his initial th...

In what was surely understatement, 2023 physics laureate Anne L’Huillier described herself as “A little bit busy” when the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith reached her a couple of hours after she had received the news. In this brief call she describes how special it feels to receive the prize and how her research into the overtones of light, which she revealed in the 1980s, continues to excite her: “Even...

Ferenc Krausz was preparing to give lab tours at his Institute when a call from Stockholm reached him at home. “I was not sure whether I was dreaming, or whether it’s reality,” he tells the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith in this call recorded just after the physics prize was announced. “It’s always exciting to see something that no-one could see before,” he says, recalling the thrilling morning in Vienn...

“We weren’t sure it was true!” Drew Weissman’s research partner and co-laureate Katalin Karikó called him early this morning with some incredible news – they had both been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The two have a 20 year history of working together. “We both have sleep disturbances,” he says in this conversation with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith, “so usually around 3...

The call from Stockholm woke Katalin Karikó at her home outside Philadelphia. Initially in disbelief, in this interview with Adam Smith, recorded soon after she had learnt of the award of the Nobel Prize for discoveries that accelerated the introduction of vaccines for Covid-19, she recalls her journey from Hungary and some of the setbacks on the path to the mRNA vaccines. “10 years ago I was here...

Each year in October, Adam Smith takes on the challenge of reaching the brand new Nobel Prize laureates for a telephone interview. In this new bonus episode of Nobel Prize Conversations, Adam takes us behind the scenes for even more of these calls and his favourite moments. The host for this episode is Karin Svensson, the producer of Nobel Prize Conversations. From October 2-9, don't miss our mini...

“If you're interested in something, you'd be amazed what interest can do.” – So says Barry Sharpless, the only living individual that has been awarded two Nobel Prizes. In this rare and uniquely wide-ranging conversation, Sharpless opens up about curiosity, creativity and how he comes up with all these new ideas. The host of this podcast is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outre...

”You have to reinvent yourself every couple of years. It's absolutely important. It's necessary for me to make my life interesting. Life is too short.” – Meet physics laureate Anton Zeilinger. With an endlessly curious mind, he loves exploring new paths in the scientific field of quantum physics. He also speaks about his love of sailing and why the number 42 holds a special place in his heart. The...

"I settled a debate between Bohr and Einstein – which is not bad!" – Meet physicist and 2022 Nobel Prize laureate Alain Aspect, who speaks of his respect for both of these giants of physics. He also opens up about his love of teaching and explaining difficult things and shares how his teachers as well as Jules Verne's novel  L'île Misterieuse  sparked his interest in science and convince...

“As an economist, I'm looking at that number and trying to think about how it fits into a broader economic picture. But on the other hand, having grown up in a small town, not a very rich town, economically very stressed place I could think about the real families, real people that those numbers represented. That was important to me.” – Meet economist Ben Bernank, who also tells us about his child...

"The first thing I did to see if it at all would have a chance was to buy a piece of liver in the food store close to the Institute and just dry it in the laboratory." – In this episode, 2022 medicine laureate Svante Pääbo describes the start of his scientific career. He also speaks warmly about his mother and how she encouraged him to pursue his childhood interest, archeology. Eventually that int...

”I was just curious about everything. Everything was interesting and I always felt like I didn't have enough time to learn all the interesting things. And I think that was a big strength that I had.” – In our newest podcast episode, economist Philip Dybvig tells us how his parents encouraged his interest in the world. He shared the 2022 economic sciences prize "for research on banks and financial...

“Your purpose as a scientist is not to achieve fame or money, that is not your purpose, those might be side effects and good for you, that could be wonderful for you but it is a side effect, it is not the main goal. The main goal is to make discoveries and gift them to humanity. And those discoveries and that knowledge stays with humanity long after you are gone.” — Carolyn Bertozzi on the scienti...

“I think economics is getting closer and closer to being a respectable science. Even when we were not the most respectable science, we still needed to keep pushing forward because the topic actually matters to the planet, to the humans on the planet, and to the animals on the planet.” Douglas Diamond is a strong advocate for economics as a scientific field. His passion for economics was sparked at...

“My daughter was sitting on the second or third row and I could see that she was crying. And tears actually are contagious. So I was almost crying when I had to go up and receive the prize because of that.” — This is how Morten Meldal recalled the moment he crossed the stage in Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize medal. Host Adam Smith speaks to 2022 chemistry laureate Morten...

"One minute I was a teenager and the next minute I was a woman.” – Leymah Gbowee shares her heartbreaking life story of a happy childhood cruelly interrupted by the Liberian civil war. Nobel Prize Outreach's Adam Smith is your host in this encore presentation as Gbowee also talks about her constant and tireless struggle for women’s rights and peace in her home country. Her never-give-up attitude h...

“I am very bad at giving up.” – Get to know one of the greatest minds of today, physicist Roger Penrose. Even beyond his 90th birthday he seems to be working more than ever and is engaged in various research projects. In an intimate conversation with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith, Penrose speaks about how 2020 was a year that gave him time to reflect and develop even more research ideas – until he...

"It's a mixture of obsession, passion, and a sense that this is my mission." In this episode we hear 2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier speak about the drive you need as a researcher and what impact awards can have on a career. Her road to the Nobel Prize was a winding journey, and she recalls how science was her stability. Charpentier shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jennifer...