Nobel Prizes Nobel Prize in Medicine winner probably knows nothing about award
Fred Ramsdell from the USA is one of the scientists who will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine this year - but he may not even know about it yet. He is on a hike and cannot be reached, said a spokesperson for his laboratory.
07.10.2025, 02:45
SDA
Ramsdell is currently enjoying life, a spokesman for his San Francisco-based laboratory Sonoma Biotherapeutics told the AFP news agency on Monday.
The Nobel Committee was initially unable to reach him - a friend of Ramsdell's, Jeffrey Bluestone, also said he had been unsuccessful. "I tried to reach him myself," said Bluestone. He believed Ramsdell was traveling in the state of Idaho.
Ramsdell, together with the US scientist Mary E. Brunkow and the scientist Shimon Sakaguchi from Japan, will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine this year. The prize is for their discoveries in connection with the functioning of the immune system. The three researchers will be awarded the Nobel Prize by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at an official ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.
The Nobel Committee had not initially been able to reach Brunkow either. The scientist, who like Ramsdell lives on the US West Coast, had received the call in the middle of the night due to the time difference and, given the Swedish telephone number, had assumed it was a spam call. She therefore switched off the phone and went back to sleep, she told the Nobel Foundation. Later, however, the Nobel Committee was successful and was able to deliver the good news.
