It’s been such a strange year this 2020. For the first time since World War II, the 2020 Nobel Laureates didn’t receive their Nobel prizes at special presentations in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the December 10 award presentations were held ceremonially at a number of small virtual gatherings around the world. At NIH, we streamed a ceremonial presentation in the Natcher Building for our own Harvey Alter, a senior scholar in the NIH Clinical Center’s Transfusion Medicine Department. Dr. Alter is a co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions in discovering the hepatitis C virus. He shares the prize with Michael Houghton, University of Alberta, Calgary; and Charles Rice, Rockefeller University, New York. Presenting the Nobel Prize medal to Dr. Alter on behalf of the King of Sweden was Swedish Ambassador to the United States, Karin Olofsdotter. In this photo, Dr. Alter (center) displays his Nobel medal, flanked by Ambassador Olafsdotter (left) and me (right). Credit: NIH
