Transcript for Tom Cech Interview - What was it like to come to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize?

Well, I think many people don’t understand what happens in Stockholm,

because it is really an entire week of events and parties and ceremonies.

Most of the press interest, the newspapers...

...that’s sort of over as soon as the Prize is announced.

But that’s in October and it isn’t until early December,

which is the date of Alfred Nobel’s death,

that they actually give the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.

And all of the laureates are there, except for the Peace Prize winner,

because the Nobel Peace Prize is given in Oslo, Norway.

The year that I receive the Prize, the Dalai Lama had received the Nobel Peace Prize...

...and it would have been very exciting for us to get to interact with the Dalai Lama,

but unfortunately he was in Norway at the same time we were in Stockholm.

So there are speeches, there are scientific seminars, interaction with students,

elaborate banquets and going to the embassy

– in my case the American ambassador to Stockholm – to have a lunch.

Each laureate is allowed to bring 20 people along with and so I brought people from my family,

including my parents, my wife’s parents, our children, of course,

and then people from the laboratory who had been part of the discovery...

...and they also brought their children.

So each laureate is surrounded by a group of 20 friends and relatives,

making for a very large number of people at every event.