The Embassy of Sweden, known colloquially as the House of Sweden, hosted its annual Nobel Laureate Symposium Wednesday, honoring four of the 2016 laureates who, despite being natives of the U.K., are now all based in America.
Moderated by Dr. Vaughan Turekian, science and technology adviser to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, the laureates discussed their passion for science and offered encouraging words for young people interested in pursuing similar careers.
“Study what’s interesting. Follow up on what you find. It may then [lead] into something you didn’t imagine,” said F. Duncan M. Haldane, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics with J. Michael Kosterlitz for their theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.
“With theoretical physics you are never gong to get rich,” Dr. Kosterlitz added, to much laughter. “Do what you love. I was [always] better at science than the arts.”
Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, a native of Scotland, related receiving a phone call from Stockholm informing him he had finally won the prize after many years in his field. Dr. Kosterlitz became visibly emotional telling the crowd of then making calls from his home near Chicago — where he is a professor at Northwestern — to both his daughters, who live in England and Japan, to share the news.
Oliver Hart, this year’s Nobel laureate in economic sciences for his work in contract theory, said he would encourage young scientists, or those interested in science, to “keep plugging away.”
“Tackle difficult questions and see if you can get anywhere,” Dr. Hart said.
“In physics there’s always something new. You probably have no idea what it’s going to be,” Dr. Kosterlitz said. “Physics has been declared dead lots and lots of times. But it hasn’t died yet and is very much alive.”
“Some people see chemistry as an old science; I don’t go along with that at all,” Dr. Stoddart said. “Chemistry is much like any other art from, like painting or sculpture or composing or writing. It’s going to be regenerating itself.”
Dr. Hart, who came to Princeton from the U.K. as a graduate student in 1971, sounded a note of pessimism after the lecture, with what he sees as the potential backlash to immigration by the incoming Trump administration.
“I hope it will be less bad than I think,” Dr. Hart said. “I always thought of America as much better than that.
“In Britain there was a sort of low-level racist feeling about various immigrants. Political correctness was not a concept,” he said. “When I came to America, I found people were much more careful about what they said — especially about minorities. Now [the potential for] some of that to be rolled back is very disturbing.”
Ambassador Bjorn Lyrvall, who lives at the Embassy and represents Sweden to the United States, told The Washington Times after the lecture that he hopes the atmosphere of anti-intellectualism that has taken root in the 2016 election season can be moderated by introducing the public to great thinkers like the Nobel laureates.
“Laureates telling us in laymen’s terms about their great achievements will inspire young students and those aspiring to knowledge in humanities and the science,” the ambassador said. “I really do believe that is a good way of crossing that bridge.”
Mr. Lyrvall added he was honored the Swedish Embassy could host the laureates, who were shuttled over to the White House to meet with President Obama immediately afterwards.
“It’s a celebration of science, of curiosity and engagement and going after your dreams,” Mr. Lyrvall said.
The prizes will be handed out in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, Dec. 10.
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