Informal Celebration
Oct. 13, 2000, Institute of Materials Science
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Informal celebration was held at
the Institute of Materials Science after long delay of the press conference. Prof.
Shirakawa is on the left and Prof. Nakao, dean of the Institute of Materials Science, is
on the right. Japanese sentence put on the title board behind them means
"Congratulations on wining the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Prof. Shirakawa." |
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He gave a speech frankly with
cozy atmosphere about the nightmarish night on the 10th of October by noise and flash by
journalists surrounding his house whole the night. He said, "About 10:30 p.m.,
telephone was ringing. My wife picked up the phone and soon told me that you got the
Nobel Prize. I wonder whether it is true or not. It may be a joke, then I
replied to him on the phone, I cannot comment any to you until I receive formal
information from Sweden and disconnected the phone from the jack." Then, Prof.
Shirakawa said that "I wanted to take a bath but I couldn't. Because I
was scared in the bathroom by the flash light from the people surrounding my house even
after turning off the light of the bathroom. Fortunately, I could sleep well because
our bedroom is at the opposite side of the road where a lot of people were waiting."
He further added that he does not need telephone while he is sleeping, therefore he
usually disconnects it. Because of this, no one could approach him at that night.
It turned out later, this was the real reason why nobody could reach him at that night by
telephone even very close friends, faculty members like us, and the university president. |
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The room is full of people. |
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Prof. Shirakawa shakes hands with his student.
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Prof. Shirakawa is visiting his labs with the
press. |
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