Live from Stockholm
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Wow, what a week!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this backstage peek at the shimmering events of Magic Week, starring Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka.
Our “pop-up” blog is about to close for business, but I don’t want to leave without offering you the best brief summary of the whole point of work being done by Shinya and his fellow Gladstone scientists.
Please enjoy Inspired Science, the Wondros-made movie that summarizes the research Gladstone does in all three of our research areas. It makes for a great final word from Stockholm—until Gladstone’s next Nobel Prize winner brings us back here, that is!
Tack så mycket för denna gång. På återseende!
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Guest Blog by Deepak Srivastava: Part 5, the Nightcap
In a long-standing tradition, the students put on an elaborate after party they call Nobel NightCap, which was also white tie and tails. Bob and I went there around 1 am and it was a fantastic maze of thematic rooms and bars, lots of dancing, shows, and even some exotic pole dancing (acrobatic and tasteful!).
As the night wore on, Bob and I realized we were getting to be some of the older ones there and by 3 am when a young 22-year-old man came up to us and said “The night is young, and the Swedish women are even younger,” we knew it was time for us to go home!
And so this unimaginable day ended, the Nobel winners having made their mark in history, and their guests having been given a memory of a lifetime. A day I will cherish for the rest of my life—and wrote this up, this morning at 3:30 am!
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Guest Blog by Deepak Srivastava: Part 4, the Proposal
And then there was the fairy tale wedding proposal to the daughter of Bob Lefkowitz (2012 Chemistry Laureate), with the groom-to-be getting on one knee and popping the question to everyone’s surprise! What a night!
How to top that? Time for a Nightcap!!
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Guest Blog by Deepak Srivastava: Part 3, Dancing
Following the Nobel Banquet, we moved to what they call the “Gold Room,” which was another enormous room above the banquet hall, where everyone danced to big band music.
Here we got to be together with Shinya and his family, as well as our close colleagues and friends, 1985 Laureates Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein. We recreated the picture posted earlier of Joe, Linda and Bob—27 years later!!
This is a picture I will treasure of me, Mike, Joe, Bob and Shinya, all in our tails—what a privilege to be with this group.
The ladies were even more magnificent, shown here with Barbro Osher, Swedish Consul General in San Francisco.
Barbro’s husband, Bernard Osher, hung out with his fellow San Franciscans as well, which was a treat for us.
Next up: a Marriage Proposal!
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Guest Blog by Deepak Srivastava: Part 2, the Banquet
From the Stockholm Concert Hall we moved to City Hall for the formal banquet, with snow falling all around us to set the stage. With the banquet tickets being so coveted, named invitations had to be presented at the door, along with ID.
The enormous City Hall courtyard is probably six stories tall, with a cloister on the ground level and lined all the way up with brick.
The dinner tables for 1,200 were set up in this room, with the head table extending the length of the room, right down the middle.
The Royalty, Laureates and spouses entered in a procession after all others were seated, and came down an enormous staircase. Shinya was seated next to the beautiful Princess Madeleine
(recently engaged) and a few seats away from the Queen!
An enchanting Cirque-de-Soleil-type of show was played out between each course of the sumptuous meal. I had the good fortune of sitting across from my close colleague, Doug Melton (director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute).
Denise and Doug Melton
Denise sat across from 2007 Laureate Sir Martin Evans, who first described growing mouse embryonic stem cells in a dish.
At the end of the dinner, one 2012 Prize winner from each category said a few words to the group—Bob Lefkowitz spoke for Chemistry and Sir John Gurdon for Physiology and Medicine.
Next up: Dancing!
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Guest Blog by Deepak Srivastava: The Awards
What a day! There are so many parts to Nobel Day that I need to break the happenings into episodes: the Awards, the Banquet, Dancing, the Proposal and the Nightcap.
Things got rolling on Monday afternoon with the award ceremony in the concert hall.
