US Scientist Awarded Nobel Prize While Hiking Off-Grid in Montana
US scientist Dr. Fred Ramsdell was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine today while on a remote hiking trip in Montana, initially unaware of the honor due to being out of communication.
Dr. Ramsdell, accompanied by his wife Laura O’Neill and their two dogs, was on the final day of a three-week hike in grizzly bear country when Ms. O’Neill began receiving a barrage of text messages notifying them of the award. Dr. Ramsdell’s phone had been on airplane mode when the Nobel committee first attempted to contact him. “I did not,” was his initial reaction, as he told the BBC’s Newshour Programme, before his wife showed him the 200 messages confirming the news. He shares the 11 million Swedish kronor (£870,000) prize with two other scientists for their groundbreaking research into the immune system’s response to infections – a discovery with potential to revolutionize treatments for autoimmune diseases and infectious illnesses.
The couple then drove to a nearby town to find cell service, and Dr. Ramsdell eventually reached the Nobel Committee around three o’clock in the afternoon local time, despite it being one o’clock in the morning in Sweden. He subsequently connected with his fellow laureates and officials at the Nobel Assembly some 20 hours after the initial attempt to notify him. “So it was an interesting day,” Dr. Ramsdell remarked. According to a spokesperson for his lab, Sonoma Biotherapeutics, he “was living his best life and was off the grid on a preplanned hiking trip.” The incident echoes previous unusual notifications to Nobel laureates; you can read about past prize announcements on the Nobel Prize website.
Dr. Thomas Perlmann, the secretary-general of the Nobel Assembly, told the New York Times this was the most difficult attempt to contact a winner in his tenure since 2016. Officials are now arranging a formal award ceremony in Stockholm later this year.
