What Really Goes on in Stockholm During Nobel Week

February 25, 3:15pm - 5:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Watanabe 438 Add to Calendar

This week's Physics colloquium will be a special presentation by, Prof. Arthur McDonald (Queens), Ms. Janet McDonald (Music Teacher), Dr. Coleen Cory (Ecologist) and Prof. John Learned (UH Manoa) all of whom participated in the 2015 Nobel Prize ceremonies.

As most know, Art McDonald was a co-recipient of the Physics Nobel Prize on 10 December 2015 for his leadership of the historic SNO experiment. John Learned was invited by the Nobel Committee for his many contributions in neutrino physics and was a participant in the SuperKamiokande experiment for which Takaaki Kajita was the other Prize co-recipient. Of course all of you know about the many ties from our local neutrino group to these triumphs (as John outlined in a 10 November Colloquium last Fall, including citing the many UH participants in these historic ventures).

Wives Janet McDonald and Coleen Cory were also invited by the Committee, and Art and John persuaded them to contribute to this unusual non-physics colloquium about "What Really Goes on in Stockholm During Nobel Week".

We have only positive things to reveal and want to communicate that the event, which is the highlight of Sweden's winter social season in the capital, is indeed much more than the awards ceremony. We experienced a wonderful annual week of lectures, receptions, dinners, balls, concerts, and magnificent (really!) events with real (down to earth) royalty who actually admire scientists. Scientists are treated like visiting rock stars, with even paparazzi lurking about. We were all taken by surprise by the thoughtful personalized organization (OK they have 100 years practice), but also the quality and world class taste in presentation of the events. It was far more than we had imagined, and we want to share some of that with you with pictures and stories from the four of us.


Event Sponsor
Physics and Astronomy, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Xerxes Tata, (808) 956-7690, xerxes@hawaii.edu

Share by email