Michael NOBEL: “Young people are our only hope”

Alfred Nobel University of Dnipro is hosting the International Nobel Congress focused on problems of peace. Nobel’s great-grand-nephew Michael Nobel is taking part in the forum’s work and delivered a speech there.

He was born in Stockholm in 1941. Speaking of himself, he says he studied a lot at the Business School of Harvard University, as a postgraduate at the Institute of Communication in Stockholm, and as a doctoral student at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Nobel is a co-founder of the Nobel Charitable Trust. He is currently involved in developing new drugs to fight cancer, HIV and influenza viruses, and participates in environmental programs as well. He says it is his first visit to Ukraine.

“I serve as a guest professor at a Japanese university where I do research on the problems of peace. Thus, I am truly greatly concerned about it, and I really welcome the opportunity to participate in such a congress. Actually, I am more used to talking about science, technology, and advances thereof, but I am particularly pleased to talk about peace today, because it is important. Unfortunately, we see that scientists have failed to bring peace to the planet. Therefore, it is young people such as these students who are our only hope,” Nobel told journalists.

He revealed also that the Nobel family was currently very large, numbering about 400 persons. “Alfred Nobel had two brothers, Robert and Ludwig. Alfred Nobel himself never married and had no children. Ludwig Nobel was my great-grandfather, so I am a great-grand-nephew of Alfred Nobel. For about a decade, I headed the Nobel Family Society,” Nobel explained. He said he had tried to recreate the Nobel family tree once, but it turned out to be so large that it was decided to let the descendants of each brother to do their branch. “In this large family, I am probably the only one presently who is engaged in research and dedicated one’s life to the struggle for peace,” Nobel remarked. According to the scientist, the assertion that Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was also a peace activist, is actually somewhat erroneous. “It was Bertha von Suttner who pushed him into peace activism. It was she who suggested to Nobel that his prizes could be awarded not only for achievements in the sciences, but also for peace activism. She was a peace activist and received the first Nobel Peace Prize. It so happens that women are better at fighting for peace, while men underperform at it,” Nobel remarked.