STOCKHOLM: This year’s Nobel Prize winners from Japan, Shimon Sakaguchi and Susumu Kitagawa, both aged 74, will attend the award ceremony at a concert hall in Stockholm on Wednesday (Dec 10) evening.
Sakaguchi, a distinguished honorary professor at the University of Osaka, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Kitagawa, a distinguished professor at Kyoto University, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The concert hall is the venue for the award ceremony for winners in all disciplines — physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economics — except for the Nobel Peace Prize, the award ceremony of which takes place in Oslo.
Sakaguchi and Kitagawa are expected to receive their medals at about 4.30pm on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the two Japanese scientists attended a celebration organised by the Japanese Embassy in Stockholm in their honour.
For the first time, the embassy asked them to sign autographs on chairs, following a Nobel Prize Museum tradition.
“I’d like to continue working hard so that I can serve as a bridge connecting science and society,” Sakaguchi said.
“In the Kansai region, we have a culture in which we can freely discuss and conduct research,” Kitagawa said. “Receiving this prize is due in large part to the efforts made by our forerunners.” - The Yomiuri Shimbun
