Last weekend I (Emelie Emanuelsson) visited Stockholm to meet with our IGEday partnering companies. After a long week of work, my husband came to visit me, and we decided to go for some drinks at the Lydmar hotel. When walking there we realized that all Nobel Price winners stayed at the neighboring hotel, Grand. Of course, it crossed my mind, the idea of running into a celebrity. But, I would never have imagined what happened next.
At the table next to us at Lydmar was James Peebles, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics. In case you don’t know who that is, please watch this video first.
Thanks to my encouraging husband I decided to go over and ask him a few questions. The first question that came to my mind was (big surprise right) how we can inspire more young people to pursue engineering. His answer was straight forward, start at a very young age. We talked about IGEday and he loved it.
![](https://womengineer.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG-6639-e1575971038834-768x1024.jpg)
He also commented on today’s use of smartphones among young people as somewhat disturbing. I told him about my two daughters, and he made me promise to be conscious about using technology and instead encourage them to play. Creativity comes from playing he said and I couldn’t agree more.
At last, we talked about the other Nobel Prize Winners, and he said that he was very glad to have met John Goodenough, the winner of the Chemistry price. He said that he is amazed by the fact that John is 97 years old and still so strong.
Thank you, James, for letting me ask some questions!
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