Náda Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi, laureate George P. Smith, Marjorie Sable, Padmanee Sharma, laureate James P. Allison, Kathy Kemper and George Zaidan. Photo by Tomas Enqvist. Courtesy Embassy of Sweden. In a preview of the Dec. 10 festivities in Stockholm, our nation’s capital had the honor of feting the Nobel laureates at what is widely considered one of D.C.’s glitziest nights of the year. This year, there were six American recipients of the prize in a wide variety of disciplines. Four attended the Nov. 13 celebration at House of Sweden in Georgetown: Paul Romer (Economics), George P. Smith (Chemistry), Frances Arnold (Chemistry) and James Allison (Physiology or Medicine). Ambassador of Sweden Karin Olofsdotter was the ever-gracious host.
The black-tie evening continued with much toasting of “skål,." accompanied by sunchoke soup, mushroom tart, seared salmon and a dessert display by the ambassador’s executive chef, Frida Johansson.
Among the remarks by the laureates were the following comments by Romer: “It’s good to be a part of a world with 10 billion instead of a billion, because there are more people who will eventually go out and discover those things. And once somebody finds it anywhere, we can all benefit from it.."