Son of Nobel prize winner hangs up on Nobel Prize committee

Record ID: 84903

  • Title: Son of Nobel prize winner hangs up on Nobel Prize committee
  • Date: 4th October 2016
  • Summary: PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 4, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PHYSICS DEPARTMENT STUDENTS AND FACULTY AT BROWN UNIVERSITY (SOUNDBITE) (English) JONATHAN KOSTERLITZ, SON OF NOBEL PRIZE WINNER MICHAEL KOSTERLITZ, SAYING: "About 20 minutes later I get another phone call, and I'm like, 'Who is this? Why do you keep calling?' And they said this is the Nobel Prize committee. And all of a sudden I realized why they were speaking in a Swedish accent, and I said, 'Oh my god I think I hung up on you earlier.' And they said, 'Now we can tell you because the news just got announced but if you look at the website your father just won the Nobel prize.' And I burst into tears. But yeah, that's how I found out and that's how I hung up on the Nobel Prize committee." (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROWN UNIVERSITY PHYSICS DEPARTMENT CHAIRMAN, GANG XIAO, SAYING: "Today we are very, very happy because we've been anticipating this for many, many years. Every year we wake up at this time and say, 'oh yeah we have to wait another year'. Finally we got it, and professor Kosterlitz really deserves this prize." VARIOUS OF STUDENTS AND FACULTY AT RECEPTION
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2016 20:55
  • Keywords: Nobel physics Jonathan Kosterlitz Kosterlitz Brown
  • Location: PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, UNITED STATES
  • City: PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA00152LDHS7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The son of a British-born scientist who was awarded this year's Nobel Prize for Physics said on Tuesday (October 4) he initially hung up on the Nobel committee when they called to announce his father had won.
    David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who all now work at U.S. universities, share the prize for their discoveries on abrupt changes in the properties, or phases, of ultra-thin materials.
    Kosterlitz is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where his department and his son Jonathan celebrated at a champagne reception on Tuesday afternoon.
    "About 20 minutes later I get another phone call and I'm like, 'Who is this? Why do you keep calling?' And they said this is the Nobel Prize committee," said Jonathan Kosterlitz.
    "And all of a sudden I realized why they were speaking in a Swedish accent and I said, 'Oh my god I think I hung up on you earlier.' And they said, 'Now we can tell you because the news just got announced but if you look at the website your father just won the Nobel prize.' And I burst into tears. But yeah, that's how I found out and that's how I hung up on the Nobel Prize committee."
    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says their discoveries could be applied to the development of electronics and superconductors or future quantum computers.
    Thouless was awarded half the prize of 8 million Swedish crown ($937,000 USD). Haldane and Kosterlitz divided the other half of the prize.
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