Two of the 2023 Nobel Prize laureates in physics and chemistry will talk to ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen on 11 December during Nobel Week and simultaneously – through space and time – liaise with their fellow laureates Niels Bohr and Selma Lagerlöf. The live conversation will take place at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, and can also be followed online.
The day after the traditional Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet in Stockholm the Nobel Week programme will expand into space for Nobel Prize laureates Ferenc Krausz and Moungi Bawendi as they connect with ESA astronauts Andreas Mogensen (Denmark) and Marcus Wandt (Sweden). Wandt, who will take off on his Axiom 3 mission by the beginning of next year, will send a greeting from his preparations in Houston and Mogensen, who is currently on the International Space Station (ISS), will join the laureates in a live conversation about the importance of fundamental science, how we are expanding our knowledge about the universe and conducting experiments in space.
This will also be an opportunity for Moungi Bawendi to discuss how the Nobel Prize awarded quantum dots are coping with the harsh conditions of space. The matter will be investigated further when a quantum clock will fly to the Space Station in 2025 to become the most accurate clock ever flown in orbit.
To connect with their respective home countries both astronauts will bring objects to the ISS. Already in orbit is the original Nobel Prize medal of Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist who in 1922 received the Nobel Prize for his work about quantum physics and the structure of the atom – the building block of everything we see around us. A century later the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Ferenc Krausz, Pierre Agostini and Anne L’Huillier – three Europeans working with extremely short laser pulses that help us understand some of the smallest parts in the world around us and at the same time open for new ideas in medicine and physics.
During his mission Andreas Mogensen is carrying out experiments ranging from climate and materials science to human physiology and fundamental science. Marcus Wandt is preparing for his first mission to space. During his two weeks in orbit, he will perform experiments on stem cells, massive thunderstorms, bone health and sleep patterns, to name a few.
Being from Värmland in Sweden, Marcus Wandt will bring the Nobel Prize medal of author Selma Lagerlöf to the ISS taking it on a journey more far reaching than the wonderful adventures of Nils Holgersson – her well-known novel about a boy who takes off to discover Sweden on a goose. Selma Lagerlöf was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature in 1909.
The Nobel Prize medals are loans from the Frederiksborg Museum of National History in Denmark and Selma Lagerlöf’s Mårbacka in Värmland, Sweden.
Event programme
11 December 2023
Event at the museum starts at 14:45 CET
In-flight call 15:10 – 15:30 CET (14:10 – 14:30 GMT)
Participant at the International Space Station
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen
Participant from USA
ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt
Participants at the Nobel Prize Museum
Nobel Prize laureate in physics Ferenc Krausz
Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry Moungi Bawendi
Moderator Carin Klaesson, curator the Nobel Prize Museum
The event will start at 14:45 with a question-and-answer session with the Nobel Prize laureates, moderated by Carin Klaesson, curator at the Nobel Prize Museum.
Media are invited to watch the livestream of the in-flight call on ESA Web TV: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/ESA_Web_TV
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