- Title: Chemistry Nobel prize winner Stoddart initially feared call was a "hoax"
- Date: 5th October 2016
- Summary: EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 5, 2016) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** UNIDENTIFIED PERSON AT LECTERN SAYING NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PROVOST DAN LINZER WILL PROPOSE A TOAST CHAMPAGNE GLASSES BEING HANDED TO NOBEL PRIZE WINNER FOR CHEMISTRY J. Fraser Stoddart (Beard wearing white shirt) AND OTHERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PROVOST DAN LINZER SAYING: "So we have glasses symbolically for all of you to raise your glass and toast Frazier for his accomplishments for his wonderful contributions here at Northwestern to science and the world. Congratulations Fraser." LINZER, STODDART AND OTHERS CLINKING GLASSES FRAZER DRINKING CHAMPAGNE TELEVISION AND STILL CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY J. FRASER STODDART, WINNER OF THE 2016 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY SAYING: "This news that came at 4:00 a.m. this morning with something of a shock. Of course when it happens to you, you always think could it be a hoax. And my first response was to tune my ear and then I could hear English being spoken with a Swedish accent and that sort of left me as it were, prepared for more to come." PAN FROM TELEVISION CAMERA TO WIDE OF STODDART AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY J. FRASER STODDART, WINNER OF THE 2016 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY SAYING: "(SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY J. FRASER STODDART, WINNER OF THE 2016 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY SAYING: "I wasn't planning to be here this morning and I guess nor were you. I have some home truths to tell you, I am an unshowered man today. So, please please don't come too close because I probably smell." PAN FROM MEDIA TO STODDART (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY J. FRASER STODDART, WINNER OF THE 2016 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY SAYING: "But the most important thing that was recognized was fundamental science. I think this message should go out from this room worldwide to everybody involved in the supporting of science, you must keep supporting it and the NSF (National Science Foundation), and your brothers and sisters around the world at a fundamental level because none of us can actually forecast discovery. It comes with working for many years. In my case in this area I reckon it started in 1980 so you can do your sums. It's 35 years and it's not overnight and it's a long haul and in that long haul, there have been people in my life that I want to thank --- my late wife who was my arch critic until she passed away from breast cancer some 12 years ago and she was a rare partner insofar as she didn't praise or laud me. She constantly brought me to task. She constantly said, 'Fraser I wish you would eat more nicely' or 'I wish you would dress better.' It was always something that she would find to criticize me." WIDE OF STODDART (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY J. FRASER STODDART, WINNER OF THE 2016 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY SAYING: "One point I'm making politically today is if I look back to my old country, it's in a real mess because it thinks that it can raise borders to people coming into it. This will not be good for science. The science in the UK has depended these last 30 years on a pool of 500 million people for bringing in its talent. If the portcullis comes down, it will be getting to 75, 65 million. That is not good news. So having got that political point out of the way, and please the press, you can use that as you wish." STODDART CLINKING FLASSES WITH MEMBERS OF HIS TEAM
- Embargoed: 20th October 2016 20:00
- Keywords: J. Fraser Stoddart Northwestern University chemistry Nobel prize Brexit foreigners immigration
- Location: Chemistry nobel prize winner Stoddart says he worried call was a hoax
- City: Chemistry nobel prize winner Stoddart says he worried call was a hoax
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00152QBY9Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:J. Fraser Stoddart said on Wednesday (October 5) receiving the call from the Nobel committee alerting him that he and two others chemists had won the 2016 Noble prize for Chemistry was "something of a shock."
Stoddart, a native of Scotland, won with Jean-Pierre Sauvagea of France and Bernard Feringa of the Netherlands for their work developing molecular machines that could one day be injected to fight cancer.
Stoddart admitted he initially thought he was being pranked.
"When it happens to you, you always think could it be a hoax. My first response was to tune my ear and then I could hear English being spoken with a Swedish accent and that sort of left me as it were, prepared for more to come," Stoddart said.
He told the crowd that his name had been in consideration for the prize for so many years, he had given up thinking he might win.
"I wasn't planning to be here this morning and I have some home truths to tell you, I am an unshowered man today," Stoddart confessed, adding, "please don't come too close because I probably smell."
Stoddart praised his fellow recipients and reflected on the diverse team of students and researchers that made their findings possible, a team he said may be more difficult to assemble in the UK considering changing views regarding foreigners.
"If I look back to my old country, it's in a real mess because it thinks that it can raise borders to people coming into it. This will not be good for science," Stoddart said.
Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa developed molecules that produce mechanical motion in response to a stimulus, allowing them to perform specific tasks, the Nobel Academy said on Wednesday in awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($931,000) prize.
Such molecular machines can be developed in smart medicines that seek out disease or damage and deliver drugs to fight or fix it, and in smart materials that can adapt in response to external triggers such as changes in light or temperature.
The Nobel committee's statement said the science of molecular machinery was now "at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s" - when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors.
Chemistry is the third of this year's Nobels. Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi won the medicine award on Monday (October 3), while three British-born scientists, including two Scots, took the physics prize on Tuesday (October 4). The prizes are named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace, in accordance with his will. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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