First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2024

“It’s absolutely extraordinary”

John Jumper had just heard the news of his 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “I thought I had a 10% chance,” he reveals. To save his nerves, his plan had been to sleep in until after the announcement, which didn’t quite work out. In the interview, he talks about being the youngest chemistry laureate in over 70 years, and about AI’s role in science. “What I love about all this is that we can draw a straight line from what we do to people being healthy.”

Interview transcript

Adam Smith: Hello, am I speaking with John Jumper?

John Jumper: Yes.

AS: This is Adam Smith calling from the website of the Nobel Prize. Many congratulations.

JJ: Oh, thank you.

AS: I detect in your voice some surprise. Can I just ask you how you feel about this?

JJ: Oh, it’s, it’s absolutely extraordinary. I think it’s, I think it’s a wonderful group. I’ve been a computational biologist a long time and I like to say in talks, we need this to work. You know, we need computation to solve the problems of biology. And I just love that it’s starting to work and I can’t believe we’re getting recognition this fast for it. And I think it’s, I don’t know. What I love about all this is that, I can draw this, you know, I used to be a physicist, that kind of made it amusing to me, the prize yesterday, right? The physics of AI. But, we could draw a straight line from what we do to people being healthy because of what we learn about biology in the cell and everything else. And it’s just extraordinary.

AS: And things are moving so fast.

JJ: They are, in the modern era, four years from paper to Nobel or maybe three, three or four.

AS: You know, you are the youngest. You’re the youngest chemistry laureate for over 70 years.

JJ: God. You know, I love this speech, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, You and Your Research, by Richard Hamming and he talks about after people get prizes or I guess there’s also Nobelitis, but people only work on important things, so they never work on the small things that become important. That’s a scary thing.

AS: Yeah, that gives something to think about, doesn’t it?

JJ: Let me see if I can get down. I apologize. We have some cleaners around. I was trying to avoid the vacuum sound. You get to do this once per year. It’s not even fair. My plan was to, I thought I had a 10% chance, so my plan was to sleep in and, my goal was actually to sleep in to the point that by the time I wake up, either way I know if I’ve received the Nobel. It didn’t quite work, because it’s hard to sleep in that much.

AS: It must be. With a 10% chance, or an estimated 10% chance, you must, yeah, you must be on a little bit on tenter hooks.

JJ: I couldn’t believe it. I was telling people, it made early October miserable. Because it felt like a 10% chance of winning the lottery.

AS: Well, yeah. 

JJ: Right, objectively the best anyone ever gets is a 90% chance of disappointment.

AS: How nice. It’s come quickly. Future Octobers can be relaxed.

JJ: Exactly. Future Octobers can be relaxed! Anyway, it’s a great pleasure. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna go now. It takes me about an hour to get into the office.

AS: Okay well, have an exciting journey and they could at least send a car for you, perhaps.

JJ: I’m sure they would, but it’s actually slower, heading into London.

AS: Alright. Anyway, congratulations again. It’s been a pleasure speaking. Thank you.

JJ: Alright, thank you.

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