Ahead of a first-of-its-kind conclave of Nobel laureates here, Lars Heikenstein, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation, which administers the Nobel Prizes, told The Hindu that the organisation hadn’t undertaken a similar programme with China because it had imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner and political critic, Liu Xiaobo.
The Nobel Media is holding the first Nobel Prize Series in India and coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology in Delhi. Nine Nobel laureates are expected to attend and meet Prime Minister, Narendra Modi; give lectures at universities in Gujarat, Delhi and Bengaluru and also meet top businessmen in conjunction with the Vibrant Gujarat summit.
“We have hesitated,” Heikenstein — an economist and former head of the Bank of Sweden told The Hindu , “after all in China, we have Nobel Laureates in prison. We would want to be active in China and it is upto them to act in a way to make it reasonable.” Five Chinese citizens have been awarded Nobel Prizes with more won by those of Chinese origin based abroad. India too has similar statistics but China’s scientific output far exceeds India’s and the country trails only the United States in the number of research papers.
“We have never done anything as ambitious as we are doing here in India,” said Mattias Fyrenius, CEO, Nobelmedia, “Our outreach activities are aimed at reaching out to a wide audience [through exhibitions, seminars, lectures] and different categories such as [the academic, policy and business world].”
The Indian government has previously had Nobel laureates come over and engage with a wide demographic, most notably at the annual Indian Science Congress. Last week, some of them attended the 104thIndian Science Congress at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, though Fyrenius clarified that the Nobel Foundation wasn’t involved with the event. “There will be a number of events around the world involving Nobel Laureates. Most of them are really, really good and then there are others that can be questionable… we want to make all the official, Nobel Prize events,”
Last year, 2009 Chemistry Laureate, Venky Ramakrishnan — who’s expected to attend Tuesday’s function — called the Indian Science Congress as a “circus” and said he’d never ever attend one.
The Nobel Prize Series, India 2017 will feature a 5-week long Science Exhibition being set up by the Nobel Foundation, with exhibits from the Nobel Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nine Nobel Laureates including Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, Dr. Richard Roberts, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Dr. Harold Varmus, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Dr. Randy Schekman,Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, David Gross, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, Dr. Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, Dr. Serge Haroche, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, Dr. William E Moerner, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry have confirmed their participation, according to an accompanying press statement.
