“The captain came to me and told me that I got the prize.”

On 16 October 1991 Richard Ernst was on a flight from Moscow to New York when the flight's captain came over to deliver some news. Ernst had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “Then I had to go to the cockpit. I was speaking with Swiss radio, with my family... It was quite interesting!"

Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions to the development of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

On Wednesday 7 October the 2020 Chemistry Prize will be announced - stay tuned to hear the news first!

See the complete list of prize announcement dates.