Mario Capecchi, Utah's first Nobel Prize laureate, joined a handful of Nobelists Monday for a meet-and-greet with President George W. Bush at the White House.

It's the last Nobel Prize-related event before Capecchi and his fellow honorees head to Stockholm, Sweden, next week for celebratory events that will culminate in the presentation of the Nobel Prizes in medicine, literature, economics, physics and chemistry during an award ceremony Dec. 10. The Nobel Peace Prize is presented separately in Oslo, with its own festivities.

Capecchi is a distinguished professor of human genetics and biology and co-chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah. He's also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.