2022 chemistry laureate Morten Meldal in the lab at Copenhagen University. Photo: Jens Christian Navarro Poulsen, Dep. of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen.

The passion for science – in their own words 

What does it mean to be a good scientist – and what does it take? Here, Nobel Prize laureates share their thoughts.  

“You need the perseverance to keep going” 

Watch John Martinis, Nobel Prize laureate in physics 2025, talk about how not to be discouraged when the work feels overwhelming. “In your career, you’re always going to have setbacks. It’s just part of it,” he says in this conversation with PhD student Eleonora Svanberg.

“Scientists never really grow up”

Good scientists are like perpetual adolescents, because they remain curious and want to understand how the world works, says Peter Doherty, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1996.

Peter Doherty. © Nobel Prize Outreach

Listen to him talk about the role as a scientist

“I think it’s really searching the unknown”

As a kid, Drew Weissman would always take things apart to understand how they functioned. As a result, “we never had a toaster that worked, and the doorknobs rarely ever worked,” he recalls.

Drew Weissman. Courtesy of Penn Medicine, Photography: Peggy Peterson

Listen to the 2023 medicine laureate talk about curiosity and exploring the unknown  

Monthly quiz

A scientific prize-awarder since 1901 

Ever since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded 125 years ago, one prize-awarding institution has been responsible for selecting the laureates in physics and chemistry. Since 1969, it has also awarded the economic sciences prizes. What is the name of the institution? 

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