Reporter's notebook: Mentors, students gather to honor Capecchi

Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi's "party," who will be among those encouraged to crowd the stage after presentation of the prize Monday, is a tribute to the ties he has formed with both his students and his mentors.

At his press conference Thursday, observers included Gordon Lark, now a distinguished professor emeritus of biology, who lured Capecchi to the University of Utah biology department from Harvard, and his wife, Antje Curry, as well as several of his colleagues from over the years. Both Kirk Thomas and Greg Bruce, two researchers who were credited on the published research on gene targeting, came to Stockholm, along with wives Judy Goddard and Kim Folger Bruce. So did Steve Hughes and his wife, Vickie. Hughes was a graduate student of Capecchi's at Harvard who came with him when he took the job at the U.

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And speaking of research collaborations, Capecchi described one of his mentors, Dr. James Watson (who shared the same Nobel Prize in 1962 for figuring out the molecular structure of DNA) as an "extremely important" researcher and "perceptive." He called the man "honest to a fault" and said he was very supportive of Capecchi's research efforts, applying a "you do the work, you get the credit" approach. Most researchers, Capecchi said, are "too paranoid" for that policy.

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The trip to Stockholm had a few quirks and was longer than expected for two of the Nobelists and their families. Both Capecchi and Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics winner Roger B. Myerson were scheduled to fly from Chicago straight to Sweden with family members. Instead, the Scandinavia Air flight was cancelled, reportedly because a truck hit it the night before. The group was routed through Amsterdam and arrived in Stockholm Wednesday afternoon. In Amsterdam, as they were in line to board the plane, it was discovered that Myerson's rerouted ticket wasn't issued with a required paper copy attached — neither was that of Capecchi's wife, Laurie Fraser, or his daughter, Misha — which had to be sorted out. And yes, Nobelists get on the plane when their zone is called, just like everyone else.

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Laurie Fraser took me under her wing in Amsterdam and made sure I made it to the gate after she found I'd inadvertently gotten into line to leave the secured area of the airport, rather than go through the right "passport control" line.

On the plus side, it was a chance to learn that Capecchi has nerves of steel. Asked if he was nervous about giving a Nobel Lecture, he smiled. Not at all, he said, adding that while he knew what he'd be talking about, he had yet, as of Wednesday morning, to put the lecture together.

He's been a popular lecturer to U. students for decades. How different can a Nobel audience be?

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com