Because it’s the 50th Anniversary of the DNA Nobel Prize, there were an unusual number of former Nobel Laureates in attendance, all seated just behind the new Laureates, who were in the first row, including Sir Martin J. Evans, Craig C. Mello, Peter Agre, Mike Brown, Joe Goldstein, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, James Watson and Bruce Beutler.
The King, Queen and the two Princesses were seated on the right of the stage.
With great pomp and show, replete with bugles and music befitting the royalty, King Carl XVI Gustaf presented the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics, in that order. It was a tremendous and emotional moment for each, and for their guests. Bob and I, and our wives, were so honored to be among them.
Next up: the Banquet!
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Guest Blog by Bob Mahley
Dec. 10 was magical. Shinya and his family were their gracious caring selves, as always. The award ceremony is so special with the entire Royal family involved. The dinner for 1,200 was superb—the procession of Shinya with the beautiful princess coming down the grand staircase was something to see.
A previous year’s Nobel BanquetThere was one special happening at the dance. 2012 Chemistry Laureate Bob Lefkowitz got a valiant new son-in-law. The young man got down on one knee and proposed to Bob’s daughter in the middle of the dance as we all watched. Fortunately she accepted! We erupted in applause.
Deepak and I then went to the Nobel NightCap at the Royal Institute of Technology. The students were in the finest gowns and the men in white tails—hundreds of them having their own Nobel Celebration. Absolutely great fun, decorated in a circus atmosphere with several bands—swing, jazz, chamber music and of course modern rock.
The students did circus acts and approached Deepak and me to make us feel welcome. They were amazed at how “old” I was. One asked me if I had visited Stockholm before and I told him the Nobel in 1985. “Wow, I wasn’t even born then—but I’ve read about the old days!”
Speaking of the old days, this week was a great reunion for Linda and me with our dear friends, Joe Goldstein and Mike Brown, reliving our time with them 27 years ago when they won the Nobel and we were their guests. As you can see, my lovely bride has hardly aged a day!
Joe, Linda and me at the Nobel Banquet in 1985
Joe, Linda and me at the Nobel Banquet in 2012We got home about 3:00 AM (!!)
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The nicest thing is to open the newspapers and not to find yourself in them.—George Harrison
I certainly hope Shinya and his family can get back to something of a normal life now. Do you know that the press has followed him everywhere? When he came to San Francisco late in October for the ISSCR-Roddenberry Symposium at Gladstone, we started getting press calls weeks in advance—wondering when Dr. Yamanaka’s plane would land, where he preferred to eat dinner and where he liked to go jogging.
Reporters question Shinya Yamanaka after his Nobel lecture in Stockholm
There were many instances when press clustered around the front door at Gladstone and I snuck Shinya out the back door.
Things have been much the same here in Stockholm, where we were also able to elude the press on many occasions. Only it was tougher on the reporters, who had to shiver in Swedish winter temperatures with their TV cameras in front of the Grand Hotel.
Reporters lined up to greet Shinya Yamanaka before his Nobel lecture in Stockholm
When it came time for official interviews, I was always impressed by the bottomless interest in Shinya. What new questions could the journalists possibly ask? Still, better that Shinya be a pop icon than some of the other personalities who grab the headlines these days.
Reporters question Shinya Yamanaka after his Nobel lecture in Stockholm
Now that the prize has been awarded, I know that Shinya is anxious to get back to the laboratory!
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Just in case Gladstone’s CFO has been watching this blog, for the record, I want him to know that breakfast comes with the room—no extra charge. John, I have NOT been running up an astronomical bill with extravagant meals!
All that said, I’m thinking about moving to Stockholm so I can live at the Grand Hotel. What tremendous service they offer here. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a more competent, helpful or pleasant staff. And they’ve brought me gluten-free bread every single morning. A bodacious bonus!
I’m busy now ordering up my final breakfast for tomorrow morning at the Grand, while I wait for reports from Deepak and Bob about tonight’s Nobel Banquet—and the raucous, student-sponsored Nobel NightCap at the Royal Institute of Technology!
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Nice photo of tonight’s Nobel awards from Bob Mahley, who watched the ceremony from a ringside seat!
