Nobel Prize Winners Learn of Their Win Without Warning
The New York Times reports that Nobel Prize committees do not always manage to reach laureates in time. Navi Pillay was not the first the committees struggled to contact, and many winners were still asleep when the news broke.
Nobel Prize committees often struggle to get in touch with new laureates in time. The New York Times reported on the subject on 9 October 2026, in a piece whose headline says prize winners do not get a heads-up.
The article mentions Navi Pillay, whom the prize committees had difficulty reaching. According to the source, she was not the first Nobel laureate with whom the committees have run into this problem.
The source also notes that many laureates were not even awake when the news of their award was made public. The available excerpt gives no further details about how the committees tried to contact the winners.
