The day I won a Nobel Prize – and what happened next

On 8 October 2019, Professor Didier Queloz won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos with Professor James Peebles (Princeton University) and Professor Michel Mayor (University of Geneva). The Prize celebrated his work leading to the first confirmation of an exoplanet – a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun.

Twenty-five years previously he'd been a PhD student with Mayor at the University of Geneva when he spotted that a light emitted from a star 50 light years from Earth was wobbling. It was as if something big was getting in the way. That something was an exoplanet.

“Back then, exoplanet research was a very small field. I think there were about 50 of us and we were seen as weirdos,” says Didier, who moved to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 2013.

The discovery changed the way we understand the universe and our place within it. But, he says, it took a few years of hard work convincing the world that his discovery wasn’t a data glitch but instead a gas-giant planet the size of Jupiter orbiting its star 51-Pegasi every four days.

More than 5,000 exoplanets have since been added to the list, including 300 discovered by Queloz himself, and space missions are being planned to discover more about the massive super-Earths, super-Jupiters, gas giants, rocky giants and mini-Neptunes.

“Finding the exoplanet offered a new window in astrophysics,” he says. “There are so many questions you can start to ask that will have an impact on us – questions about life, about why are we are like we are – and they become something we can tackle, starting with the nature and atmosphere of these planets.”

Few scientists have the chance to make a major discovery – did he think he might one day be awarded a Nobel Prize?

“To tell the truth, people have been mentioning the Nobel Prize to me since early on and in a strange way you get used to hearing this. But you also know there are so many great discoveries elsewhere that are deserving of a Nobel Prize. Thinking about it tends to fade away.”

On 8 October, the morning had started badly with a flat tyre on his bike. He was running a scientific meeting, so had ignored a call from an unknown Stockholm number – a call, it turned out, from the Nobel Prize Committee. But when a Cambridge number came up on his phone, he picked it up, assuming it to be about a contract that needed to be signed in order for his research to move ahead.

“It was the University of Cambridge press office asking if I’d heard the news. My first reaction was that it was a joke. And then I couldn’t think at all. My mind had a complete black-out for a couple of minutes because emotionally it was extremely intense.”

Later that day he was asked whether he thought the Prize would change his life. “I hope not too much,” he said. “I feel like a scientist. I really want to continue being a scientist.”

Three years later – does he feel any different?

“You know, it's such a high privilege to be awarded a Nobel Prize. It takes a bit of time for reflecting and thinking about what to do with that.”

The first thing he noticed was that he become known outside of his field. He’d had a hint of this in 2019 on the train home from London after a press conference with the world’s media, when a passenger asked if he was the same person he was reading about in the news. Yes, he said. Applause erupted up and down the carriage. “Nowadays, I can start talking with people out of my field and they seem to listen to me.”

And something else happened. He began to take note of the broader vision of Alfred Nobel to bequeath his fortune “to those who benefited humanity” through science, literature and peace.

“The concept that you can do something that is not benefitting one nation alone but is universally beneficial is so powerful that I now feel a little responsible for helping to promote the value of knowledge.”

He took the conscious decision to reduce his research by half. This has given him more time “to establish new ideas, promote research, generate interest, raise funds – all with the end point of trying to engage more people with the societal benefits of knowledge. I feel so fortunate to be a scientist – I had already lived with that passion for science for over 40 years when I won the Nobel Prize. I can certainly give a bit of that back if it can help the future of science.”

Queloz likens the process of science to building a cathedral “when you do an experiment to increase the sum of knowledge it’s like adding a brick, taking gradual steps towards something bigger. Cathedrals took generations to build. Having won a Nobel Prize, it feels like I can build a bit faster and maybe with a bigger impact on society. So yes, it was a turning point in my life. It changed the way I see my work.”

He now does a lot of public engagement “to explain what science is and what science is not, and why we need knowledge and truth. I'm trying to do this as best as I can,” he says, with his characteristic enthusiasm and beaming smile.

And he still leads a research group at the Cavendish Laboratory: “we are always moving towards new territory and every time you do something you are surprised – that’s the fascination of the field – it’s just that now my research has moved from detecting a planet to questions about life in the universe. I feel the same excitement today as I had as a PhD student. There are still so many more things to discover.”