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Nobel Surprise: Winners Often Miss First Call
9 Oct
Summary
- Nobel laureates are surprised by calls, sometimes missing them.
- The Nobel Committee keeps winners a secret until the announcement.
- Surprise calls are a tradition to protect the announcement process.
The Nobel Committee's tradition of awarding prizes includes a final act of secrecy: surprising the winners with a phone call. This call, often unexpected and sometimes unanswered, is made shortly before the public announcement. The practice is designed to protect the integrity of the selection process from external pressures.
Jurist Navi Pillay was at a conference in Germany when she learned of her Nobel Peace Prize win, having missed the initial call. Similarly, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton likened his middle-of-the-night Nobel Physics Prize call to a dream. Economist Paul Milgrom, who had turned off his phone, was woken by his neighbor delivering the Nobel Prize news.
While most winners are eventually reached, some calls go unanswered, adding to the mystique of the prestigious awards. The committee aims to contact winners within a 90-minute window before the official announcement, though exceptions occur when laureates are unreachable or have intentionally blocked unknown numbers.
