Nobel Laureates Omura and Kajita in Stockholm for Awards Ceremony
Japan's Nobel laureates professors Satoshi Omura and Takaaki Kajita attended the Nobel Awards ceremony at Stockholm's concert hall December 10.
As they stepped forward on the stage, stood on the letter N, received the medals and diplomas from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and took a bow, the hall was filled with a resounding applause. Prof. Omura recalls that moment with "an explicable excitement". Prof. Kajita felt gratified "it was over" and said he had enjoyed the "moving moment".Both scholars were unanimous in offering gratitude to their respective colleagues who they said had helped them pave the way to Stockholm. Prof. Omura said in an interview that he would donate the prize money to proper institutions willing to offer ways to foster young students. He said the medal was beautiful and weighty. He recalled he had often quarreled with his wife, but he said:
"Now I'm sure she would say - 'Well, you did it alright, my dear'".
"The late director of Teijin Laboratory, Teruhisa Noguchi, had whipped me to walk the path to Stockholm", said Omura. He thought he had finally lived up to Noguchi's whip of encouragement.
"I have come this far but my journey is not over yet. This is only another start", Prof. Omura told himself. He quoted Shinpei Goto as saying "leaving money behind is vulgar, leaving industry is mediocre and leaving human resources super". He has in mind Yamanashi University and Science University of Tokyo to donate his Nobel Prize money.
Professor Kajita had three persons in mind to invite to Stockholm: his instructor Hon, Professor Masatoshi Koshiba of Tokyo University, Yuko Totsuka, wife of the late Yoji Totsuka who had supervised the Super-Kamiokande for the observation of elementary particle neutrino that won him his Nobel prize, and Atsuto Suzuki, his study partner and president of Iwate University. None could find time to come, however.
Prof. Omura plans to visit Alfred Nobel at his graveyard the day he leaves Stockholm to pay him tribute.