In the Clark Hall basement laboratory where they made their Nobel Prize-winning discoveries 24 years ago, professors Robert C. Richardson, left, and David M. Lee are filmed for Swedish TV. Robert Barker/University Photography
For two days in Ithaca and at Cornell, three scientists who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in physics were shadowed by a television crew from Sweden that filmed them in their offices, homes and in the laboratory where their work was accomplished 25 years ago. The film will be used during hours of special programming in Sweden on this year's Nobel Prizes.
Robert C. Richardson and David M. Lee, both Cornell professors of physics, and Douglas Osheroff, Stanford University physicist who was a graduate student here in 1972, were the objects of the Swedish film crew's interest on Nov. 5 and 6. The crew was preparing a biography of the trio for broadcast in Sweden on Nov. 25 in advance of the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, scheduled for Dec. 10.
Broadcasters in about 20 other countries, including the United States, through CNN, will be able to use the material or parts of the film. In addition to interviews conducted in the Clark Hall basement laboratory, the crew filmed the prize winners in homes and offices.
"This brings out the message of science and what was really done," said Christian Peters, senior producer for Swedish Television. "This is the one time of year we can really celebrate science. Otherwise, it's just another prize."
The scientists will be broadcast as heroes, in much the same way Americans see broadcasts of its Olympic athletes or sports icons before a big game or competition.
"In three weeks prior to the prize being awarded," Peters said, "there will be profiles, documentaries and shows about all the prizes." On Dec. 10, the day the prizes are awarded, Swedish viewers will get 40 hours of nonstop Nobel programming, Peters said.
Richardson, Lee and Osheroff won the Nobel Prize in physics, announced Oct. 9, for their 1972 discovery of the superfluidity of helium-3. Osheroff came to Cornell last week to join the filming (the crew filmed him at Stanford the previous week), to reminisce with his mentors and to discuss how they would divide what they would say in the Nobel lectures.
"To write that lecture, I went through every page of 400 laboratory notebooks. It was hard to remember what I was doing then," Osheroff said. "My recollection of events was slightly different than the actual facts!"
Osheroff met with physics graduate students for an hour or so during his Cornell visit and told them about the discovery.
Lee and Richardson both wondered aloud how they would find the time to complete their Nobel lectures, to be delivered after the prizes are awarded in Stockholm. Lee said his schedule, upon winning the prize, suddenly filled up. For example, he accepted an invitation to receive an honorary degree and to give a May commencement address at University of Connecticut's graduate school. "I've never given one," he said.
The pair spent several days in Washington, D.C., last month to meet with the media at a National Press Club news conference, on a radio talk show and at the editorial board of the Washington Post, National Science Board and National Science Foundation to discuss the future of research funding. And they still are getting interview requests.
Is the celebrity status sinking in? As Lee said on National Public Radio from Washington, D.C., "I never felt I was much of a public persona, so I have a large learning experience to undergo before being able to cope with it. But the winning of the prize, of course, was a wonderful experience. To be recognized by one's fellow scientists was probably one of the most important things that can happen in the life of the scientist."
Lee and Richardson will give a joint lecture titled "Superfluid Helium-3," designed for an audience with some scientific background, this Monday, Nov. 18, at 4:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall. The lecture, part of the Gemant Lecture series, is free and open to the public.
Christian Peters, senior producer for Swedish Television, left, interviews Douglas Osheroff, Stanford University physicist who was a graduate student here in 1972 and shares the 1996 Nobel Prize in physics with his former Cornell professors. Robert Barker/University Photography