Professor Robert Solow, you’re one of the most important economists ever.

Professor Aaron Ciechanover, when we met in Stockholm in 2014, you told me that you have a great collection of toys.

Professor John Mather, you’ve been a key player at NASA for a long time, winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 and being one of the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time magazine’s list in 2007.

Professor Roald Hoffmann, during World War II, as a child, you lived in a ghetto and a labour camp. Then, you hid for fifteen months in the attic and the storeroom of a schoolhouse. You were there with your mum and some of your family, and unfortunately only a few of those who weren’t with you survived. What are your memories of those tough months?

Professor Martin Chalfie, when we first met in 2010, your lecture was introduced by your mentor, Robert Perlman.

Your fifty years of work had a massive impact on different disciplines ranging from social sciences to psychology, from philosophy to economics. The Prize motivation states that you won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2002 ‘for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty’.

Professor Roger Myerson, the last sentence of your Nobel biography says: ‘There is much that we still need to learn about how our social institutions operate, and how they can be better designed.’21 This was 2007.

Professor Eric Kandel, you made groundbreaking discoveries on how memory works, mainly by investigating sea slugs and mice. And Professor Torsten Wiesel, you revolutionized our understanding of ‘information processing in the visual system’15 by studying cats and monkeys as experimental models.

Dr Tim Hunt, your father, Richard, was a leading medieval scholar.

Human DNA is packed into forty-six chromosomes inside the cells of our body. At each end of the chromosome are the so-called telomeres: if the chromosome is a shoelace, the telomeres would be the protective plastic ends at the end of the shoelace. Cell divisions are essential to life, and they continuously take place in our body. However, the more the cell divides, the more telomeres are shortened, and the more the cell ages. In return, an enzyme called telomerase ‘rebuilds’ the telomeres, thus restoring the protection of the chromosome and delaying cellular senescence. The relationship between telomeres and telomerase is a delicate equilibrium. You won the Nobel Prize in 2009 for the discovery of ‘how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase’.

‘If you could choose an object that has mattered a lot to you, your work or creative process, what would it be?’ Each Nobel Laureate is asked this question, and to bring this object and donate it to the Nobel Museum when coming to Stockholm to receive their Prize.

As a schoolboy in the 1960s, I was obsessed with geopolitical events such as the war in Vietnam and relations with the Soviet Union and China. I was also interested in the culture of the North American Indians. My favourite outdoor activities were wilderness canoeing and cross-country skiing. My friends and I began an underground newspaper that provided much entertainment but brought some disciplinary actions. Unfortunately, my attitude was not focused on traditional academics, and I applied my talents only where I was interested. Following a summer camping trip to Russia and Eastern Europe, I withdrew from high school, as I had sufficient background to attend university, and I never completed some high-school courses, resulting in a D in chemistry. Once in college, I focused on chemistry and did very well.