Professor Avraham Hershko of the Technion represented the chemistry prize winners at the gala dinner in honor of the Nobel laureates
Avi Blizovsky, Stockholm
Professor Aharen Czahnover took measured steps towards the giant letter N in the center of the stage in Stockholm's magnificent concert hall. He stood before King Carl XVI Gustaf, extended his left hand and received the medal and the award scroll (the "diploma"), and with his right hand shook the King's hand, just as the director of the Nobel Foundation had taught him and his fellow awardees in the general rehearsal held in the morning. To the sound of applause, the audience bowed first to the king, then to the members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and finally to the cheering crowd. Aharon Chachanover, from the Rapaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, Nobel laureate in chemistry.
After him, his colleague Professor Avraham Hershko went through the same process. He returned to his seat, gently took the hand of his beloved older mentor, Professor Irwin Rose, and led the way towards the king. Ernie Rose adamantly refused to accept the help of his young Swedish escort. "Only Avram will help me in the ceremony," he said. The large crowd received the touching gesture with prolonged applause.
And the ceremony continued. One by one the ten grooms rose from their red thrones. Behind them, on blue chairs, sat the laureates from past years. In front of them, on golden thrones, sat the royal family. In between there were pieces of music and singing, as well as short lectures by Swedish professors who presented in Swedish the recipients of the award and their research. Everything was timed and measured in time.
After the ceremony, the grooms and the 1300 guests were taken in buses that were waiting for them outside, to the magnificent hall in Stockholm City Hall. As usual every year, a handful of demonstrators, Iranian expatriates, were waiting for them outside, calling on Iran to release political prisoners.
They were welcomed in the magnificent hall in the city hall by 200 Swedish students, who won the lottery and received the right to serve as ushers at the most glittering dinner in the world. 35 thousand students participated in this lottery.
Everyone took their places. There is no free seat left. The event has a waiting list of 2000 people every year. Many of them wear the prom dress or the "frock", rent a room in a nearby place and wait for a call from the organizers. At two minutes to 7.00:1300, if one of the invitees does not show up, the phone calls and the happy waiting person goes to the hall and sits down in the vacated place. There was never an empty chair in the XNUMX-seat hall.
At exactly 7.00:7.10 the dignitaries entered the table, and at 7.11:7.15 the King raised a toast "to life". At 130 four minutes were given to the lucky photographers who won a ticket to the event. At XNUMX the first dish was served. Now the guests could look at the menu, which remained secret until the moment they entered the hall. Those of them who understood French could also know what they were eating. XNUMX waiters and waitresses served them, constantly pouring fine wines of various kinds into their glasses, including champagne.
At 8.07 the main course was served. After that, a huge show was presented on the wide stairs, full of light and color, and opera singers amazed with their singing. They appeared twice more in the course of the 3.5 hour evening.
After the main course, five more minutes were given to the photographers and at exactly 9.17:XNUMX the "dessert parade" entered the hall. He was led by young men dressed in black, and to the sound of drums the waiters and waitresses came down the stairs, carrying the dessert which consisted of mousse, ice cream and almonds.
Another four minutes were given to the photographers, and they took pictures of the families of the grooms admiring the craftsmanship of the dessert. At 9.55, and not even a minute later, the coffee was served.
Prof. Hershko's speech
At 10.10:XNUMX a.m. the representatives of the grooms, one from each category (medicine, chemistry, physics and economics), began to speak. Professor Avraham Hershko spoke on behalf of the grooms in chemistry.
"On behalf of the three of us, Erwin Rose, Aharon Chachanover and myself, I would like to express our deep gratitude to the Nobel Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for the great respect and scientific recognition they bestowed upon us," he began. "Sometimes the Nobel Prize is awarded to several people who did not work together, but contributed separately to a joint discovery. Other times the prize is awarded to teams of scientists whose joint research ended in a discovery. However, it is rare that the award is given to a team of three, each representing a different generation in science: a biochemist from Israel (Anouchi), his research student at the time of discovery (Aharon Chahanover) and the host and partner in the USA - Erwin Rose.
Each of us has a different background, as well as a very different personality, and different talents. I can describe it like this: Selfish with intuition and perseverance, Ernie Rose as an analyst and sharp critic and Aharon Chachanover as a man with enormous energies.
This is the result of the complementary talents of the three of us, together with the tremendous efforts of dedicated research groups in Haifa and Philadelphia, based on an important background of previous research - to achieve the critical mass that led to the breakthrough and the discovery of the ubiquitin system 25 years ago for which we received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, although its consequences are mainly in the field Biomedicine and most hopefully - in the treatment or prevention of diseases in the future. The boundaries between chemistry, biology, physics and medicine are disappearing quickly. Only a thorough understanding of chemical and physical processes in our body's cells and organic systems will yield rational approaches to disease prevention and treatment.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has recognized these intimate relationships between chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and medicine - many times in the past, and now again, in its selection of this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In this important and honorable event, which cherishes the work of many years, we feel our great debt to our families and loved ones, without whose support we would not have reached this achievement. Normally I thank my wife and family, but here I speak for the three of us and thank Zelda Rose, Yehudit Hershko and the late Chechenover. Thank you for many years of help and support, and for putting up with distractions, blank stares, and strange moods when attempts didn't go as expected. Thank you all.
At 10.30:XNUMX the guests got up from the tables, exactly six hours since the start of the ceremony in the concert hall. Many of them still had the strength to dance in the golden hall of the magnificent city hall, to the music of the "Ambassador" orchestra.
