Yet as the coronavirus pandemic rapidly enveloped much of the world earlier this year, that was far from certain. “When we were thinking about this in March and April this year, we were worried that it wouldn’t be possible to award any prizes at all,” Lars Heikensten, head of the Nobel Foundation that administers the prizes founded by dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, told Reuters. But the foundation was determined that the awards - worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) this year - go ahead. “We thought it was particularly important in a year like this, when the importance of science is so obvious,” Heikensten said. “The traditional celebrations are important and part of what we are, but they are not the most important thing, which is the prize winners and what they embody,” he said.

Source: bd News24 September 26, 2020 07:52 UTC