Nobel Prize

Doorbell Camera Captures Moment Paul Milgrom Learns of Nobel Prize Win

The Nobel Committee was unable to contact Stanford professor Paul Milgrom, so his neighbor and fellow winner showed up at his door with the news

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

It was the middle of the night in California when the Nobel Committee, based in Stockholm, Sweden, tried to reach Stanford professor Paul Milgrom to tell him he won the Nobel Prize in economics.

When the committee couldn't reach him, his neighbor and fellow winner, Robert Wilson, took matters into his own hands, NBC News reports. Footage from Milgrom’s Nest doorbell camera shows Wilson knocking on Milgrom’s door at about 2:15 a.m. to get his colleague’s attention. The exchange is heard through the doorbell's intercom.

“Paul? It’s Bob Wilson,” he said. “You’ve won the Nobel.”

“Wow,” Milgrom responded.

Milgrom and Wilson were both honored for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats, Secretary General Göran Hansson of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Monday.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Contact Us