STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Swedish media outlets yesterday published what they reported were the seemingly leaked names of this year’s Nobel chemistry prize recipients, hours before the laureates were to be announced.
Nobel leaks are rare, with the various prize-awarding academies going to great lengths to keep the winners’ names under wraps until the announcements.
Sweden’s paper of reference, Dagens Nyheter, and public broadcasters Swedish Television and Swedish Radio reported receiving a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that named three United States (US)-based chemists.
“We can’t comment on this until we know what has happened, we have to look into it,” the Academy’s press spokeswoman Eva Nevelius told AFP. According to the Swedish reports, the laureates are Moungi Bawendi from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louis Brus from Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov who works at Nanocrystals Technology.
They had won the prize “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”, according to the reports.
The press release was not on the Academy’s web page.
The Academy was due to make its announcement at 11.45am, minutes after holding a meeting and a vote to pick the winner.
An expert on the Academy’s Nobel Chemistry Committee Heiner Linke expressed surprise to Dagens Nyheter.
