“Because of an accident on the road, I was in danger of arriving late for the 9 o’clock meeting. Luckily I made it in time for the vote for the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology 2020!”: Maria Masucci, from a life in Sweden, where he is professor of virology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and, since 2004, a member of the Nobel Assembly, made up of 50 professors from the Karolinska Institute: they are the ones who, every year, award the prize, on the first Monday in October.
What was the experience of 2020 like? Different from previous editions?
«The big news is that, for anti-coronavirus security reasons, we met in a large classroom, in another building on campus, usually used for seminars. The room at the Nobel Forum, where every year we gather for this occasion around the famous huge round table, would not have guaranteed the necessary social distancing ».
How does the voting process take place?
«The award was decided on Monday, but it is the result of a year’s work. The chairman of the Nobel Committee showed us the roster of discoveries and we gave our secret vote in a casket. The whole thing lasted an hour ».
How do you get to the list of discoveries?
“The assignment work is very long and that of 2021 has already begun on Tuesday. The Nobel Committee begins the invitation work: it is aimed at those who can nominate a discovery, including us 50 of the Assembly, and then Nobel laureates, international institutions (there is also the La Sapienza University, for example), Scandinavian and international scientists who have distinguished themselves in a specific field. Once the Committee receives the nominations in January – this year the record number was 600 – the work of checking the nominated persons and their work begins. There are discoveries that can be named by many, with a broad consensus, and there are also bizarre appointments. It is a painstaking work of skimming, with the original spirit of Alfred Nobel in mind ».
What is this spirit?
“Rewarding discoveries that have changed the scientific paradigm and that are of great benefit to all of humanity.”
Three virologists were awarded: British Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta, Canada, American Harvey J. Alter of the Maryland Institute of Health and Charles M. Rice of Rockefeller University in New York. Again this year no woman. What is your opinion?
«I must say that among the finalists there are often also women. In my opinion there are two factors that play against women. The first is that women are less represented among scientists: they have only recently entered the field and therefore the research population is still purely male, but the situation is changing rapidly. It has also been noted that men tend to name more men and that women tend to name more women. The Nobel Assembly is therefore working to increase the number of women who can nominate a Nobel. In the same Assembly, when I started, we were less than 10% and now we are more than 30% ».
Are you satisfied with this year’s award?
“Very very much. The award-winning discovery, the one relating to hepatitis C studies, is very important for global health and has already saved millions of lives. Furthermore, it is in line with the spirit of the award. In a certain sense, the prize for medicine and physiology is more limited than those for physics and chemistry because only a discovery and not a technique must be awarded, as is the case for the other two prizes ».
Are there often discussions around awarding the prize?
“I would say there are no big fights. The lively discussion usually revolves around whether to give a prize to a discovery that is already widely implemented clinically, like this year, or to a fundamental discovery in the process of being implemented “.
Did everything go smoothly this year?
“I will tell you this in 50 years, when the inviolable bond of secrecy that forbids us to tell what happens behind the scenes on every act relating to the Nobel has expired.”
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