The inscription ceremony will celebrate the addition onto the Monument of the names of the 2006 American Nobel Laureates: John C. Mather (Physics); George F. Smoot III (Physics); Roger D. Kornberg (Chemistry); Andrew Z. Fire (Medicine); Craig C. Mello (Medicine); and Edmund S. Phelps (Economics). The program will include remarks by Dr. Craig C. Mello and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, as well as Ambassador Ulf Hjertonsson, Consul General of Sweden in New York, who will also present the three winners of the essay competition.Since its inauguration three years ago, the essay contest has attracted hundreds of students eager to win the Grand Prize: an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden to attend the Nobel Week Festivities in December 2007. The essay competition is open to all juniors in public, private, and parochial schools in New York City. To win, students must write essays examining the impact on science and society of major scientific achievements by Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, or physiology/medicine. Earlier this spring, 35 finalists from 20 different city schools defended their essays before a panel of distinguished scientists. The contest is a partnership between the Consulate General of Sweden, The New York Academy of Sciences and Nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education and The City University of New York. Special prizes to winners, runners-up and finalists of the essay contest have been generously donated by Ericsson, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and New York Hall of Science.For more information about The Laureates of Tomorrow – Nobel Essay Contest:www.laureatesoftomorrow.org
For more information about the Nobel Monument:www.nobelmonument.comPhoto: Avishai Don, essay contest winner in the Physiology/Medicine category, 2006, with Professor Richard R. Schrock, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2005, at last year's Nobel Monument Inscription Ceremony.© Catarina Lundgren Åström