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Nobel prize ceremony

11/12/2019 Barbara Vonarburg No comments

In a very formal and festive ceremony in Stockholm, the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf presented the Nobel prizes to this year’s esteemed laureates, among them Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Fanfare sounds accompanied his Majesty handing over the medals. As every year, the award ceremony took place on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, 10 December.

Michel Mayor receives the medal from king Carl Gustav. Didier Queloz bows to the king and the public as protocol dictates. (Image Nobel Media)

A noble company (f.l.t.r.): Stéphane Udry, Francesco Pepe, Michel Mayor, Didier Queloz, and Willy Benz. (Photo zVg)

The ceremony took place at Konserthuset in Stockholm. On the left the Nobel laureates, on the right the royal family. (Photo zVg)

Didier Queloz receives the golden medal and the check from the king. (Photo zVg)

The evidence. (Photo zVg)

After the ceremony, a three-course menu was served at a banquet. (Photo zVg.)

Special preparations: Willy Benz, Francesco Pepe, and Stéphane Udry. (Foto zVg)

Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz had a busy Nobel week. On 6 December 2019, the laureates began their stay in Stockholm with a visit to Nobel Prize Museum in the Old Town, where they each signed a chair at the museum’s restaurant and donated a specially selected artefact to the museum’s collections. Didier Queloz gave a key to the museum. “The key has been used for many years to enter the telescope at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence”, he said. Then the two physicists and Stanley Whittingham, Nobel laureate in chemistry, talked to ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir who are presently at the International Space Station, ISS.
The visit at the museum was followed by the Nobel lectures on Sunday morning, 8 December 2019.

Physics Laureate Didier Queloz gives a key to Nobel Prize Museum. © Nobel Media. (Photo: Alexander Mahmoud)

At the museum. © Nobel Media. (Photo: Alexander Mahmoud)

Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor, and the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Stanley Whittingham in a talk to astronauts on the International Space Station Luca Parmitano and Jessica Meir at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm. © Nobel Media. Photo: Clément Morin