US Scientist Finds Out He Won Nobel Prize While Hiking In Remote Mountains
https://c.ndtvimg.com/2025-10/kg1fh3dc_fred-ramsdell_625x300_07_October_25.jpeg?downsize=773:435A US immunologist was on a three-week hiking trip in Montana when his wife's sudden shout revealed life-changing news. Dr Fred Ramsdell had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The 64-year-old was exploring remote trails with his wife, Laura O'Neill, and their two dogs in grizzly bear territory when O'Neill screamed, leaving him startled.
"I thought she had spotted a grizzly bear," Ramsdell told the BBC. Instead, O'Neill discovered dozens of text messages confirming her husband had won the prestigious award.
"I did not!" Ramsdell exclaimed when O'Neill told him the news. She responded that she had over 200 messages suggesting otherwise.
The couple's three-week trip had taken them across Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
Because Ramsdell's phone was on airplane mode at the time, the Nobel Committee failed to reach him for nearly 20 hours. He eventually connected with the committee, fellow laureates, friends, and officials from the Nobel Assembly.
Ramsdell shares the 2025 Nobel Prize with Mary Brunkow of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle and Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University in Japan. The three scientists were recognised for their research on how the immune system attacks hostile infections, and they will share a prize fund of 11 million Swedish kronor (about 10 crore).
The award celebrates a key discovery about T-cells, a type of white blood cell that flags invading microbes and kills infected or cancerous cells. Often called the body's "security guards," T-cells are central to immune defence.
Dr Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Assembly, described it as the most difficult attempt to contact a laureate since he assumed the role in 2016. "He was living his best life and was off the grid on a preplanned hiking trip," a spokesperson for Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Ramsdell's San Francisco-based lab, said.
Ramsdell told The New York Times, "It certainly didn't cross my mind that I would win the Nobel Prize."
Disclaimer: If your rights are infringed, please contact the webmaster and we will delete the infringing content in a timely manner. Thank you for your cooperation!
Pages:
[1]