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Nobel committee unable to reach prize winner who is ‘living his best life’ hiking off grid (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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Fred Ramsdell was among those honoured with a 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine but might not know because he is somewhere in Idaho and uncontactable

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[–] half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.com 103 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The Nobel committee also hit a roadblock trying to reach Brunkow – both researchers are based on the US West Coast, which is nine hours behind Stockholm – but eventually got ahold of her...

In 2020 the Nobel committee had similar difficulties in contacting the winners of the prize for economics. When Bob Wilson’s phone rang in Stanford in the middle of the night, he unplugged it so the committee had to call his wife instead.

When the committee couldn’t reach his fellow winner, Paul Milgrom, either, Wilson had to go and wake him up.

This is annoying to me. Is there seriously no better way than to call older people in the middle of the night and then act surprised when they are not immediately available?

[–] murvel@feddit.nu 26 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They want to call the recipient in connection to the announcement so that the recipient hears it from the committee first hand. And since the announcement is made during the day (figure that), the call is made no matter the recipients time zone.

[–] half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, I understand why it's currently happening like that, but it's still annoying to call at 2am and be like, "they were so hard to get on the phone!" Seems to be a recurring problem so might be worth it to have a contingency plan for winners within certain time zones, even if you just quietly inform them a few hours earlier that they should make sure they're available at that time.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 11 points 2 weeks ago

Presumably they all are informed that they've been nominated. They could also ask them beforehand what their preference is if they win.

2am calls are why people leave their profession.

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