(L-R) Dr. Charlotte Frank, Jedtsada Laucharoen (Winner Physics, Horace Mann School, The Bronx); Michael Vishnevetsky (Winner Medicine, Midwood High School at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn); Alina Fradlis (Winner Chemistry, Staten Island Technical High School, Staten Island); Dr. Julia Rankin

A Monumental Tribute  to American Nobelist & Student Essay Winners

By Joan Baum, Ph.D.

Ambassador Liv Mørch Finborud, Consul General of Norway & Ambassador Kjell Anneling, Consul General of Sweden

Deputy Chancellor Carmen Fariña

Theodore Roosevelt Park—a lovely oasis of green on the north side of the Museum of Natural History at 81st Street —named for the President who was also the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize (Peace, 1906)—recently was the scene of a joyous and significant double celebration: a tribute to the seven 2004 American Nobel Laureates whose names had just been inscribed on the columnar Nobel Monument in the park, and an awards ceremony for the winners of the first Laureates of Tomorrow Nobel Essay Contest. The competition, open to all New York City High School juniors, was the creation of the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, in conjunction with the New York Academy of Sciences, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and The City University of New York, and is supported by, among others, Macmillan/McGraw Hill, Glencoe/McGraw Hill and the New York Hall of Science. Though the day was hot and the topic even hotter—the need to advance scientific literacy and encourage scientific achievement in the city’s schools—presenters and student recipients could not have been more cool in their mix of modesty and confidence.

What a scene—in all senses of the word: the trees, which keynote speaker Nobelist Richard Axel (Physiology/ Medicine) delighted in pointing out—lindens, elms, ginkos, horse chestnuts, oaks—were European and American, symbolic of the old and new worlds coming together on American soil. Indeed, since the inception of the Stockholm-based awards in 1901, Americans have garnered 284 Nobels, their names engraved onto the mica-inflected, reddish stone Nobel Monument, elegant in its soaring vertical simplicity. The seven new Nobelists are: David J. Gross (Physics), H. David Politzer (Physics), Frank A. Wilczek (Physics), Irwin A. Rose (Chemistry) Richard Axel (Medicine), Linda B. Buck (Medicine) and Edward C. Prescott (Economics).

The setting was also significant, as a number of speakers and audience members noted, because New York City is the center of scientific enterprise, and the students who were honored that day could well be Nobelists of the future in physics, chemistry and medicine/physiology. After all, the monument, which was inaugurated by the Mayor and by the then Prime Minister of Sweden in October 2003 leaves ample room for more names. Of course, the camera moments for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place student winners, their parents and teachers, and for leading members of the DOE who attended the ceremony, including Dr. Julia A. Rankin, Director of Science and Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina, were the presentations. The contest, open to juniors attending public, private or parochial high schools in the city, requires each contestant to write about the significance of a Nobelist’s work in physics, chemistry or medicine on science itself and also on society. The first place winners—Jedtsada Laucharoen, from Horace Mann, who wrote about Physics Nobelist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes; Alina Fradlis, from Staten Island Technical High School, who wrote about Chemistry Nobelist Paul Berg; and Michael Vishnevetsky, from Midwood High School, who wrote about Medicine Nobelist Gunter Blobel—will each enjoy an all-expense paid trip to Stockholm to attend the Nobel Prize ceremonies in December, courtesy of The Hon. Kjell Anneling, Consul General of Sweden in New York.

The Ambassador, a charming, witty, and gracious man, eager to credit his staff—Anneli Heinsjö and Helén Daun Rosengren, in particular—with coming up with the Nobel Laureate Essay idea in the first place, also noted the close cooperation between his office and that of the Norwegian Consul General, Liv Finborud, also present for the awards. Naturally, the Ambassador is delighted at having his office participate in this new science initiative, but—he winks and smiles—the essay contest also provides a stellar opportunity for American students to learn about Sweden, its history, its involvement in the Nobel Prizes, and its culture, a small part of which was on beautiful display that day when the Swedish Vocal Ensemble, a quartet of a cappella voices led by Christina Nylund, performed a select number of Swedish songs.

Though this first contest drew only 19 schools into the competition, even that number is amazing considering the launch of the initiative only 9 months ago and the usual pace of bureaucracy. But now that the idea is off the ground, its impact in the schools is likely to be, as Alfred Nobel might have said if he knew American slang, dynamite.#